Using metaballs as influence field?

[oldiesgoodies]

Hi

I want to be able to use metaballs as influence field for various things. For example I can use metaball for bulging because it does accept metaball by default. I am wondering if there is a way to transfer metaball field as soft falloff value to influenced objects maybe without using attribute transfer? Is it possible to access the metaball field as attribute values?

thanks

[Macha]

I don't think it is possible directly but I think a $FIELD attribute would be an excellent idea!

There are some metaball vex functions. Perhaps they can do it?

[Macha]

Perhaps this is it? (I added the data to the W attribute)

metaball.hip

[Macha]

And a screenshot.

It appears to work. If you change the metaball's kernel function the attributes appear to change correspondingly.

Edited November 19, 2010 by Macha

[Macha]

Various kernels and exponents

[Dennis]

I am always using the magnet node to transfer the weight of the metaball as a color attribute and use that. That way I also have a nice visualization of my metaweight.

If there's a much easier way to do this, I'm eager to know as well.

Cheers,

Dennis

metaball.hip

[oldiesgoodies]

Hi

thanks for the tips guys, I appreciate that.