Spider's web maker

Spider's web maker interface

"Welcome everybody"

Lately I was inspired by great xsi tool called Aging Cobwebs by Fabricio Chamon .... https://vimeo.com/26723944 and I thought it could be intresting to write maya- mel version.



Also I would like to thank Peter Shipkov for "volume sampling" explanation.

Anyway ...

with that post I want to introduce you with my spider's web maker script and show its options to make it easier to use.

Particle sampling tab is responsible for points/samples placing.

rate - number of points to distribute ( if using with volume method it means points to distribute inside object's BoundingBox )
samplingMethod - how points distribution should be made/performed
seed - distribution/emission seed
seedPerObject - if more than one object is selected every one gets different emission seed in range (0,seed). So if your selection contains for example 5 objects and you want them to have different seed in range of e.g. 0 - 100 . just select seedPerObject and under seed field type 100
If samplingMethod is curve based additional options show up
start - from what length (percentage 0-1) we want curve to sample
end - till what ... (percentage 0-1)
spins - how many samples/points per curve ( if curve.EP or curveCP samplingMethod is chosen it doesn't do anything )


Samples display section controls viewport display properties of points

size - point size

renderAs - display point as ... (point or spheres)

color - color

colorPerObject - similar to seedPerObject ... if you want to change color of all selected particleObjects turn it on . Color is drawed from range(0-componentValue) So if you want different colors on selected particle systems make sure colorPerObj is checked and set color to be e.g. white to get full randomization in rage 0 - 1(white)

Samples connection creates "web" curves based on variables below 

connectionMethod - how selected samples/points are connected

- distanceOptions

skipIf - minimum distance between two points to create connection/strand

threshold - min and max distance threshold to create connection ( if distance between points is in range of those two values, connection could be made )

random - it adds randomness to threshold values ( two(min,max) for randomness added to min threshold and another two (min,max) for randomness in max threshold )

x y z - single component distance threshold

- gravityOptions

vector - direction of gravity

random - adding variance to gravity direction e.g random 1 2 3 will generate vector equal X - rand(-1,1), Y - rand(-2,2), Z - rand(-3,3)

magnitude - multiplier of resultant gravity direction vector

placing - place of gravity point along curve in range 0 - 1.0

random - add noise/randomness to gravity placing (draw float between min and max and add it to placing value - be sure to keep whole placing in range 0-1)

curveDegree - maya help (it could be also used to control kind of  "gravity tightness" )

AdditionalOptions are just a few things for a quicker acces 

mix/reduce ParticleSystems with % of - by that procedure you can connect few particle systems into one with control over count percentage

Some quick images and examples by using spider's web maker.

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Maybe I should make kind of using/tutorial video for those who want to use it... will see .

I'm thinking also about some additional features, but  I don't have time ... so again- will see.

CREATIVE CRASH to download

Thanks for stopping by... cheers!!