Particle FX for DAZ|Studio

Using Particles

Load the Effect

In the DAZ|Studio Contents directory under /Particle/effects are the directories for each of the effects.

Each effect type has its own directory where the main effects files are found. The icon for each effects main script will show a representation of the effect. There is no additional text or symbols in the icon.

Double click on one of these icons to load an effect.

The effect can then be customized by changing the parameter dials of its elements or by changing the material maps or other surface properties.

Each effect has a HTML help file in the DAZ|Studio Readme's directory. The help files have information on using the effect as well as hints for customizing the effect.

The main effects scripts call Constructor scripts which build the effect. Additional Pose and Mat scripts are then called to set the specific properties of each effect and its materials.

Each of the effects directories will have three sub-directories for the Constructor, Pose and Mat files.

The Constructor scripts have the hard-hat and tools logo on them. Unless you are building a custom effect, you won't have to use the Constructor scripts.

The Pose and Material files have "Pose" and "Mat" on their icons.

Read the effect help file

The ReadMe for each effect tell how the Pose and Mat files change the effect.

Help for each effect is available in the DAZ|Studio ReadMe's directory in the /Particles/ReadMe's folder.

The main Particles ReadMe is the file ParticlesREADME.htm. It has links to all the other Particle ReadMe's. These help files will guide you in using and customizing the effects.

Position and scale the effect in the scene

Each effect shows up in the scene as one or more particle systems.

Each system appears as a figure in the Scene Tab.

Select the system and translate, rotate and scale it to place the effect where you want it just as you would any other scene figure.

An effect may have Domain and Direction elements. Some effect Constructors may reparent a Domain or Direction, typically to the ground. Gravity, for instance, is usually parented to the ground so that no matter how the effect is moved the direction of Gravity is always "down".

Set the Parameter Dials to customize the effect

The top level elements of an effect are Systems. Systems are treated by DAZ|Studio in much the same way as a regular figure and appear in the Scene Tab as a figure with children.

The user can modify the effect settings by selecting an element of the effect and changing its properties using the Parameters Tab or one of the other applicable tools.

Unless otherwise specified in the User's Guide or a specific effects help file, all the parameters can be animated.

Each particle System is made up of Actions which hold Operators.

The collection of Operators determine what the Action does to the particles.

There are two basic types of Actions, Source Actions and Flow Actions.

Source Actions and their Operators generate the flow of particles and set their initial values before passing them on to the other Actions. Source Actions act on a particle only once, when it is spawned.

The particle stream is created by the Source Action and then passed down to each Flow Action in the chain in turn. The flow is from the Source Action to each Action in turn in the hierarchy.

Flow Actions act on the particles once each animation frame update the particle attributes.

Some effects may have branches in them. If so, their flow is explained in their ReadMe file.

The Operators are what actually move and change the particles.

Operators can have child Domains, Directions and Randomizers. These child elements modify or assist the parent Operators.

Domains tell the Operators Where in the scene they operate on the particles. If the particle is not in the Domain, then the Operator will have no effect. If an Operator does not have a Domain, then it affects all the particles that come through it.

For the Set Position Operator, the Domain tells it where to put the particles.

Directions show Which Way to send the particles or to apply a force. They will show up in the scene with a Nozzle, Arrow or similar shape visible in the scene so that you can see where it is pointing. If an Operator needs a Direction but does not have one, it will default to the +Y (up) direction.

The Domains will also have visible objects in the scene so that their location and extents can be seen.

All of these objects will have materials which will appear in the Surfaces Tab. Their opacity and color can be changed to help in visualizing an effect or to de-clutter the scene.

These objects can also be turned off by toggling their Visible/Invisible icon in the Scene Tab or the Visible parameter in the Parameters Tab.

Randomizers make the values computed by their parents more random or chaotic and thus more natural. They are present as children of most elements in a particle system. They are named for the value they are randomizing. For example, the Set Velocity has a Speed Randomizer child which randomizes the value from its Speed parameter dial.

Changing the settings of the Operators, Domains, Directions and Randomizers changes the values assigned to each particle.

All the particle related parameters are set off in the "Particle" group in the Parameter Tab.

Each type of element in the System has a unique icon in the Scene Tab. These icons are shown in the User Guide Table of Contents.

In this example, the particles are generated by the Basic Source which has a Randomizer for the count of particles to be generated.

The particles are positioned randomly within the Position Domain of the Set Position Operator.

The Set Basic Shape assigns a shape to each particle.

The particle Mass and Lifetime are set by the next two Operators.

The Set Scale Operator sizes the particle shape inside the Scene much like the regular figure Scale dials.

The Velocity of the particle is set by a randomized Speed of the particle with the Nozzle Direction setting which way it is going.

The Rotation of the particle is set much like the regular figure Rotation dials.

Finally, a Color Gradient mapping can be set between one of the particles attributes and its surface properties.

Save changes

Changes to an effect can be saved as either Pose and Mat files or in a DAZ|Studio native (*.daz) file. Currently, the Particle effects are not exportable to other applications.

To save the effects settings to a Pose or Material file, select the particle system and do a Save As...Pose Preset or Material Preset just as you would with any other figure.

The Particle System

The Particle System is the top level Figure for the effect.

The Particle System can be parented to other figures or nodes in the scene.

The Particle System has the full range of figure Transforms. These can be used to scale, translate and rotate the entire effect. Note that same portions of the effect may change since they may depend on things like gravity.

Making the system hidden hides all of the effect.

A complete effect may consist of multiple Particle Systems. Tip: Complex effects can often be created as a combination of simpler effects.

The Particle System has four parameters.

The first parameter is Hold Updates. When it is "on", it prevents the System from updating when changes are made to any of the elements parameters. This makes it easier to change multiple parameters in a large system without waiting for the individual changes to update.

The next Parameter is the Start Time. If you are making a still image you can use this Parameter to make the Particle System appear to have been running for some time. By setting the Start Time to a negative value, the Particle System will use that time as its starting point for the various internal calculations. If you set the Start Time to a positive value you can delay the start of a particle effect in an animation. The Start Time Units Parameter lets you set the Start Time to be either in seconds or frames.

The third parameter is the Freeze Time. If the Freeze Time is greater than the Start Time then the Particle System will freeze the state of the particles when the Freeze Time is reached. To make backdrop type effects the Start Time will be less than zero and the Freeze Time will be zero so that the system is static and unaffected by any further scene animation.

The Hold Updates parameter is very important. When it is "On" the particle system is NOT updated in response to any changes in the Particle System or any of its children's Parameters. Many of the scripts have this Parameter set to "On" to speed up loads, otherwise the Particle System would recompute many times during a load. If a Particle System is not responding to changes, make sure that Hold Updates is "Off".

In the \Particles\scripts directory are two convenience scripts, holdAll.ds and releaseHoldAll.ds. The first script sets the Hold Updates to "On" for all Particle Systems in the scene. The second script sets the Hold Updates to "Off" for all Particle Systems in the scene.