Magnetic nParticles

Some time ago I've been trying to achieve various magnet related particle effects. The first one was having particles form magnetic field lines around a simple bar magnet (or later any other object).

The particles are almost entirely expression driven (hermite, smoothstep and the like) with the help of some custom vector per-particle attributes. There are some additional attributes on the magnet controller which let you turn the magnet on and off, change its size and range as well as the number of field lines.

The field lines are still kind of static. There is a noise option (see image) but it's really basic and not adjustable for the time being (turned off in the video). As for now the particles are spread evenly over all field lines. But I'd love to have them accumulate at the start and end of a field line first, before they build the full shape. So I might update it when i find the time ...

Orient By Velocity

Just uploaded a small script that that i wrote in my spare time. It can orient an object in its direction of travel - or in other words: its velocity - like the name indicates ;) ...

It's just something i put together real quick when i got tired of readjusting keys after changing the length of a motion path. I use it in conjunction with editable motion trails in Maya 2012. Now i can animate the translation in freeform and still have the advantage of a motion path like auto-rotation. Little extras are an animatable reverse attribute and a little speed HUD.

Download HERE.

Exploded View Rig for Audi Showroom Movie

Another youtube find: A project for Audi I worked on last year at RTT. I developed the explosion rig (fully node-based), wrote a tool to create and animate the rig, animated most of the explosion shots as well as camera and car in some other shots.

I hope I can post a demonstration video of the rig and tool some time soon. Will have to clarify the legal situation (copyright-wise, concerning the model and tool) with RTT first though ...

Dust Trails for Lotus Elan Movie

I found this on youtube today. It's a project for Lotus I worked on at RTT in 2010. I was responsible for most of the effects (mainly dust trails) as well as animating some shots (car and camera). I developed a nParticle based tool using MEL, which I used to create all the dust trails. Only for the dust in the pack shot I used Maya Fluids.

More info on the dust trail tool will follow in a later post. I'm working on video tutorials for all the tools I wrote for RTT during the last years and will post them here with the permission of RTT - hopefully ;) ...

"Hello World"

I started this blog to share things i work on (animations, vfx, scripts, r&d, etc.) as well as interesting cg-related stuff i find on the net. Hopefully i'll find enough time to update it regularly. If you have further questions to any of my posts or simply want to say "hello", feel free to contact me through any of the social network links listed on the right ... Cheers! :)
Robert.