Connect emitters to nParticles

There are several ways to connect emitters to nParticle objects:

• After setting the color and other attributes of emitted nParticles, you can create a new emitter and connect it to the same nParticle object. By default, the new emitter emits nParticles with the same attribute settings, but you can change any of the emitter attributes, including rate, direction, or emitter type.

  For example, suppose you create a fire effect and want to expand its size. You can add emitters to the original emitting object, then connect the existing emitted fire particle object to the new emitters. The particles emitted from the added emitters have the same attributes as the existing particles.

• Use the Dynamic Relationships Editor to connect emitter and nParticle objects(see Work with connections between dynamics objects). You must use this method if you want to connect an emitter to a nParticle object that already has connections with multiple emitters.

  Add multiple emitters to a surface by creating multiple emitted nParticle objects-one for each emitter. You can use the Dynamic Relationships Editor to disconnect all the emitted particle objects from the emitters and reconnect a single one to all the emitters. Each emitter will emit only that particle object with its attribute settings.

• Create two or more empty nParticle objects, define unique attributes for each, and connect them to one emitter. This lets you emit different particle effects, such as fire and smoke, from the same emitter.

  If you connect multiple nParticle objects to an emitter, the emitter emits them all with their respective attributes. For example, if you have a red particle object and a green particle object and you connect both to an emitter, the emitter emits both green and red particles.

• You can connect emitted particles to the emitter of your choice on an object with multiple emitters.
• Swap nParticle objects connected to an emitter using the Dynamic Relationships Editor. Work with connections between dynamics objects
• Add an existing independent emitter to a single selected object. The emitter must not already exist in another object. If you create an emitter with the Maya API, use this technique to add the emitter to the desired object.

Connect an nParticle object to an emitter

1. Select the nParticle object you want to connect to the emitter.
2. Shift-click the emitter (or the object that owns it). If you are selecting the emitter in the Outliner, use Ctrl-click (Windows and Linux) or Command-click (Mac OS X) to make a non-contiguous selection.
3. Select nParticles > Use Selected Emitter .

To create an empty nParticle object

1. Select nParticles > nParticle Tool > to display the options window.
2. In the Particle Settings window, set Number of Particles to 0.
3. Click in the workspace and press Enter or Return.

   This creates an empty nParticle object in the Outliner.

Add an emitter to an empty nParticle object

1. Select the object and shift-select the emitter.
2. Select nParticles > Emit from Object.

   The emitter becomes indented under the object in the Outliner. Moving the position of the object moves the position of the emitter.