Random Instanced Geometry Problem
 

Hi everyone. I have a scene with a bunch of particles with animated instanced geometry on them. I instanced several copies of the geometry and had the cycle setting in the Instancer tab set to sequential, and used a creation expression to get them to randomly start at a different pose so they that don't all look alike.

My problem now is that whenever I rewind the animation, they all start at a different pose than the last playback. How do I get them to get a randomly applied start pose once, and then keep that pose in subsequent playbacks? I'm thinking the SEED function but I may be doing something wrong as it isn't working for little ol me.

Also, just out of random curiosity, is there a way to get MAYA to pick a random number from a set of choices you provide? I mean instead of saying "select a random number between 1 and 20, (rand (1, 20)), can you tell MAYA select one number from 5, 7, 12, and 35? So MAYA will only choose between those 4 numbers?

hi calvin

to get the same particle pattern emitting from start when you rewind, you can go to Solvers and 'set for selected' or something like that (sorry haven't got my maya with me now)

i think alternatively you could bracket you timeline to start from frame 2. since particles are calculated from frame 1 (or 0 - not sure), this will stop it from regenerating a new set of particles.

don't know about your random question...

hope that helps

cheers
lori

Cheers Lori! Thanks, I'll give that a try :)