Play animation when emitting a particle?

[Stormyend]

Hello,

So, I started working with particles in the last time, and I got the following situation:

I got a few cannons, a cannon animation (as a clip in Trax Editor) and an emitter for particles (one emitter for all of the cannons). The particles are going to be replaced through cannon balls (instancer) later.

What I want Maya to do is to play the animation when a particle is emitted, so it looks like a cannon ball is fired.

Can someone maybe give me a hint what to do, which technique to use best? I already thought about Expression editor but didn't find an attribute or MEL script, but unfortunately I am kind of unfimiliar with MEL, so it would be very nice if somebody could give me some help or ideas how to start or solve my "problem".

Thanks for reading!

[agraham · Accepted solution]

I think you're doing it backwards. Emitting a particle is *part* of the animation. Triggering animation based on particle emission is far more complicated, IMO.

You should have one emitter per cannon. You should be able to put together some sort of set-driven key that will a) emit a single particle and b) animate the 'kick-back' of the cannon. You can use many emitters and emit into the same particle object to keep it simple.

[Stormyend]

Hello Agraham,

Thousand thanks for this, it helped a lot! I just didn't know what to look for. I knew about set-driven keys, but I didn't think of using them for this.

So again, thanks!