Creating nParticles

A particle is a point in space that can react to the simulated dynamic forces generated by Maya. These dynamic forces allow you to create animated effects in a way that would be otherwise diffcult or impossible to create with standard keyframe animation. When you create a particle object, points are created in the scene. You can then attach force fields to the particles to push them around and make them fall, swarm, float, or do any number of other behaviors without the need for keyframes.

Maya particle dynamics have been part of Maya since the earliest versions of the software. In version 2009, Autodesk introduced nParticles, which have all the capabilities of the older, traditional particles, plus new attributes, which make them easier to use and at the same time more powerful. Unlike traditional particles, nParticles can collide and influence the behavior of other nParticles. nParticle collisions occur when two or more nParticles come within a specified distance, causing them to bounce off one another or, in some cases, stick together. In Maya 2012, nParticle collisions have been improved with additional Nucleus solver threading.