3

Chapter

POPs Hacks

POPs are Particle Operators, and Houdini’s particle system has a well-deserved reputation for allowing artists to build very complex simulations very quickly and very controllably. The particles can then be used as a basis for everything from fire to smoke to fireworks to fluids to swarms of locusts to works of abstract art. POPs provide the backbone for many, many effects – and they are fun to work with as well!

Setting Births per Frame – 1

One thing people quickly want to do with POPs is to control the number of particles birthed on a per-frame basis. One way to do this is with the Impulse Birth Rate parameter, which is in the Birth tab of both the Source POP and the Location POPs. If you set this to “1,” and set the Const. ...

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