The Particle Paint toolset lets you use a spray-paint metaphor to specify arbitrary areas of object surfaces for emitting particles. To paint particles, you first apply particle “seeds” to one or more objects with the Particle Paint helper, and then use other controls to specify how the seeds should generate particles.
The Particle Paint helper enables you to apply particle seeds with a specific pattern and timing onto the surface of one or more objects.
The parameters on the Setup rollout determine the density and placement of particle seeds as well as stroke timing.
The settings on this rollout determine how the particles are placed on objects in the scene. The Layout settings affect all particle seeds associated with the Particle Paint helper, either before or after they are created.
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.
The Mapping rollout determines how particles are mapped. To use mapping with particle seeds, add a Material operator to the event, and assign a material that has mapping.
The Editing rollout lets you delete unwanted particle seeds or whole strokes, adjust stroke/particle timing, and select particles/strokes and pass the selection data to the Birth Paint and Placement Paint operators. You cannot directly manipulate selected particle seeds with standard 3ds Max tools such as Move and Rotate.
The Brush Radius Graph appears when you click the Radius button on the Setup rollout of a Particle Paint helper. It allows you to animate the brush radius over the time of a single stroke.
The Paint Flow Rate Graph appears when you click the Rate button on the Setup rollout of a Particle Paint helper. It allows you to animate the particle paint rate over the time of a single stroke.
