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Gravity vs. Uniform / Using Per-Particle Mass

The document discusses the differences between Gravity and Uniform fields in Maya. While Gravity and Uniform can produce similar behavior by adjusting attributes like attenuation and axis, the main difference is how they handle particle mass. Gravity ignores particle mass and causes all particles to accelerate at the same rate, while Uniform uses particle mass so particles with more mass accelerate more slowly. Randomizing particle mass values when using a Uniform field can produce more natural, uneven dissipation compared to all particles having the default mass of 1.

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Mahzad Shahriari
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43 views7 pages

Gravity vs. Uniform / Using Per-Particle Mass

The document discusses the differences between Gravity and Uniform fields in Maya. While Gravity and Uniform can produce similar behavior by adjusting attributes like attenuation and axis, the main difference is how they handle particle mass. Gravity ignores particle mass and causes all particles to accelerate at the same rate, while Uniform uses particle mass so particles with more mass accelerate more slowly. Randomizing particle mass values when using a Uniform field can produce more natural, uneven dissipation compared to all particles having the default mass of 1.

Uploaded by

Mahzad Shahriari
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Gravity vs.

Uniform / Using Per-Particle Mass,

All fields in Maya are unique. A thorough understanding of each field's behavior is a
crucial first step towards an artist's ability to efficiently and effectively design a
dynamic effect. There are two fields, however, which are commonly thought to yield
identical results: Gravity and Uniform. While similar, they have an important
difference: how they deal with mass.

While Gravity and Uniform have different default attribute settings, they can yield
identical behavior with a couple attribute changes. Gravity, by default, accelerates
particles along the negative Y-axis. The field also has the same effect on particles
anywhere in worldSpace, regardless of the location of the field. Uniform, on the
other hand, accelerates particles along the positive X-axis. Particles which are
closer to the field accelerate faster than those which are further away.

gravity vs uniform default attribute settings

These differences, however, are not intrinsic to the field types, but a result of the
settings on field attenuation and field axis. While gravity has an attenuation value
of '0', by default, Uniform has a value of '1'. As with all fields, attenuation
determines a decay/falloff effect. If a gravity field's attenuation is set to '1', it will
no longer behave like real 'gravity', in the sense that particles closer to the field will
accelerate faster. The axis that the particles move is also just a matter of attribute
defaults. Both Uniform and Gravity have X/Y/Z axis attributes. With this said, it
should be clear that one can get Uniform to behave like a default gravity field by
simply setting the attenuation to '0' and the Y-axis to '-1'.

So then, what is the real difference between Gravity and Uniform other than
different default attribute values? As mentioned above, the difference is 'mass'.

It is important to know that all dynamic objects in Maya have a 'mass' attribute. For
particles, this exists has a Per-Particle attribute found in the 'per-particle array
attributes' folder. If particles are individually selected in component mode, and the
Component Editor is opened, looking in the 'particles' tab will display the fact that
all particles have a default mass value of '1'. What is imporant to note is that ALL
fields in Maya use this mass attribute to determine their effect on particles...
except for Gravity. The reason for this is that gravity, from a human perspective,
causes all objects at human scale to fall at the same rate of 9.8 m/sec/sec. A
marble and a boulder dropped from 50 feet will hit the ground at the same time. If
you want to get scientific about it, based on Newton's Universal Law of Gravitation,
where objects attract each other based on their mass, the boulder and marble do
not actually fall at the same rate... but from our human perspective they might as
well be. Gravity fields, therefore, are most effectively implemented when you need
to simulate gravity... or when you need all particles to move in a specific direction
at the same speed. To reiterate, gravity fields ignore mass

Component Editor with individual particles selected, mass highlighted

So what about Uniform? Well, when you need particles to move in the same
direction but you do not want them to move at the same speed, Uniform is the
answer. Example applications include dust, debris, transporter effects, wind blown
objects and so on.

In regards to particle mass, it can be set in the Component Editor on a per-particle


basis, although this is tedious for particle objects which have more than a handful
of particles. The most effective way to set mass is with a creation/runtime
expression.

Expression Editor; creation expression to randomize mass values


Effect of Uniform field on particle grid with random mass values

Example:
Disintigrating Vase
Lets say you need to disintegrate an object into dust which gets blown by a gusting
breeze. This can be accomplished by baking lighting into the textures on an object,
then getting the surface to emit particles which inherit color from the baked
texture. With a nice animated transparency map the surface can disappear while a
similar animated map controls the emission of the dust particles. By randomizing
the mass of the particles with a creation expression (i.e./particleShape.mass =
rand(1,5)) and applying a Uniform field, the dust can dissipate in a more natural
uneven manner. You could even have the size of the dust clumps be derived from
particle mass, so that larger clumps move slower then smaller ones... you get the
idea. Mass can also be controlled via a runtime expression so that mass can change
based on definable conditions (i.e./mass could decrease as velocity increases so
that as particles move faster they eventually accelerate at the same rate).
In the above image, particles are emitted from a NURBS surface emitter. The
texture rate is controlled by an animated ramp, while the particle color is derived
from a file texture created by baking the vase's shading group lighting. The
particles are pushed to the right by a uniform field and dissipate due to turbulence
and an opacityPP age ramp.
When all the particles have the default mass values, as in the above image, another
by-product is the usually undesirable patterns which can emerge within the particle
object. This is a result of how often Maya calculates particle emission. One way to
solve this problem is by increasing the 'oversampling' value found in Solvers > Edit
Oversampling. The reason to avoid this is that it has a substantial effect on
playback speed. By randomizing mass values, however, this pattern will disappear,
without a performance hit.

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