Is it possible to concentrate or disperse a population of points according to an image map?

Hiya. I'd like to use an image map (say a simple gradient) to move the points in a 'Populate 2D' region so that they are more concentrated in (for example) the dark areas, and less in the light.

My only idea was to move the points in random directions to an amplitude determined by the image map... but that's a pretty lousy approximation of what I'd like to do.

Can anyone help?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on January 4, 2016 at 8:22am

It's easy enough to move a point based on the colour of the pixel 'underneath' it, it's much harder to make a point move along a trajectory that 'follows' the image map. That would require consecutive evaluations where each iteration depends on the previous one.

An in between solution might be to pick the direction of motion based on the local region of the image. For example you could turn the image into a heighfield surface, then evaluate the normal of that heighfield at each point location and use that normal direction as a guide for your motion direction.

Permalink Reply by Mike on January 5, 2016 at 11:42am