Shape Mark - growing or animating texture?

[Anonymous]

I'd like to have the Shape Mark in Pflow to either show an animated texture on the Mark plane after each particle hits, or at least allow the shape marks to grow/scale after they are first created.

Are either of these things possible?

[irishman_team_kilber]

how to add realistic dents maybe this is not what your looking for?

[Anonymous]

No, thank you for sending but that is just a modeling technique.  I want to use the shape mark operator to create growing marks (either by scaling their own plane, or by an animated texture -- to create impact marks on a surface based on particle collisions. It's more complex than just modeling.

[Alfred.DeFlaminis · Accepted solution]

Hello @Anonymous,

I'd like to help with this Shape Mark issue.  To get the particles to scale after your Shape Mark node, make sure to key the scale values.  Davision noted that using Event Duration is best, and I agree.  If you attempt to use Relative Successive scaling with no keys, it won't work.  

Then just pipe your .ifl into the diffuse of a material and use that material in the Dynamic Material node in the same event as your Shape Mark and you should be good to go.  I attached a file to make it easier to understand.  Please let me know if you have any questions.  

EDIT: If you key the scale value as first successive, you can use the Scale in the same event as the Shape Mark.  Using Relative successive doesn't work in the same way it does in other events with this node without keying.  Thank you to @Anonymous for working with me to identify this.  I was not aware of that previously.  

Best Regards,

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Hello @Anonymous,

I just wanted to follow up here, any progress on this issue?

Best Regards,

[Anonymous]

Thanks AJ,

I understand what you are saying about the animated texture and that seems like a nice solution.  However believe it or not, Scale does work with Shape Mark in the same event.  No need to send it out.

I am using Relative First and sync by particle age to get them to grow after they form.  I'm not sure what I was doing wrong when I tried it before.

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Hello @Anonymous,

I see.  Maybe I needed to have it above the Shape Mark instead of below it.  Thanks for the heads up, I'll edit the post to reflect this.  

Best Regards,

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Hello @Anonymous,

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but I can't get them to go in the same event.  Would it be possible for you to post a little demo file?  I'd love to study it so I can improve my understanding with this node.  Thank so much for taking the time to update me in your previous post, my thirst for knowledge is never sated.   

Best Regards,

[Anonymous]

Tell me what you find out because maybe there's some setting I've added that makes it work (and in the future I want to know what the trick is...)

Oh, and I realized sync by particle age did not work as expected with scaling -- after the end scaling keyframe at 100 the particles weren't updating anymore.  However if i used sync by Event duration... it works as i wanted. 

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Thanks a lot for the file.  The problem here was how I was scaling the particles.  I was using relative successive with no keys (which works fine normally to get animation without keyframes) but that doesn't work in this case.  It's probably why it didn't work for you as well in the beginning.  

Once you put keys on the Relative successive, relative first, etc, then it works fine.   So, I think together we figured it out and thank you very much for working with me here to identify this.  I'm not sure if it's a defect or not because the Shape Mark node may not support Relative Successive, and with keys it does work.  

Also, the dynamic material also works fine then too, so double whammy.  I replaced my original file with the updated one for reference.  Thanks again!

Best Regards,

[Anonymous]

I actually never used Relative Successive before.  I didn't realize it animated automatically (or is supposed to anyway).  I was just trying to get relative scaling based on the Shape Mark's starting size.    It seems like a bug though -- in a way -- if you have to set keyframes to make Relative Successive work?  I had set the keyframes for Absolute scaling and just never deleted them.  That's how that happy accident transpired.

Btw, absolute scaling also works with shape mark too -- but I'm not sure where it's getting the initial particle size from, adjusting the shape mark size does not alter anything when absolute is in effect.

As for dynamic material -- I'm not following -- you're saying you can use an animated texture now in the same event?  What would scaling have to do with that?

This all seems a bit odd.  I'm glad it works but it's not exactly as expected

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

It's a good question, and possibly I made a mistake the first time with the material.  Every time I've tested the material node it's working in the same event.  

I'll agree that it's weird that Shape Mark doesn't use relative successive as it would normally, but the Send Out can serve as a workaround.  I can log it regardless.  Thanks again for talking with me, I wouldn't have realized it was the keying that was the difference without your file.  

Best Regards,