Hi,
is it posible to loop custom geometry instances with frost?
Sorry, what do you mean by “loop”?
for example I have a skin animation on a geometry that needs to be repeated multiple times (animation looping, like a bird flap)
does frost support animation looping on custom geometry instances?
Yes, it does! You’ll want to use the “Animation Timing” controls in Frost’s “Particle Geometry” rollout.
This page has some information on animating geometry in Frost: http://www.thinkboxsoftware.com/frost-controlling-geometry-ani
In your case, I think you’ll want to use the “GeomTime” channel. In Frost’s “Animation Timing” controls, change the drop-down boxes to “Use Time 0” and “Add GeomTime Channel”. You’ll need some way to create the GeomTime channel. I think the easiest way is by using Krakatoa’s Magma Modifier. The free version of Krakatoa will work fine. You can download Krakatoa here.
I assume your particles already have an Age channel? You’ll need to create a Magma flow to convert the Age channel into a suitable GeomTime channel. Here’s an example that will convert the Age channel to a GeomTime channel that loops from 0 to 9 inclusive:
Please let me know if you’d like more detailed instructions.
Some notes:
Mesh channels such as texture coordinates
- Particle texture coordinates will overwrite your geometry’s texture coordinates. So, if you want to use your geometry’s texture coordinates, make sure the particles don’t have a TextureCoord channel. Same thing goes for any other map channel.
Time channel types
- In Krakatoa 2.1.8, the Age channel changed from integer ticks to float seconds. In my example above, I assume float seconds. If you’re using an older version of Krakatoa, you’ll need to handle the “Convert time to frames” step differently (for example, divide by 160 for 30 frames per second, or divide by 200 for 24 frames per second).
- Frost’s GeomTime channel is in frame number units.
Thank you very much Paul.
I saw the GeomTime as offset but didn’t pay attention that magmaflow has an output to it.
Thanks