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emFlock2 (version 2.xx)
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Title / Link

• Quick look into the 'Evolution' release video scene.
• How to use 'Evolution' in an emFly setup.

• Revised collision/interaction between ellipsoids.
• The new "Custom Scalar ICE Data" mode of the "Initialize Evolution" compound.

Two and a half minutes of flocking, flying and morphing particles using emFlock2's new "Evolution" feature.

• the new stuff in version 2.1.
• the new compound "Dynamic Particle Count".

Roughly two minutes of particles that flock, fly and morph using emFlock2, emFly and two new compounds called "Equal Distribution" and "Dynamic Particle Count".

• randomizing the positions for the paths.
• using an exclusion volume for the paths.
• using the "Reset SiScCol" compound.
• using data with the "Get Point Data" compound.
• using landing and take off... without flying.

• the two new compounds for creating an even distribution of particles on a surface.
• what those new compounds do.
• how to use them with emFly.

PS: should those new compounds not appear in the ICE Tree then you probably have an older emFlock2 version installed. Simply download and install the newest version from the emFlock2 web page emFlock2 web page .

• how to set up flying paths.
• how to use available data to define the end orientations and colors for the flying.
• how to use the particle state IDs along with the factory state compounds to switch from one flying setup to the next.
• how to trigger flying / landing / take off.
• how to use a volume to trigger take off.

=> the final result: a flock of particles that flies around and that takes the shape of a cached Lagoa point cloud, then the shape of a curve, then the shape of a polygon mesh.

PS: the final result of this tutorial is contained in the demo scenes (note: it requires the full version of emFlock2 as well as SI 2011 SAP to run properly).

• how to create a "flock and fly" setup.
• ultra quick look at the flocking compounds.
• a quick look at a few of the new emFly compounds.
• creating "Fly" paths using nulls, curves and meshes.
• trigger flying, landing and take off.

• a quick walk through the new stuff in emFlock2.

Two and a half minutes showing a bunch of particles that flock and morph using the new emFlock2 release and the newly integrated "emFly".

The simulation and the rendering were made on a single workstation with an Intel i7 processor using Softimage 2011 SAP.
The entire video is a single shot (no cuts) showing a single point cloud with a single simulated ICE Tree. The particles are only driven by emFlock2 and emFly.

Last but not least: some funky music and sound by my brother Karsten.

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emFlock (version 1.xx)
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Title / Link

• demonstrates how to create an even distribution of particles on a geometry's surface.

• demonstrates how to create a predator that scares a flock.

A two minutes long video with a few ICE simulations that were made in order to test version 1.1 of emFlock as well as the new SItoA beta from "SolidAngle" (the guys who made Arnold) together with SI 2011.5. Sorry for the lame bib-bib-bib music, there wasn't enough time to do something nicer.

Note(I): Arnold was used for the main renderings for two reasons. 1) it is fast, uses not much RAM and is really easy to setup (you get good results in no time). All those things are really good when you only have a single render machine and lack self-motivation when it comes to tweak shaders. 2) the current Arnold and SItoA versions were also tested for certain things.

Note(II): The titles were rendered with emRPC v.3.05, because of the small particle size (smaller than a pixel). emRPC is well suited and fast with that kind of particles (the titles render in less than a second per frame in 1280x720) and produces flicker free sequences, no matter how small the particles get.

Note(III): The particles in this video are animated with emFlock v.1.1. Latter has had a severe "heart transplantation": The octree algorithm was entirely re-programmed and the multithreading was improved. The simulation time for the big orange point cloud with 1 million particles was about 4-5 seconds per frame (approx. two and a half hours for the 2000 frames).

• how to create a simple flock with a goal.
• how to make the flock move on an uneven polygon surface.
• how to add an obstacle.

• a walk through all of the compounds contained in the emFlock addon.
• interaction between emFlock and the factory ICE nodes.