Display images using the nParticle Sprite Wizard

The particle Sprite Wizard simplifies the process for displaying a texture image or image sequences on particles. The particle Sprite Wizard leads you through the steps necessary to associate image files with sprites. You can assign a single image or a sequence of images to each particle. The images can be assigned randomly, or using various criteria such as the particleID or a ramp. You can also edit the sprites once you’ve created them with the Sprite Wizard.

The Sprite Wizard automatically:

• Assigns a Lambert material to the particle object.
• Adds a creation expression and runtime expression that enables all the wizard options.
• Connects a ramp to the spriteNumRamp attribute.
• Sets the particle render type to Sprites and adds the attributes for sprites.
• Assigns the images you specify to the sprites.
  Note:

  The image files you use as sprites must have filename extensions in the format file.n, not file.000n (zero-padded extensions).

To use the Sprite Wizard

1. Select the particle object to which you want to assign sprites.
2. Select nParticles > Sprite Wizard.

   The Sprite Wizard leads you through a series of choices. For help, read the pop-up help that appears with each text box.

   For additional information on the Custom Start and Custom Cycling options.

3. To see the sprite images, turn on Shading > Smooth Shade All and Shading > Hardware Texturing.

To edit the sprites

1. Do one of the following:
   • Select the particle object and display the Attribute Editor. Open the Sprite Attributes section of the Particle Attribute Editor to edit the attributes. You can also edit the sprite attributes using the Channel Box.
   • Select the particle and select nParticles > Sprite Wizard to re-open the Sprite Wizard window. You can change the file names, the frame ranges, or other settings in the Sprite Wizard window. When you accept the changes, the wizard updates the appropriate attributes for you.

Change the images of an existing sprite animation

1. Select the particle object.
2. Select nParticles > Sprite Wizard.
3. Select a new image sequence for the Sprite File.
4. Turn on Use existing setup with new images in the second Wizard screen.

   All the existing settings in the Sprite Wizard are used with the new image sequence.