Luxomburg
05-02-2003, 12:40 AM
Hi,
I have a scene with 108 bird objects that I want to sit on a tree for a while, then take off, as a flock, and fly around.
Using particle-fx and fx-linker, I place them on the branches using a bunch of 1-point polys as emitter, but since I want them to be oriented when in flight, I need to set the fx-linker rotation option to "path(hp)".
But. . . That means when they all face the same direction until they move, and then they jerk into their individual path orientations. This looks strange. I want to align the birds' rotation individually so they look pretty natural sitting on the branches prior to their take-off, then have them gradually turn into their flight-paths as they lift off.
I've tried to gradually introduce the wind that "flies" them, and while I can slowly lift them off the branches, their orientations still jerk into place at the start of their movement.
So, I would like to smoothly transition from a bird's user-set-pre-flight-rotation to the bird following-it's-path-via-fx-linker, but I can't seem to figure out how to do it.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Isaiah
I have a scene with 108 bird objects that I want to sit on a tree for a while, then take off, as a flock, and fly around.
Using particle-fx and fx-linker, I place them on the branches using a bunch of 1-point polys as emitter, but since I want them to be oriented when in flight, I need to set the fx-linker rotation option to "path(hp)".
But. . . That means when they all face the same direction until they move, and then they jerk into their individual path orientations. This looks strange. I want to align the birds' rotation individually so they look pretty natural sitting on the branches prior to their take-off, then have them gradually turn into their flight-paths as they lift off.
I've tried to gradually introduce the wind that "flies" them, and while I can slowly lift them off the branches, their orientations still jerk into place at the start of their movement.
So, I would like to smoothly transition from a bird's user-set-pre-flight-rotation to the bird following-it's-path-via-fx-linker, but I can't seem to figure out how to do it.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Isaiah