Caltex 'Flies'

[Caroline]

I was reading Dec 3d World, and there's an article in there about making the Caltex advert, that had a car made out of flies. So, seeing as I'm studying particles, I thought I'd have a go:

 

[attachmentid=22919]

 

It raised a number of questions - like did I do it the easiest way?

 

I emitted fly sprites from the undecalled transparent Porsche, and applied a lot of force to make it go backwards, and then reversed the rendered TGAs.

 

So you can't send particles along a path? I wanted the swarm to form a ball and then swarm along a path to form the car, but I could not get them to join up with the backwards rendered TGAs convincingly. If you send out particles, you have less control than if you drag them behind the emitter, but they don't look right if you drag them.

 

Particles are pretty fun though.

 

The Caltex advert is here (34mb):

http://www.animallogic.com/commercials/cal...es/qt/flies.mov

 

and the making of is here:

http://www.animallogic.com/commercials/caltex/flies/

CarFlies.mov

[the_black_mage]

dude cool!!!!!

[robcat2075]

that looks cool!

 

So you can't send particles along a path? I wanted the swarm to form a ball and then swarm along a path to form the car, but I could not get them to join up with the backwards rendered TGAs convincingly.

 

suppose you didn't use a force, but moved the car away from the emitted sprites. Then suppose you locked the camera and the scenery to the car so it appeared the sprites were moving and not the car, etc.

 

You could create almost any complex path that way.

[johnl3d]

here's an idea I posted awhile back

 

flys2.mov

 

 

I like what you did and there is someplace another sample (not mine) of using forces to guide sprites do a search on force

[Caroline]

suppose you didn't use a force, but moved the car away from the emitted sprites

Yes, I was playing with something like that - a combination would probably work, if I could line up the rendered tgas properly.

 

John, I've looked at everything you've done (although I still find the occasional previously unfound snippet to amaze and amuse me). Thank you - fascinating.

 

I was going to return to smoke and fire as per schedule, but I am drawn back to flies. I shall have another go at putting it back together using your suggestions....