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In cycles you can control the color of a Particle-(dupli)Object with the ParticleInfo Node. You can, for example, divide Particle Age by Lifetime and use the result as factor for a mix shader.

I wonder if and how it is possible to do the same with a metaball (instead of a cube)?

I have a particle system and i'm using a object (in this case a sphere) as dupli object.

In the picture you can see that the material color is affected by the age of the particle. If i change the dupli object from the sphere to a meatball the age of the particle has no influence. The material is same material that i used for the sphere

  1. My example Material
  2. Sphere as dupli object
  3. Metaball as dupli object

enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ Metaball doesn't have age. If the metaball is dupli of particle you could do the same as with cube particles. This question is very unclear for me, can you specify? What info for metaballs would you like to get exactly? $\endgroup$
    – Jaroslav Jerryno Novotny
    Commented Apr 29, 2015 at 15:19
  • $\begingroup$ I made a picture to explain my problem. I have a particle system and i'm using a object (in this case a sphere) as dupli object. In the picture you can see that the material color is affected by the age of the particle. If i change the dupli object from the sphere to a meatball the age of the particle has no influence. The material is same material that i used for the sphere 1. My example Material 2. Sphere as dupli object 3. Meatball as dupli object ![Picture][1] [1]: i.sstatic.net/Kt0ZW.png $\endgroup$
    – user2488
    Commented Apr 29, 2015 at 16:27
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    $\begingroup$ I see your problem now. This is because all the metaballs are treated as a single object:( Thats sadly how they work - they merge into single object. Maybe you could color this with a gradient from top to down as a workaround? Something like this could work work you: blender.stackexchange.com/questions/5422/… $\endgroup$
    – Jaroslav Jerryno Novotny
    Commented Apr 29, 2015 at 16:41
  • $\begingroup$ So, am i right when i assume that there is no solution for my problem? $\endgroup$
    – user2488
    Commented Apr 29, 2015 at 17:19
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    $\begingroup$ dont know how long you didn't check your Stackexchange but I posted the solution. I dont know if Pointdensity was a thing in 2015 but now you can do it $\endgroup$
    – HenrikD
    Commented Nov 16, 2017 at 9:56

1 Answer 1

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You could color your Metaballs easily with the Point Density Texture/Map. I recently found it works also great on surface coloring just like the volume coloring. You could set the Radius in the Point Density settings high enough to reach the surface of the Metaballs and it should work properly.

EDIT:

I just tried it myself and it actually works. When you use the Point Density in the Material of the Metaball you have to select the Object with the Particle System on it and make the Radius high enough. You can also select if you want to know the speed or the age of the Particle. Also Cubic Interpolation is much more beautiful in my opinion so select that.

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  • $\begingroup$ Doesn't work for me somehow, i choose the emitter object and its particle system and get nothing no matter what radius i set, it only sorta work if i choose object verticies mode and the metaball object with world space, but it acts like a world coordinate map, not for every metaball(particle) $\endgroup$
    – s0up
    Commented Apr 10, 2022 at 22:06

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