Particles Flow of particle data through the network

See also: set up a particle system, create a node using the tab menu, connect nodes in the network editor

To... Do this

Control which node’s output appears in the viewport

  • Turn on the cook flag on the node whose output should appear in the viewport. Nodes after the “cook node” in the flow will not affect the display.

Merge two or more streams in the same network level

  1. Create two or more particle systems.

  2. Create a Collect node and connect the streams to its inputs.

Switch between two or more streams

  1. Create two or more particle systems.

  2. Create a Switch node and connect the streams to its inputs.

  3. Use an expression in or animate or the Select input parameter to choose which input to pass through to the node’s output.

Switch a node on or off as part of the simulation

  • Use an expression in or animate the node’s Activation parameter. A value of 0 means the node is off, any other value means the node is on.

    To turn a node off temporarily while editing the network (not as part of the animation or simulation itself), use the node’s bypass flag.

Import particle streams from other parts of the scene network

  1. Create a Fetch node.

  2. Set the Number of POPs parameter to the number of streams you need to import from elsewhere.

  3. Set the Pop # fields to the paths to the particle operators whose output you want to fetch.

Operate on a subset of a particle stream