Dynamic field controls?

[davidflagg]

Hello all,

I am having a bit of trouble getting used to the dynamic fields in Maya, specifically the newton field and radial field. First of all, what is the difference? Second, I don't know how to configure the controls for either field to get the effect I want.

Basically, I am working on a scene featuring a molecule with visible atoms and bonds. I have a column of smaller atoms that drop in from the top of the screen and attach themselves to the bonds of the molecule. I used radial fields attached to the bonds to do this. But then I decided I wanted the column of atoms to rotate as they are descending to give it a nice corkscrew look. When I set them to spin, pretty much all of the atoms miss the bonds and simply fly out of the scene with the momentum they gained from the radial fields. I tried to fix the problem by replacing the radial fields with newton fields, but nothing changed.

I looked closely at the paths that the atoms take, and it looks like (when using either radial or newton fields) when the atoms come in contact with the fields' "max distance" limit, they do not migrate towards the source of the field (the bonds). Instead, they simply gain momentum inside the field and continue down their own linear paths. There is no gravitation towards the centers of the fields. Apparently, the dynamic fields only serve to speed up the atoms' movements down their separate paths.

Can anyone help with this?