Hi!

I'm new to Houdini, but got much experience form Maya. I've been playing around with various particle effects, and a cool idea for an effect drop into mind.

The base is idea is to send a jolt/bolt through a particle system. You start the jolt/bolt at a certain point in the system, and then you let it grow its way through randomly.
Like a chain reaction. Possibly with and added vector to give it more direction.

I'm trying to figure out a smart way to achive this effect and would be happy ideas and input!

The scientific name for this is Diffusion-limited Aggregation [en.wikipedia.org]. It's the principle that underlies natural phenomenon like lightning. For how to do this and more, see Michael Cashmore's MSc Project [nccastaff.bournemouth.ac.uk].

thanks edward! I`ll check it out!