Made as part of an internship with OLM Digital (Pokémon), in Tokyo. The Particle System Tools were developed in tandem with OLM’s existing in-house Maya tools.

The first tool allows particles to appear as animated meshes. These animations will automatically adjust their playback speed to match the speed of the particle – this is useful for, for example, running animations – where a faster movement would need a faster animation.

The transitioning of animations can be controlled in several ways: Upon entering or exiting a mesh, upon a change in movement direction, or as part of a queue of animations.

The “Sub-emission” tool allows particles to spawn other particles. This is mainly used to emit debris on collision with another object.

Sub-emitted particles use a basic physics system, can randomise all parameters (including mesh) on spawn, and choose to inherit velocity from their parent.