Particle presets are already powerful on their own but turn them into 3D and you'll find that a few of them will actually look like they have been extruded. Let's take a look!
From this chapter's exercise folder, double-click on the 07_06 project. Play back the project. There is a particle system of thin water being projected across the screen. Go to the Properties tab in the Inspector and click the rotation disclosure triangle to see the object rotate 90 degrees on its y axis. The water becomes invisible because it's flat the minute you change perspective. If we promote a particle system to 3D, we can get rid of this problem and have a few additional options available to us in terms of the way we emit the water.
Let's get rid of the flatness of our particle system by making it 3D:
- Select the Particle Emitter category and press F4 to go to the Inspector. Click on the 3D checkbox. As soon as you press the button, more options become available to you in the Emitter Controls section, including Emission Latitude and Emission Longitude, as seen here:
- Two additional selections—Box and Sphere—also became available under the Shape drop-down. Click on the word Rectangle and choose Box.
- Press F1 to go to the Properties tab of the Inspector. Click the disclosure triangle next to Scale and increase Scale Z to 200.
- Rotate the water 90 degrees on the Y axis and notice it's no longer flat. Use the following screenshot of the Properties tab for reference:
- Go to the beginning of the Timeline and bring back Rotation Y to
0. Click the diamond shape next to Rotation Y to add a keyframe. Move to the end of the Timeline; and change the parameter to720. Play back the project and see that, no matter what angle it is, the particle system never goes flat, as shown here: