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CINEMA 4D R11 Quickstart – Thinking Particles
Each of these nodes has certain properties that can be changed using the Attribute Manager or can be
connected to the ports of other nodes. This lets you affect particles in many different ways. The various groups
can be subdivided, their look or behavior altered after they have been created and much more.
If you have worked with the “old“ particle system up to now, Thinking Particles may seem a little complicated
to you in the beginning. Complex can be good, though, since it opens a treasure chest of possibilities that let
you implement your ideas! After all you have this Quickstart Tutorial at your disposal that will make learning
Thinking Particles much easier. You will be shaking particle effects out of your sleeve in no time!
2. General Information / Interface
No emitter, no particles. The emitter is the source of all particles. As previously mentioned, a node serves as
the emitter in Thinking Particles. In order to access this node we need to work in the XPresso editor. Create any
object – a null object would be the best choice – and assign a XPresso Tag to it. The XPresso editor, our new
playing field, will open. Here we will set up our particles.
Several Thinking Particle nodes are listed in the X-Pool tab in the left column of the XPresso editor. Our emitter
can be found in the “TP Generator“ category and has the name “PStorm“ (this is not the only emitter. ‚PSource“
is a somewhat easier version). Drag the emitter into the field to the right.
We have already cleared the first hurdle and have created a particle emitter. You have probably noticed that you
can now see a circle in the editor view. Play the animation and the circle will “spit“ crosses – particles! These
crosses won’t be visible in the renderer. They only serve the purpose of making the emitter’s behavior visible.
We will find out in the following tutorial how to assign particles to “real“ geometry.