Action: Change Spin

This action will let you change a particle's spin. It can either affect particles directly, or act by changing a Spin modifier in the scene.

Note: particle rotations must be enabled in the emitter for this action to have any effect!

Interface

The Action's interface looks like this:

Parameters

Mode

This sets the operation mode of the Action. There are two options:

Direct Change

The Action will change the spin of the particle(s) affected by the Action. It does NOT require a Spin modifier. This lets you change the spin at a precise point without having to work indirectly through a modifier, which can be a little convoluted for such a simple alteration.

Important: unlike a modifier, which will affect particles emitted from all Emitters in the scene, direct mode will only affect particles emitted by the Emitter linked to the Question which has triggered this Action.

Control Modifier

In this case the Action will let you control the operation of a Spin modifier in the scene.

Control Modifier Mode

Spin Modifier

This field is only available if you choose 'Control Modifier' in the Mode setting.

This field accepts a Spin modifier which you drag into the field from the Object Manager. Without a linked modifier, you cannot access any of the other parameters and the Action will have no effect. In addition, in the modifier's interface the Mode parameter MUST be set to 'Action-Controlled'. If it is set to 'Independent' the modifier will simply work on its own like any of the standard Cinema 4D modifiers and the Action will have no effect on it.

Effect on Particle

This drop-down menu has two modes:

Modifier Will Affect Particle

In this mode the modifier will start to influence the particular particle which is affected by this Action. Once the particle is influenced by a modifier, that influence will continue until the effect is turned off (e.g. by another Action).

Note that whether the modifier actually has any effect on the particle will depend on the modifier's parameters and especially on its falloff. Even if the modifier is set to effect a particle, it may have no effect on it if the particle never enters the field of effect of the modifier.

Modifier Will NOT Affect Particle

In this mode, the modifier's influence on the particle will be turned off and the modifier will never affect the particle, unless it is turned back on again (e.g. by another Action).

Direct Change Mode

These are the parameters which can be changed in 'Direct Change' mode.

Operation

This menu determines whether the action will affect the spin of the particle or rotate it. The difference is that spin causes a change in rotation each frame while rotation simply rotates the particle once.

Rotation

Only available if 'Operation' is set to 'Rotate'. Two options are available:

Absolute

The particle is rotated to the value in the 'Spin/Rotate Amount' setting.

Relative

The value in the 'Spin/Rotate Amount' setting is added to the current particle rotation.

Spin Amount

Sets the amount of spin on all three axes.

Variation

enables some variation in the amount to be introduced for each particle.

Groups Affected

Drag any particle group objects into this list. If there is one or more groups in the list, only those particles which are in those groups will be affected by the action. But if there are no groups, all particles will be affected by the action.