Choose how particles render

The particle render type of a particle object specifies the form of its particles. For example, you can display particles as small spheres, streaking tails, or 2D images of your favorite snapshot. Once you select the particle render type, you can add attributes specific to the render type to tune the appearance.

For information on hardware and software rendering of particles, see Rendering particles.

To set the Particle Render Type

Select the particle object.
In the Render Attributes section of the Attribute Editor, select the type from the Particle Render Type pop-up menu.

Workspace preview rendering doesn’t display render types with full detail. You must hardware render or software render. Turn on Shading > Smooth Shade All if you want workspace rendering to display color that you add to particle objects.

When you test render or render to disk, use hardware rendering for the particle render types that don’t have s/w after their names. Blobby Surface, Cloud, and Tube must be software rendered. If you use the wrong rendering technique, the particles won’t be displayed. If you use hardware rendering, you must composite the particle images with software rendered images of the other objects in the scene.

You must apply a material with shading group to the particle object. Tube (s/w) and Cloud (s/w) render types use specific particle cloud materials. You can use any surface material with Blobby surface render type.

Points

The Points render type displays particles as points. This is the default render type.

To set Points render type

Select the particle object.
In the Attribute Editor, set Particle Render Type to Points.
To add default Particle Render Type attributes that let you tune the appearance, click the Add Attributes For Current Render Type button.

MultiPoint

The MultiPoint render type displays each particle as multiple points. The extra points make the particle object appear denser. You can use this render type to create dust, clouds, mist, or other gaseous emissions.

To set MultiPoint render type

Select the particle object.
In the Attribute Editor, set Particle Render Type to MultiPoint.
To add default Particle Render Type attributes that let you tune the appearance, click the Add Attributes For Current Render Type button.

Streak

The Streak render type displays moving particles with an elongated tail. This render type enhances the display of objects such as meteors or rain. The streak length is based on the velocity of the particle, so if the particles are stationary or moving slowly, you won’t see the particles.

To set Streak render type

Select the particle object.
In the Attribute Editor, set Particle Render Type to Streak.
To add default Particle Render Type attributes that let you tune the appearance, click the Add Attributes For Current Render Type button.

MultiStreak

The MultiStreak render type is a combination of Streak and MultiPoint render types; it displays multiple points with tails for each moving particle. The faster the particles move, the longer the tails.

To set MultiStreak render type

Select the particle object.
In the Attribute Editor, set Particle Render Type to MultiStreak.
To add default Particle Render Type attributes that let you tune the appearance, click the Add Attributes For Current Render Type button.

Sprites

The Sprites render type lets you display a texture image or image sequence at each particle. Each particle can display an identical or different image or image sequence. Depending on the type of texture image you use, you can use sprites to create effects such as smoke, clouds, fog, and stars.

A sprite appears as a small rectangle until you map a texture image to it. The image faces the camera directly regardless of the camera’s position or orientation.

If the texture image lacks an alpha channel, the image is opaque and occupies the sprite rectangle. If the texture image has an alpha channel, the sprite uses the image’s transparency. To avoid displaying the rectangle, you must make the peripheral parts of the original texture image transparent.

Use the 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

Select the particle object to which you want to assign sprites.
Select Particles > 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, see Customizing sprites with the Sprite Wizard.
To see the sprite images, turn on Shading > Smooth Shade All and Shading > Hardware Texturing.

To edit the sprites

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 Particles > 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.

To change the images of an existing sprite animation:

Select the particle object.
Select Particles > Sprite Wizard.
Select a new image sequence for the Sprite File.
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.

Editing sprite attributes

Once you have created the sprites, you can optionally edit these Render and Sprite attributes in the Attribute Editor or in the Channel Box:

Customizing sprites with the Sprite Wizard

You can customize how the initial sprite images are selected and how the images are cycled by modifying the expressions that are automatically added to the particle object when you use the Sprite Wizard. You can customize the selection of the initial sprite image whether or not you choose to animate the selection of the initial image.

