Chapter 10: Special Effects

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Maya 8 at a Glance

• Chapter 10 Special Effects

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Particle Effects

• Particle systems are used to simulate natural
  phenomena such as rain, fire, sparks, and smoke
• Particles originate from emitters
• Emitters control the type of particle and how
  particles generally behave

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Types of Emitters
Directional
Omni
Surface
Curve
Volume
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Types of Particles
Point
MultiPoint
Streak
MultiStreak
Sprites
Sphere
Blobby Surfaces
Cloud
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Particle Lifespans

• Particles can change attributes over the course
  of their lifetimes
• The Per Particle Attributes dictate how the
  particle will look, move, and react over time

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Fields

• The motion of particles can be affected by fields

Gravity Field
Vortex Field
Air Field
Turbulence Field
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Rigid Body Dynamics

• Rigid Body dynamics animates objects
  automatically to simulate real-world forces and
  collisions
• Active rigid bodies are objects affected by
  forces that are automatically animated during
  simulation
• Passive rigid bodies are objects that are not
  automatically animated, but can act as collision
  objects for active bodies
• Fields provide the forces that affect rigid
  bodies

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Dynamic Constraints
Nail
Pin
Hinge
Spring
Barrier
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Soft Body Dynamics

• Soft bodies use dynamics to affect the shape of
  an object
• They are used often for secondary motion
• They add a particle to each CV or Vertex of an
  object, and then the particles are deformed by
  simulations

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Soft Body Dynamics

• Goals are target shapes for the soft body
• You can set individual goal weights for all the
  particles in the Component Editor
• The Paint Soft Body Weights tool sets goal
  weights by painting on the soft body surface with
  an Artisan brush

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