Maya Rendering Guides

Particle Instancing

Particle instancing is similar to using particle sprites except that you are replacing each particle with a 3D object rather than with a 2D image. These objects can even be animated. This works well for creating swarms of bugs or other tiny, icky creatures, and it has the advantage of using software rendering as opposed to hardware, making compositing easier.

1. Select the particle shape object and switch the render type back to points.
2. Create a NURBS torus and scale it down to 0.25 in X, Y, and Z.

Figure 19.14 Particle instancing using a torus

1. Select the torus and then the particle, and choose Particles ■ Instancer (Replacement). The default options are fine.
2. When you play the animation, you'll see a delicious stream of donuts spiraling toward the heavens. The particles are related to the original geometry in the same way that an instanced object is related to the original. If you add a shader or rotate the original, the instances will update. However, since this is a particle, you can control some attributes using expressions as well (see Figure 19.14).
3. To control the orientation on a per-particle level, you will need to create a custom, vector, per-particle attribute and then set up some expressions to establish values for it. Creating expressions and custom attributes is covered in the next section. In the Attribute Editor for the particle, you will find an Instancer (Geometry Replacement) section where you can connect items such as position, orientation, and cycles to other attributes, including custom per-particle attributes. The file curveFlow3.mb on the CD contains the proper settings for this scene.

Figure 19.14 Particle instancing using a torus

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