Shape
Pick which of the Shapes collection's objects particles show as they enter an event: any of them at random, or only some.
Pick which of the Shapes collection's objects particles entering the event show, at random.
- Add it
- EventAdd OperatorLooksShape
- Sends on
- Nothing: it has no wire.
- Influence
- Yes: it works only on particles whose value is above a half.
When to use it
With the Display panel's Shapes set to a collection, each particle is shown as one of its objects. Shape picks which: any of them at random, for a mix of rocks or leaves; or only some, such as leaves in one event and twigs in another.
In a flow, particles no Shape has picked show the collection's first shape. Add a Shape to mix them.
Set it up
Make the shapes and put them in a collection. Name them alike, with numbers: Rock.001, Rock.002, Rock.003.
In the simulation's Display panel, set Shapes to the collection.
In the flow, add Add OperatorLooksShape to the event. Leave First and How Many at 0 to pick from all of them.
Settings
As the flow editor’s sidebar shows them. Changing any of them marks the bake old; none of them can change through a bake.
One of the flow’s number values, to weigh it by, particle by particle. Empty for all of it, on all of them. See Influence.
First and How Many
Shapes are counted from 0, in the order Blender sorts their names, so Rock.001 is shape 0. Each object in the collection is one shape, and so is each collection inside it.
A Shape picks at random from First and the How Many shapes after it. How Many 0 picks from First to the last. So with five shapes, First 3 and How Many 0 picks shapes 3 and 4.
When it acts
Shape picks as particles enter its event, born there or sent there. Each particle keeps its pick until another Shape picks again.
Works with
- Rigid Body: each body is the shape its particle shows, so Shape picks what it hits with.
- Scale sizes the shapes, Rotation and Spin turn them.
- Influence: weighed by a value, only particles whose value is above a half get a new shape.
Problems you may see
The editor raises no problems of its own for Shape.
Name the shapes alike
Blender can put some names in either order, so a shape's number could change. Names alike but for a number, such as Rock.001 and Rock.002, always sort the same. For rigid bodies, which must hit with the shape they show, the Rigid Body warns when two names might swap.
Related
- The Display panel's Shapes
- Set Value can set shape too, from any number