Particles follow path (not emitter)

Flame Flame Questions
1

Hello everybody,

I know how to animate emitter along path but I have to make particles following path with emitter from beginning of this path.

Capture d’écran 2023-05-21 à 01.31.08
Capture d’écran 2023-05-21 à 01.31.081920×1042 61.8 KB

Emitter stay at his position and particles don’t follow the path I drew.

I’m sure it’s not the way to do this but I followed autodesk flame particles documentation :

Capture d’écran 2023-05-21 à 01.34.25
Capture d’écran 2023-05-21 à 01.34.25713×780 101 KB

What is the right way to do path following particles ?

Thank you

2

Hey @shiver,
It’s a bit weird to work with the path modifier. The particles do not exactly always follow the path like you expect. The path is more like a guide.

Not at the box right now, but I can jump on a Discord video chat tomorrow, time zones allowing. I’m on CET… I’ll try to work out an introduction to the path modifier tomorrow just in case…

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3

Hello Sinan,

The path is more like a guide.

It’s exactly what I need (a guide)

The setup is not right ? Why I don’t get any influence by the path ?

4

Path animator is a weird beast. Some pointers for further reference

  • Set the particle speed to 0 and variance to 3 so the particles do no fly away off the path
  • the influence box to Position (not speed)
  • the path has to be created with keyframes on two frames like 0 and 100, so set the particle life to at least to 100 (or whatever your last keyframe is).

This last one turned out to be the culprit in this specific scenario. Setting the particle lifetime to the duration of keyframed path animation will make the particles follow the path during the course of their lifetimes.

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5

There’s a node called 3D Path to be added in action. Use this one instead of using the “path” coming within the axis.

6

Hello,
3D Path do work with particles following path ? I’m not sure. Emitter along 3D path yes but 3D Path doesn’t seem to be a force field.

I checked with Sinan (thank to him !) and nothing was wrong in the batch / Action except first frame (it was way too far from zero. I did a test on a long clip without consolidate handles before create BFX.

I don’t know why Flame doesn’t understand the shift frame but you know that now, like me :wink:

7

You can use the 3D path to move the emitter and create light streaks for instance, but if you want the particles to follow a specific path then it’s the path animator.

An implementatiın of 3D path