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Hello hoping someone can help.

Have a pretty basic particle setup going in Geometry Nodes, using noise to create a feeling of natural movement. Here's a test of how it currently looks: https://streamable.com/5bv6fg

The issue I'm having however is each instanced particle remains static in their position on the mesh. I want each to rotate around the Y coordinate full 360 (so I can make this animation loop). I think this will feel much better.

I've done a ton of searching and testing to find a solution but no dice. Everything I find on the subject is about aligning rotations to faces, and not actually animating along the mesh. Assuming I'm missing something basic or approaching the issue incorrectly.

Below is an image of the object and the node group:

enter image description here

enter image description here

Thank you so much to anyone that takes the time to help.

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  • $\begingroup$ Can't understand your question. Rotating spheres will not result in anything visually different. What type of movement do you expect to see? (Pictures welcome) $\endgroup$ Commented May 26 at 22:56
  • $\begingroup$ Hey Daniel thanks for your reply, I'm guessing what you gathered is I was asking for the instances to rotate on their own axis. What I mean is, to have each instance rotate a around the original geometry, similar to if you were to rotate the 'texture coordinate node' in the shader editor. Please let me know if this isn't making sense and I'll update the post with some diagrams. $\endgroup$ Commented May 26 at 23:00
  • $\begingroup$ Does the object have a good UV? It's possible to do this sampling UV. $\endgroup$ Commented May 26 at 23:02
  • $\begingroup$ Not a great one, unfortunately it's a really odd shape for UV's and I need to show the full object spinning 360 in the animation so have been avoiding them and just using object coordinates for everything. Do you know of another way potentially? $\endgroup$ Commented May 26 at 23:11
  • $\begingroup$ A friend of mine had a thought that this could be done through creating a series of spines that wrap around the mesh on the Y axis that could be used to sample data from. Not entirely sure how to approach sampling that data in geo nodes but thought I'd add this for any future commentors/onlookers that might be able to help. $\endgroup$ Commented May 27 at 14:39

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So, I took a "UV Sphere", scaled it in Z to stretch it, and rotated it with proportional edit to reach this shape:

Sphere

In this object, I can use a "Sample UV surface" node to get positions and vary the UV with time:

Moving particles

Nodes

You can add noise either before or after the "Sample UV", but beware that it should be tiny if before.

Nodes

Adapting to your object

If you make this sphere similar enough to your object, you can simply add a "Sample Nearest Surface"

Adapted nodes

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  • $\begingroup$ So sorry about the delayed reply. I have been on holiday for the past week. Appreciate you taking the time to look into this, the solution looks perfect and I'll implement it immediately. I've used Raycasting a bunch but still so surprised but its flexibility. Thanks again! $\endgroup$ Commented Jun 9 at 18:09

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