Cubes assembling into different forms

[crispyduck]

Hey all,

What approach would you take if you were to try animating say 100 simple cubes into a series of different shapes/configurations - in sequence and with dynamic forces acting in between configurations? It's an idea I've been wanting to try for ages...

CrispyDuck

[joojaa]

You mean something like this? Use particles and a instancer dive the particles with polygonal goal objects.

[crispyduck]

Yes, thanks. That's the sort of thing I'm thinking of.

I guess this technique works best when each configuration has the same amount of vertices for the particles to stick to... what if I wanted to increase/decrease the amount of cubes according to the number of vertices in my goal object? Also, if the particles only stick to the vertices/surface, how would you get the particles to fill the goal object?

[crispyduck]

It seems to work quite well if I use nParticles to evenly fill a polygonal object and then use the nparticle initial state as a goal object for another bunch of particles. Still not sure about the best way to increase/decrease the amount of particles inbetween morphs though... help me guys!