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I'm trying to create a "Stars" effect by adding ico sphere's to a UV sphere as an emission object particle, then rotating the sphere to simulate the passing of time in my animation.

enter image description here

Only problem is, I am not sure how I'm supposed to bake this object/group of objects for animation.

When I convert the particle system the "stars" separate into their own objects, lose their rotational pathing, and just remain stationary. Is there a way to convert this object into separate particles without losing the rotation data, or possibly animate the un-converted sphere object?

Deadly_Cicada
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2 Answers2

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Appended Answer Here:

For understanding's sake, I am trying to recreate what you have done.

You basically had a sphere with random emitted "star-mesh objects".

That Sphere had key-framed rotation information within it.

Then you did something like the following:

  1. Select your emission mesh (where the star particles are being emitted from).

  2. Go to the Modifiers Tab within the Properties Panel.

  3. Apply the Particle Modifier.

???

If this is correct, then what you would probably want to do is add an empty object at the center of the original sphere's rotation.

Select Your Empty.

Hold Shift and select your sphere.

Next: Ctrl + L >> Animation Data. This will copy the key-framed rotation.

Now you can apply the Particle Modifier, to make all of your stars individual objects.

Next Parent these to your Empty.

Rick Riggs
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Not a direct answer to your question but instead of turning the particles into objects you might be even better off by turning them into an HDRi image and then use that as a world texture (e.g. see Create HDR map from render?). You can then animate (i.e. rotate) that HDRi via a mapping node.

Note that this technique might not be entirely ideal if your final animation contains a lot of sideways camera movement. Then again, from your screenshot it looks like all the particles might have the same distance from the center of your sphere. In that case it probably won't make a difference after all.

Community
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Oliver Giesen
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  • That's a good idea, though I've got that purplish sheet behind my island and that's my "sky" per-se so the HDRI thing isn't currently viable haha. – Deadly_Cicada Feb 29 '16 at 10:21
  • Well, couldn't you bake that sheet into the HDRi as well? – Oliver Giesen Feb 29 '16 at 10:24
  • Possibly. I'm pretty new to blender, so I wouldn't know how. – Deadly_Cicada Feb 29 '16 at 11:01
  • See the question and answers I linked to (especially the answer by gandalf3 which also has screenshots of how to set up the environment texture with a mapping node). Just hide everything that is not background (i.e. leave the particles and the sky sheet) and then render out to HDRi as described there. Then hide (or even delete) the background objects and set up the new environment map. – Oliver Giesen Feb 29 '16 at 11:20
  • Awesome! Thank you very much Oliver, I'll check it out. – Deadly_Cicada Feb 29 '16 at 11:33