This seems simple enough. There has to be a way to scale a particle system over time using a blueprint, right? I was just thinking that it would save me a lot of time to scale a whole system over time than it would be to set the scale by life parameters for every emitter in a system. Anyone know how to animate things like scale, rotation, or position and such over time? I figured out how to change the size instantly, but I want to show the growth between original and final sizes.
Input much appreciated.
Hi, if you can scale it instantly, then have you tried using a “Timeline”?
Basically you would create a new timeline, then add a float track, then add keys to that float track (so add at least two keys, at value 0 and 1, then use the output to drive the scale).
Are you using Cascade or Niagara?
In Cascade, in the module to change over time, select the type of graph. For linear / varied scaling, select either DistributionFloatConstantCurve or DistributionVectorConstantCurve, from how the particle system you described sounds. Both of those are for scaling parameters / properties over time. The Uniform distributions are for having random values get selected within a range over time, not going from Size A to Size B in transition.
Vector is for vector-based properties, and float is for float-based properties. It wouldn’t save you time with a blueprint unless you know what you’re doing. And you’d still need to modify the particle system to utilize the blueprint, I think. You can set new points on the curve in the details panel, then it interpolates between those points, from point 0 (or 0 seconds, initial value of a property) to point 1 (final value of a property, at time t). It’s way easier than developing a blueprint that you have to determine what connection goes where to get it to function right when you aren’t already knowledgeable enough to do it quickly.
Ah yes, a timeline is closest to what I was looking for. Going back through every emitter in the particle system and changing their scaling values to match seemed a little daunting when I could have just gotten away with scaling the whole system. Using a timeline and keying values seems like the closest thing to what I want to do.