NewGroupies example file

This example shows how simple flocking can be accomplished using the Follow and Interact POPs.

The single leader particle is birthed on the first frame. Its position is animated by adding a noise function in the Position paramaters of the Position POP.

The followers are birthed from a grid also only on the first frame.

A Follow POP is then used to make the followers follow the leader particle. Since the leader particle has no real velocity (i.e. its velocity attribute is 0 and its position is manipulated), the ambient speed must be used. This represents how quickly the followers will try to follow the leader.

To keep the followers from bumping into each other, an Interact POP is used. This POP applies inter-particle repulsive forces. The influence type used is “Effect Intersects Effect” to allow maximum buffering between the instanced geometries. The Interact POP pretends there is a sphere of influence around each particle. This sphere has two parts: the particle radius which represents where the instanced geometry should be and the effect radius, which represents a further buffering area. The amount of applied force is constant throughout the particle radius and is an inverse cosine over the effect radius.