Thinking Particles move on spline / speed variation

[Matthias Stoll]

Thinking Particles

move on spline / speed variation

Hi everyone!

I am stuck with TP… I want to achieve a nice glowing ‘Data Stream”, which is defined and can be adjusted by a spline. The Content Browser preset “tp_move_on_spline” was great to get me started. So I send particles down the spline and trace them – that already looks quite nice. The problem is, they all travel at the exact same speed keeping their exact distance. And I want the movement to look more complex than that…

The Emitter XPresso tag allows “Speed Variation” but the Particle-Speed gets overwritten by the outcome of the “Move On Spline” Xpresso tag. Here the Speed is controlled by the duration (Frames) from Start to End of the Spline.

I need this value to be randomized for each Particle…
Any hint is much much appreciated!! The math operation is not the problem – my struggle is to find out between which nodes to put it…

Thanks!

[Brian Jones]

why not TP Follow Spline?

[Matthias Stoll]

I tried that first, while it is a very useful preset it is not designed to attach particles precisely to the spline. Instead the spline attracts them like a magnet. My stream is surrounded by geometry and needs to take a very exact route.

[Matthias Stoll]

Ok, I found a quick & dirty solution. I just splitted the particles into groups and gave each group a different traveling speed. Looks just fine…