Thinking Particles is an advanced particle system developed by Cebas. Comes as a plugin for Autodesk 3ds Max , Cinema 4D . It is one of the most powerful solutions for creating various effects based on arrays of objects: from rain, smoke, fire to large-scale destruction.
| Thinking particles | |
|---|---|
| Type of | particle system |
| Developer | Cebas |
| operating system | Microsoft Windows |
| Latest version | 6.0 |
| License | Proprietary |
| Site | cebas.com |
The Thinking Particles system was used in such films as “The Avengers ”, “ Sea Battle ”, “ Snow White and the Hunter ” [1] , 2012 [2]
The main differences between Thinking Particles and the similar Particle Flow system built into 3dsmax are, firstly, a huge number of tools, secondly, the ability to create connections between virtually any tools, and thirdly, the ability to write your own expressions and scripts. However, it should be noted that, starting with 3dsmax 2014, the standard Particle Flow toolkit has been significantly expanded by purchasing a third-party extension Toolbox # 3. With this extension, Particle Flow gains functionality similar to Thinking Particles.
Thinking Particles has all the functionality of the standard Particle Flow: it has its own operators of birth and death of particles, operators of speed and direction of flight, giving the particles a geometric shape, various conditions. Each Thinking Particles tool operates with certain data, which, basically, can be scalar (Scalar) or vector (Vector) values. For example, the number of particles in the frame is a scalar quantity, and the direction of their movement is vector. These types of data using special operators can be converted (for example, scalar - vector length can be extracted from a vector quantity) and connected to other tools, creating a unique particle behavior. The ability to create connections between all tools using standard or custom expressions is one of the main features of Thinking Particles.
Thinking Particles has a built-in PhysX system. This means, firstly, that particles can move according to physical laws, depending on mass, friction, and gravity. Secondly, that particles, having an arbitrary geometric shape, can also interact with each other like solids. Thirdly, 3ds max solids can be interpreted as sets of particles of various shapes, activated at the moment of interaction with other particles: in this way, destruction effects can be made.
The latest released version of the plugin is Thinking Particles 6.0.