Hello.

I'm trying to make a looping simulation in houdini, but don't know a way to go about it.

There's a collision object (image1) , and I'm trying to make a simulation of leaves (let's say a 100 of them) circulating inside of it as if they are affected by several wind forces, as well as gravity - making them never actually fall down, but rather move around in a satisfactory manner. This should loop around the 3 minute mark.

I was thinking I could create the desired effect with particles, then drive the particles back to the starting position when it is time for the sim to loop, but have no idea if I can have the leaves rotate, bend (responding to the movement) and come back to the starting position for a loop in a clean way.

In the end result the leaves should be either solid gray or darker gray/black, in places where they are overlapping with other leaves (a 50% opacity black material should solve this?)

Can someone point me in the right direction?

Maybe you could make a sim, draw paths of each leave (add sop), close them, and then stick leaves on those paths and move them along.

Or make a sim where you progressively force the position to be closer to the original until it coincides.