The Orientation rollout controls the way particle seeds are oriented on surfaces. The orientation information can be used by the Birth Paint and Placement Paint operators to rotate particles in space. These options are useful when you plan to use instanced shapes with a visible orientation as particles.
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Select a Particle Paint helper. >
Modify panel > Orientation rollout
Attention: To have these settings affect the particle seeds, set these parameters before you create the seeds. Changing these parameter values after creating particle seeds has no effect on the existing seeds' orientation.
Interface
- Generate Rotational Comp.
- Enables control over the orientation of particle seeds. The remaining settings on this rollout are available only when this checkbox is on.
X-Axis and Z-Axis groups
- Priority Axis
- Sets the axis as the primary axis. When the X axis is chosen as the Priority Axis, each particle first aligned by its local X axis in the manner specified in the drop-down list, and then the local Z axis is used. If the Z axis is chosen as the Priority Axis, each particle is aligned first by its local Z axis, and then its X axis.
- Reverse
- Reverses the direction of the Priority Axis. This has the effect of rotating particles by 180 degrees so they point in the opposite direction.
- [orientation list]
- Use this drop-down list to specify how Particle Flow orients particles with respect to the surface of the painted object.
- Random Orients the particles on the surface at random, according to the chosen axis.
- Align to Surface Normal Aligns particles to the surface normal of the object upon which they were painted. For example, if X is selected as the Priority Axis, the local X-axis for a particle is aligned with the surface normal. This option is suitable for placing instanced grass or hair objects on a surface.
- Align to World X/Y/Z-Axis Aligns the particles along the respective world axis.
- Look at Viewport Forces all particles to align with the active viewport.
- Look at Particle Paint Icon Forces all particles to face the Particle Paint Icon.
- Follow Stroke Aligns particles along the spray path in the direction in which the stroke was drawn.
- Align to U/V/W Map Vector Aligns particles along the U/V/W mapping direction on the surface of the painted object.
- Divergence
- Sets the maximum degree of variation off the chosen Priority Axis, expressed in degrees.