([dr]e)?construction no.5

Quick test of a tool I’ve been creating in Houdini.

Feed it particles and it will find any number of nearest particles. Using those, it will join the particles to any number of their nearest number of particles with lines.

That is pretty basic, but that means it’s extremely extendable. It can operate on any particle system. It inherits color and alpha (red particle connected to blue particle has a red to blue gradient line). If the particles are moving, it still works (although the nearest particles might change, thus creating new lines). If the colors are animated, it still works.

I can think of hundreds of different things to do with this, so this might turn into a series. If I can find some cool sources, I might even do some data-viz with it. I have a little more optimization to do, and another feature or two to add. For one, I would like the option of the particles saving the IDs of the particles they connect to so that they don’t ever break their connection, but that means data persistence, and that’s a different ball-game.

Click the title to go to YouTube to watch in HD.
httpvh://youtu.be/xIYCu0uvBVo