Relaxation

Relax the position of your points, by offsetting them along the surface(s)


Relax Algorithm

The Relax Algorithm feature allows you to offset your distributed points along their surfaces to even out their positions, reducing the randomness and creating a more uniform aspect. This option is particularly useful for reducing collisions between points, as they will be pushed away from each other to achieve equidistance.


The relaxation algorithm occurs after vertex-groups, vertex-colors and image masks have been applied, but before any other features that might affect the distribution density. This ensures that the relaxation works on the final set of distributed points.


Demanding Feature

This feature works well with scatters under 100,000 generated instances. Above that threshold, use it with care as computing relaxation can be relatively slow and may impact your ability to work in real time.



Advanced Options

  • Iterations: Number of iterations the relaxation algorithm will perform (default: 10)
  • Step: On each iteration, the algorithm will offset points based on this step value (default: 0.2)
  • Min Activation Distance: The minimal distance between two closest points required to trigger the relaxation algorithm
  • Max Travel Distance: Limits how far points can move from their original position during the relaxation process
  • Masking: Use vertex-groups or image masks to control which instances are affected by relaxation


Transforms

Offset your points with these transforms option



Location Transforms

The "Location Transforms" feature lets you transform the location of your points. So Location/Rotation/Scale transforms are supported with random values available.

Use Case

Scattered clouds hovering above your surface(s) by offsetting your scatter locations on the Z axis.

Push Along

Offset your points along a chosen axis



Push Along Axis

The "Push Along Axis" feature is quite self-explanatory, it will offset your instances position along the chosen axis method.

Use Case

Leaves hovering a few centimeters above another distribution of grass.

Random Offset

Offset your points randomly



Random Offset

The "Random Offset" feature will randomly offset the positions of your instances to the chosen distance spread.


Noise Animation

Optionally, you are able to animate the random effect with a random noise alongside a speed parameter.

Use Case

Create scatters of birds, flying moths, or fireflies for example, where their location is random and erradic.

Falling Animation

Offset your points with a fall animation



Falling Animation

The "Falling Animation" feature, as its name suggests, will create a falling animation from your scatter. This effect will first create a column (random offset based on the global Z direction) from the given distance parameters, then animate the column falling or elevating depending on chosen start/end keyframe settings.


Initial Position Option

The "fall at initial position" option will stop the offsets of individual instances when they are reaching their initial positions, thus giving an illusion of a collision. Additionally, it is possible to add location/rotation turbulence during the fall.

Use Case

With this feature, you can achieve many use cases such as falling snowflakes, falling dead leaves, elevating flying lanterns.