To customize the selection of the initial sprite image

Create the particles and select Particles > Sprite Wizard.
Select the Sprite File you wish to use and click Continue.
Select how you want to assign images to the particles: either No animation. Use a single image for each particle or Cycle through the images for each particle, and click Continue.
Select Custom Start and click Continue.
Select how you want the images to be cycled for each particle. If you select Custom Cycling, see Customizing sprites with the Sprite Wizard. Click Continue.
Click Apply to apply the wizard.
Select the particle and select Window > Animation Editors > Expression Editor.
In the Expression Editor, select Select Filter > By Expression Name.
Select the expression with the name of the particle object to which you have applied the sprites.
Click the Creation checkbox.
If you selected No Animation for the image assignment, look for the first occurrence of the line “Custom Start: If your sprites are not animated” in the creation expression.
If you selected Cycle through the images for each particle for the image assignment, look for the second occurrence of the line “Custom Start: If your sprites are animated” in the creation expression.
Insert your custom expression. For information on writing expressions, see Expressions.

To customize sprite cycling

Create the particles and select Particles > Sprite Wizard.
Select the Sprite File you wish to use and click Continue.
Select Cycle through the images for each particle and click Continue.
Select the technique used to assign the initial sprite to each particle and click Continue.
Select Custom Cycling for how you want the images to be cycled for each particle and click Continue.
Click Apply to apply the wizard.
Select the particle and select Window > Animation Editors > Expression Editor.
In the Expression Editor, select Select Filter > By Expression Name.
Select the expression with the name of the particle object to which you have applied the sprites.
Select Runtime before dynamics or Runtime after dynamics.
In the runtime expression, look for the line “Custom Cycle.”
Insert your custom expression. For information on writing expressions, see MEL Overview.

Spheres

The Spheres render type displays particles as opaque spheres. You cannot display the spheres with transparency.

To set Spheres render type

Select the particle object.
In the Attribute Editor, set Particle Render Type to Spheres.
To add default Particle Render Type attributes that let you tune the appearance, click the Add Attributes For Current Render Type button.

Numeric

The Numeric render type displays the current values of any attribute of the particle object. This is useful when you want to know the value of an attribute such as velocity at a certain frame. By default, Maya displays particle ids for the Numeric render type.

To set Numeric render type

Select the particle object.
In the Attribute Editor, set Particle Render Type to Numeric.
To add default Particle Render Type attributes, which let you tune the appearance, click the Add Attributes For Current Render Type button.

Blobby surface

The Blobby Surface render type displays particles as metaballs. Metaballs are spheres that blend together to form surfaces. Blobby Surfaces appear only in software rendered images.

NoteInside edges of blobby surfaces seen through other blobby surfaces are not anti-aliased

To avoid this, you can increase the particle rendering quality by selecting the particle object and making the following render settings. Open the Maya Software tab of the Render Settings window. Under Number of Samples, set Particles to 4, or to achieve very high quality particle rendering, set Particles to 8.

To set Blobby Surface (s/w) render type

Select the particle object.
In the Attribute Editor, set Particle Render Type to Blobby Surface.
To add default Particle Render Type attributes that let you tune the appearance, click the Add Attributes For Current Render Type button.
Apply a shading group to the particle object.
Add a light to the scene.
Software render the scene.

Cloud

The Cloud render type displays particles as blurred or cloudy metaballs. Metaballs are spheres that blend together to form surfaces. Clouds appear only in software rendered images. See Create raytraced shadows with particles.

To set Cloud (s/w) render type

Select the particle object.
In the Attribute Editor, set Particle Render Type to Cloud (s/w).
To add default Particle Render Type attributes that let you tune the appearance, click the Add Attributes For Current Render Type button.
Add a light to the scene.
Software render the scene.

Tube

The Tube render type displays particles as tubes. Tubes appear only in software rendered images.

To set Tube (s/w) render type

Select the particle object.
In the Attribute Editor, set Particle Render Type to Tube (s/w).
To add default Particle Render Type attributes that let you tune the appearance, click the Add Attributes For Current Render Type button.
Add a light to the scene.
Software render the scene.

Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License