Particle "light trails"

naked_chicken

So I know you can use particle AnimTrails to add a "light trail" to weapons and such in UDK but is there a way to add them to particles? It says you can in the source node for the AnimTrails data type but it doesn't seem to do anything. Any tuts or tips would be much appreciated.

naked_chicken

Shooting star is a good example of what I mean by this.

AlanSMitchell

I think what your looking for it sparks with tweaked values I found this next gen sparks tutorial let me see if I can't get you it

AlanSMitchell

http://imbuefx.com/products/cascade-sparks-embers-collisions/

I think you can tweak the values to get the effect you want.

naked_chicken

video is no longer up but from the screenshots I'm guessing that's not actually what I'm looking for. Those are just long particles. I want my main particles (let's say some stars) to have a trail that tapers off or fades out (say a rainbow) like a ribbon. As far as I know, though the ribbon particle system creates one ribbon not a new one for each particle.

naked_chicken

imbueFX

Yes what you're looking for is the ribbon module (under Type Data -> Ribbon Data)

If you want to spawn these from particles, just use the emitter initial location module on your ribbon emitter, and point it to the name of your stars emitter.

I do a pretty extensive tutorial on ribbons in my beginner's guide, in what will now be volume 3 on 3dmotive. I think a lot of your questions will be answered.

Computron

Do the 3dmotive tuts contain any redundant info from the other tuts?

ambershee

Take a look at the Jump Boots - they probably do exactly what you want them to do

naked_chicken

imbueFX - only saw Vol 1 up on their website.

I tried using ribbon data but it just creates one ribbon and it doesn't really follow each star (there are multiple stars) it just creates a ribbon by spawning at different stars locations randomly. I want each star to have a rainbow trail and for it to follow the star perfectly. Another problem is that the stars velocity changes over its life.

imbueFX

Sorry for taking so long to respond back, just got back from vacation.

@computron: Do you mean if the beginner's guide on 3dmotive has the same info as the beginner's guide I used to sell on imbueFX.com? They are almost identical, I just recorded new introductions and endings for them. There is a completely new 3 volume series I did for them that will be released soon. This involves more advanced VFX and covers matinee as well.

@naked_chicken: Damn you're right, I just tried it here and get the same result. Sorry I should test my suggestions out first before posting. Off the top of my head, there's no easy way to have one emitter spawn multiple ribbons as you want. I can only think that you'd have to create a new emitter for each ribbon you'd like, which can get hairy. Let me give it some more time tomorrow and I can test out some ideas to see if I can come up with something more clever.

AlanSMitchell

I just had some major deja vu anyways I still think the key lies in how sparks are made because their trail can be effected by volocity. Maybe you can add a module that simulates the ribbon. spawning the star and duplicate 'ribbon' module they would spawn in the same location, the star with a slightly faster spawn time, or volocity. I hope this helps I would really like to see this work.