Renders instanced geometry on a particle.
This operator copies the render flag output of a referenced object onto the input particles at render time. However, this means that the object containing the particles must have a point instancing render property applied otherwise your particles will either not render as spheres or not at all. The shelf tool adds this property automatically.
Note
The geometry only appears when in mantra or RenderMan renders. The instanced geometry does not appear in the viewport. However, when the template flag is on the node displays the instanced geometry as guide geometry.
This operator modifies the following attributes: instance.
Using Instance
Select the
particle system you want to be affected.
Click the
Instance tool on the Drive Particles tab.
Select the object you want the particles to be replaced with and press Enter to confirm your selection.
You can see a preview by clicking the template flag in the network editor, which will replace each particle with a wire frame of the shape.
Parameters
| Activation | Turns this node on and off. The node is only active if this value is greater than 0. This is useful to control the effect of this node with an expression. Note that this is activation of the node as a whole. You can’t use this parameter to deactivate the node for certain particles. | ||||
| Source Group | Only affect a group of points (created with, for example, a Group POP or Collision POP) out of all the points in the input. | ||||
| Particle Geo | Object to display on the input particles. The object will be instanced on each of the particles in the system. Instancing does not consume additional memory for each copy. The particle’s frame of reference controls how the instanced geometry will be oriented on the particle. The axis is determined by the particle’s up vector (Up Vector POP) and applied rotation (Rotation POP). | ||||
| Orientation | Method for specifying orientation of instanced geometry.
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| Angle | When Orientation is “Fixed Axis”, the rotation angle of the geometry. | ||||
| Axis | When Orientation is “Fixed Axis”, the axis around which the geometry should be rotated. |
Local variables
Standard POP local variables
| AGE | The seconds a particle in the template has been alive. |
| AX AY AZ | Acceleration of the particle. |
| BBX BBY BBZ | The point’s relative position in the bounding box. |
| DEAD | Point is dead. |
| ITER | Processing iteration number. |
| JUSTHIT | A collision for this particle was detected (for example, by the Collision POP) during the processing of this timestep (that is, this iteration of the particle simulation). This variable is cleared at the beginning of each timestep. Note that the collision POP actually detects any collisions which would have occurred the during the previous frame. |
| LIFE | Percent of total life used (from 0 to 1). |
| LIFESPAN | Expected lifetime of particle. |
| MAPU MAPV MAPW | Point or vertex texture coordinates. |
| NPT | Total number of points. |
| NGRP | Total number of points in source group. |
| NX NY NZ | Normal vector. |
| PT | The point number of the currently processed point. The |
| RESTX RESTY RESTZ | The rest position. |
| SLIDING | The sliding state of the particle. |
| SPRINGK | Elasticity of a point. |
| STOPPED | Point is stopped. |
| STUCK | 1 if particle is stuck to a collision object. |
| TENSION | Spring tension. |
| TIMEINC | Time increment. |
| TX TY TZ | Point position. |
| U V | Surface UV values. |
| VX VY VZ | Velocity direction. |
| WEIGHT | Point spline weight. |
Added by Collision POP/Limit POP
| DIST | Distance from particle to last collision. |
| HCR HCG HCB | Diffuse color at the collision point on the surface the particle collided with. |
| HITID | ID for last collision. You can control how this attribute is set in the Collision or Limit POP to help distinguish types of collisions. |
| HITTIME | The time at which the last collision occurred. |
| HMAPU HMAPV | The texture map UV coordinates for the surface location where the last collision occurred. |
| HNX HNY HNZ | The normal at the surface location where the last collision occurred. |
| HTX HTY HTZ | World space position of the last collision. |
| HU HV | The UV coordinates for the surface location where the last collision occurred. |
| NUMHIT | Number of times the particle has collided. |
Added by Color POP
| CA | Point or vertex alpha value. |
| CR CG CB | Diffuse point or vertex color. |
Added by Property POP
| ATTRACT | Attractor point. |
| CHARGE | Charge of the particle. |
| CLING | Point is clinging to geometry. |
| DRAG | Point drag. |
| FOLLOW | Leader to follow. |
| MASS | Point mass. |
| PSCALE | Particle Scale. |
| SCALEX SCALEY SCALEZ | Non-uniform scale. |
Added by Proximity POP
| NEAREST | Either the point number or id of the particle nearest to this one. |
| NEARESTDIST | The distance to the nearest particle. |
| NUMPROXIMITY | The number of particles within a specified proximity to this particle. |
Added by Rotation POP
| ROTA | Rotation angle. |
| ROTX ROTY ROTZ | Rotation axis. |
Added by Source POP
| GEN | Generation. |
| ID | ID number, which always remains constant. |
| ORIGIN | Original Source point was birthed from. |
| PARENT | Parent’s ID Number. |
Added by Speed Limit POP
| SPEEDMAX | Maximum speed. |
| SPEEDMIN | Minimum speed. |
Added by Sprite POP
| SROT | Sprite rotation around view axis (in degrees). |
| STEXU STEXV | Texture coordinate of sprite’s lower-left corner. |
| STEXW STEXH | Size of sprite in texture space. |
| SX SY | Sprite scale. |
Controlled by Suppress Rule POP
| SUPPPOS | Suppress default position rule. |
| SUPPVEL | Suppress default velocity rule. |
| SUPPUP | Suppress default up-vector rule. |
| SUPPAGE | Suppress default aging rule. |
| SUPPROT | 1 if particle is suppressing its default rotation rule. |
| SUPPANGVEL | 1 if particle is suppressing its default angular velocity rule. |
Added by Up Vector POP
| PVX PVY PVZ | Previous velocity. |
| UPX UPY UPZ | Up vector. |
Added by Location, Source, Softbody, Split POPs
| SPEED | Absolute speed of particle. |
Examples
| Instance | Load | Launch |
This is simple example of using the Instance POP. The network has two different, randomly chosen, groups of particles created with a Group POP. Two different geometry objects are instanced to each particle group. A Translate POP is used to randomly animate both groups with expressions in the translation fields. | |
| InstanceBounce | Load | Launch |
This is an example of a particle system using instanced geometry and a collision object. Enter into the popnet to see particles sourced and randomly emitted from a grid. An Instance POP attaches circle primitives to these particles. Using a Collision POP, particles that make contact with the grid are set to Bounce on Contact. These particles are placed in a collide group, which are then rotated using a Rotation POP. Note that the geometry will only appear when rendered with Mantra or Renderman. The geometry will not be shown in the viewport. To view the instanced geometry, use one of the regular mantra output drivers displayed in the Render icon’s pop-up menu which are set in the Output Editor. | |
| InstanceCoils | Load | Launch |
This example shows how particles can be birthed from instanced geometry using the Instance POP and the Split POP. A 4-point grid is instanced to an animated particle, whose frame of reference is rotated by the Rotate POP. Particles are birthed from the corners of the grid so that, combined with the translating and rotating effect, a spiral pattern is formed. | |
| InstanceRandomGeo | Load | Launch |
This is an example using point instancing. A particle network is used to instance random geometry at render time. | |
Examples that use this node
| Example for | Example name | |
|---|---|---|
| Collision | Meteor | Load | Launch |
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| Follow | Lemmings | Load | Launch |
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| Follow | SplitAndStick | Load | Launch |
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