Particle Attachment with Animation

I recently tried to use particle systems inside of maya and, trying to transfer it over to unity to see if it was possible to keep the animation. I tried swapping out the particles inside maya for sphere shapes and then baking the animation. But that didn't give me any results. As a back-up plan i will try to do all my particle effects inside unity. I've been playing around with particle effects inside of maya and got some interesting results, as you'll see in the youtube video. I planned to make glowing line effects on the sword itself. I will consider using lights and animate them moving.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hptHyBAAwQ

Project 2 Proposal: Bringing life to the sword

Description:

For this part, I decided I will be advancing further with my previous project. I want to see if i can bring in textures that have dynamic elements to it like glows. Also use different dynamics like fluids and particle systems. I would like to see if this is possible to have this done in either maya/ 3d max and then bring it all over into unity. Just from what i researched so far, it doesn't seem possible to import full dynamics from maya to unity. The only way you can do so, is by baking the dynamics into an animation and then sending it out. Since there isn't much on the subject, it would be really interesting to find out if it's possible.

Objectives:

• Create a simple particle/dynamic system test send it to unity
• Create a glow texture on a simple cube model send it to unity
• Further development of the Living Sword

Expected Results:

• Knowledge on the best way to use particle systems in different programs
• Understanding different textures that have different elements
• Have another piece of the living sword done that has some kind of animated texture or environment to it.

Weekly Scheduler:

• Week 1: Dynamic Glow test
• Week 2: Particle Smoke test
• Week 3: Importing into Unity test
• Week 4: Final Sword test with effects applied to it
• Week 5: Extra Time Trouble Shooting/ Adding more textures/ etc.

References:

• http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/511979/surround-an-object-with-a-particle-effect.html
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfuyVYLhlxk
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmDHo9ToNIA
• http://lesterbanks.com/2011/02/getting-a-tron-glow-in-maya-using-mia_light_surface/

Research Steps:

• How to make glowing animated texture
• How to a looping smoke animation
• How to make a looping liquid animation inside a container

Resources:

• Unity
• Maya
• Mudbox
• 3ds Max

R&D Tests:

• Baked liquid dynamics import/ export
• Glowing texture import/ export
• Baked smoke particles import/ export

Pipeline Test #1:

1. Create simple model cube
2. Create a glowing texture on the cube
3. Make the glowing texture pulse or do some kind of looping animation
4. Bring it over to unity and see if it carries over the texture with the animation look

Final Pipeline:

1. Create dynamics in maya (by baking animation) or unity by using there built in dynamics
2. Create particle smoke in maya or unity
3. Apply dynamics/particles it to sword model
4. Bake animation if needed
5. Export by .fbx into unity
6. Test in game scene