particle on path

[StarfishRap]

Hello,

I'm trying a get this object copied onto a particle which is on a path using the position node.

The problem is the object is not facing the right direction.

It won't turn when the curve is turning, it just faces in one direction.

How should I go about fixing this problem?

Is there a better way to get objects and particles to move along a path?

In the position node, how can I use expressions to control the position instead of manually keyframing it? Say I want it to get from 0 to 1 base on the number of frames.

Thanks.

Edited March 17, 2011 by StarfishRap

[Macha]

The simplest is to align with an edge force vector, or the velocity vector. If your object is not rotation-symmetrical around one axis then you need an up-vector or even more complicated setups. There are quite a few threads about this on odforce. Rotations can be very tricky at times and I haven't seen a method yet that works in all cases.

To get from 0-1 in a frame range you can use something like:

fit($F,start,end,0,1)

Edited March 17, 2011 by Macha

[StarfishRap]

The simplest is to align with an edge force vector, or the velocity vector. If your object is not rotation-symmetrical around one axis then you need an up-vector or even more complicated setups. There are quite a few threads about this on odforce. Rotations can be very tricky at times and I haven't seen a method yet that works in all cases.

To get from 0-1 in a frame range you can use something like:

fit($F,start,end,0,1)

Thanks for your reply.

It seems very complicated but I'll see what I can come up with.

anyway the expression i used was

fit($F,1,$NFRAMES,0,1)