In this Blender 4.5 tutorial I’ll show you how to make particles emit from a Particle System, how to orient them correctly, and how to make them follow a path defined by a Curve object.
Video Transcript
Hello everyone! In this Blender 4.5 tutorial I’ll show you how to make particles emit from a Particle System, how to orient them correctly, and how to make them follow a path defined by a Curve object.
I’m starting with a scene that contains two mesh objects. The object to be instanced in the particle system is an arrow, while the particle emitter is a Plane.
The arrow is placed vertically in the scene and its rotation and scale transformations are applied, so its Local axes are aligned with the Global ones.
The Plane that will act as the emitter is rotated and scaled, but in this case there’s no need to apply its rotation and scale transformations.
First, let’s see how to make the Plane emit copies of the arrow, orienting them correctly at the moment of emission. I select the Plane and open the Particles tab, adding a new Particle System of type Emitter.
As initial settings, I lower the Number of particles to 100 or even less. Then I set Lifetime to 250 because that’s the length of the animation I want to test, at least for now. I leave the other settings at their default values.
By clicking Play in the Timeline, we’ll see the Plane emit spheres that fall into empty space. So, we need to replace the particle representation with the arrow model and make them follow a path that we define. Let’s start by replacing the particles to be generated. Keep in mind that after each change you’ll need to go back to the first frame of the Timeline and press Play again to see the updates.
In the Render section of the particle system settings, change the Render As mode from Halo to Object, and then specify the arrow object in the Instance Object field.
If we play the animation now, we’ll notice that the arrows are very small and all pointing upward, so they are not aligned with the Normal direction of the emitting Plane.
The particle size can be easily adjusted with the Scale parameter inside the Render section. We can also introduce some randomness in the particle size using the Scale Randomness parameter, although I don’t think it’s a good idea for this specific example.
As for the initial orientation of the particles, things get a bit particular here. First, let’s find and enable the Rotation section of the particle system. Inside this section, change Orientation to Normal.
Blender will now treat the positive local Y axis of the original object as coming out of the emitter, aligning it with the Normal of the emitter. The problem is that in our scene, the arrow is oriented with its Z axis pointing upward, not the Y axis.
To make sure the arrow is oriented along the Y axis, we need to rotate it around the X axis and apply the rotation, as I’m showing on screen. The particle system instances will now appear correctly oriented.
Now, if your goal is simply to shoot arrows along the emitter’s Normal direction, all you have to do is increase the initial speed of the Normal field inside the Velocity section of the particle system.
To make the arrows spin in flight, just enable the Dynamic option inside the Rotation section of the particle system.
If you only want to launch particles from an emitter and let gravity do the rest, these are the basic steps you need to follow. Now let’s see how to make the particles follow a path.
First of all, we need a path, which we can create using a Bezier Curve object. So, I add such an object to the scene.
In Edit Mode, I modify the curve’s control points to create the path I have in mind.
Here I’m going for a parabolic trajectory, but you can shape the path however you like, even making Patriot arrows, to quote an old movie.
In any case, pay attention to the curve’s orientation, because curves have a start, an end, and a direction, and all of this will affect the animation. To visualize the curve’s orientation, in Edit Mode select the Normal option in the Curve Edit Mode Overlays menu. If the direction happens to be wrong, click Switch Direction in the Segments menu.
With the curve selected and in place, open the Physics tab and add a Force Field, changing its type from Force to Curve Guide.
The effect of the Force Field is already active; in fact, it’s enough to go back to the first frame of the Timeline and press Play to see it in action.
If you want all the arrows to converge at the endpoint of the path, increase the Clumping value of the Force Field, setting it directly to 1 if you want them all to end up exactly at that point.
The resolution of the curve will also affect the movement of the objects, because with segments that are too pronounced you’ll get sharper changes in direction. We can adjust this parameter using the Resolution field in the curve’s Object Data tab.
One last tip before wrapping up this tutorial: here’s how to set the time each arrow takes to complete the path. Simply select the emitter of the particle system and, in the Particles tab, change the Lifetime value. This will be the number of frames each particle takes to complete the full trajectory along the curve path.
Alright, that’s it for this tutorial! If you enjoyed this and my other content, the best way to thank me is to subscribe to the channel and give the videos a like. Thanks, and see you next time!