Control Standin frame number from instance

[chris]

Hi,

I have a frameNumber attribute per particles, when using an instancer in Maya, I want to link the frameNumber per-particles attribute to the StandIn Framenumber attribute.

This was very straight forward with V-Ray proxy as they were able to grab automatically a frameOffset attribute. Is there any similar way with Arnold ?

Thanks!
Chris

[Stephen.Blair]

Each particle is an instance of an aiStandin?

[chris]

Hey Stephen,

each particle is meant to be used to instance a tree. That tree has an animation and I want to control the animation from the particles to get specific effects.

I'm not that familiar with Maya expressions but I would expect to be able to do something like :
aiStandin_treeShape.frameNumber = instancer_trees.pointsource.frameNumber

[Stephen.Blair]

I think you'll have to have a group of standins, with different offsets, and instance from that group onto the particles.

[chris]

If I could do exactly what I want with vray proxy 5 years ago I would hope for a proper solution now. If we want to control the overall animation properly, that is not an acceptable solution.

If there is no way to call the attribute I want with an expression, I'm hoping that it can be implemented in a very close future.