duplicating particles
 

I'm back with another question.

Do you remember the steamboat i'mworking on ? Now that i added smoke, i want to make them float together...that's why i grouped them...and when it comes to duplicate the group, it's ok for the boat but not for the particles system.

Does anyone have the clue of how it can be done ?

Thanks

Maybe i should simply check "duplicate input nodes" in the duplicate options ?

Yep! Sorry for missing this post....

Still doesn't work...really boring:banghead:

When i duplicate then move the group, maya seems to duplicate the emitter but doesn't allow it to be moved...curious

I have had trouble with this as well. Another thing is duplicating fields. You can't just go duplicating fields for particles because you always have to select the particles, then choose the field and create it, which really stinks. Is there any way to connect a field to a particle after it has been created by chance? Somebody help us!

You can control which fields affects which particles with Window->Relationship Editors->Dynamic relationships. In the editor you select the particleShape in the left side and the right side you select the Fields (and other stuff) in the right side you want the particles in question to be affected by.

As for the duplicating particles I think it's a bit more involved than just saying Edit->Duplicate... By duplicating the emitter does not duplicate the particles as well. They are two different things. Particles can be spawn even without an emitter by an expression for example... I believe you'd have to create a script node or something to duplicate the particles and their velocities as well as other attributes...

Thanks for your answers, doctor Kbrown

I am totally noobie to dynamics and scripting, so can you point me the way ?

thanx

Well, I was not 100% right when I wrote the previous answers. Here's couple of things you could do:

1. You could duplicate the group with the "Duplicate Input Graph" option (not the same as "Duplicate Input Connections". This will duplicate everything in the group as well as the particle shape node. This way you get two emitters, two particle shapes etc and you can control them individually.

2. You could duplicate only the particle shape node with the instance option. This will create another particle node which will behave exactly like the first one.