About the Particle Depth Bug/Issue Again...

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Rai López
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About the Particle Depth Bug/Issue Again...

Post by Rai López »

Well, I'm treating to animate some crowd of frogs jumping forwards to the camera, but the Particle layer get mixed up with the depth and the (in this case) "balls" that are behind (the small ones) appears in front of the balls that are near the camera (the big ones) and viceversa, a mess... Well, the case is that this is an issue/bug that I still knew, but I'm treating to get a solution playing with all the possibilities, animating layers, not animating layers, playing with all Particle layer posibilities, but nothing... Seems like Particle layers don't care about Depth position in some or almost all situations... Well, the question is that if someone has a possible solution for this depth issue untill (I hope...) it be resolved or fixed I'm all ears :?: and eyes :shock:

Here is the rendered result... ":arrow:"

...Or here too (just in case)... Image



...and finally the Proyect that you can download (after 45 looong seconds) here ":arrow:"
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Nolan Scott
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Post by Nolan Scott »

Let’s say you have 4 frogs of the same size in your Particle-Layer.
If you set the Source depth to 0 they might stay all the same size.
If you set the Source depth to 3 the Particle-System "tries" choosing
the size regarding the distance.
Maybe sometimes a smaller-one is in front of a bigger-one…
That’s nature – isn’t it ?

Cheers
Nolan
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Rai López
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Post by Rai López »

HI! :)
Nolan Scott wrote:That’s nature – isn’t it ?
Jaja, definitely :arrow: NOT! The error is clear, all layers maintain his sice along the time and, as far as I know, Particle layer doesn't change any particle size if you don't animate it manually... Source Depth for me means that near particles are in front of far particles and not turn out wrong, that's natural to me... I know what you treat to explain and I agree with you that it can works "fine" for things like rain or snow, but not for crowds cause the distance, sice and height (ground position) must coincide to create a real perspective sensation, and I remember one tutorial saying that you can do it in Moho... Maybe you could see it better if you rotate a little the editing view with the Orbit tool, you'll see clearly how the balls position don't coincide with the order that they are showed, breaking all the perspective illusion (or making it more "illusorium" :wink: ) Maybe I should make another example, but I did it in that way to show how particles are superposed in a total erratic way, not to demostrate it cause it seemed obvious to me... Well, THANKS FOR SEE IT! :D
Toontoonz
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Post by Toontoonz »

Maybe in addition to a Particle tool, Moho could use some sort of a Flocking tool, too.
Flocking is used for the coordinated motion of groups. In Moho particles seem to be a somewhat chaotic, random, but somewhat adjustable, movement - but not coordinated.
Something that in addition to creating a swarming group of particles around a locator, but includes controls for inter-particle interactions (attraction/repulsion) to create flocking-type movements.

It is probably real complicated to do. Or can one do it using Particles in Moho?

Sample of Flocking:
http://www.red3d.com/cwr/boids/applet/
Toontoonz
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Post by Toontoonz »

I am not 100% sure if I understand what you are describing or the situation.
But I downloaded the file and ran it in Moho.

Just some thoughts:
1. Instead of having the three colored layers under one particle layer, why not have each colored layer under its own particle layer?
As it is now each colored layer has the exact same starting point and has the exact same Particle commands as the next. Three layers doing the exact same thing as commanded by the Particle layer.

When each colored "frog" has its own particle layer you can play around with the layer depths for each particle layer to see if that helps your situation. And you can stagger their starting points and make minor changes in each particle layer so that it does not look like three things doing the exact same thing.

2. Instead of particles isn´t there perhaps a better way to show "frogs" jumping down a path? Using and action for each "frog" of hopping up and down and then moving it along a path would give the animator more control over the characters. Particles sometimes creates some strange movements.

Again, I am not sure I understood everything you were commenting on, but adding your animation helped to visualize things.
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