pTurbulence Node

The pTurbulence node imposes a frequency-based chaos on the position of each particle, causing the motion to become unpredictable and uneven. The controls for this node affect the strength and density of the Turbulence along each axis.

pTurbulence Node Inputs

The pTurbulence node has a single orange input by default. Like most particle nodes, this orange input accepts only other particle nodes. A green bitmap or mesh input appears on the node when you set the Region menu in the Region tab to either Bitmap or Mesh.

• Input: The orange input takes the output of other particle nodes.
• Region: The green or magenta region input takes a 2D image or a 3D mesh depending on whether you set the Region menu to Bitmap or Mesh. The color of the input is determined by whichever is selected first in the menu. The 3D mesh or a selectable channel from the bitmap defines the area of turbulence.

pTurbulence Node Setup

The pTurbulence node is inserted between a pEmitter and a pRender node.

pTurbulence Node Controls

Randomize
The Random Seed slider and Randomize button are presented whenever a Fusion node relies on a random result. Two nodes with the same seed values will produce the same random results. Click the Randomize button to randomly select a new seed value, or adjust the slider to manually select a new seed value.

X, Y, and Z Strength
The Strength control affects the amount of chaotic motion imparted to particles.

Strength Over Life
This mini Spline Editor control can be used to control the amount of turbulence applied to a particle according to its age. For example, a fire particle may originally have very little turbulence applied at the start of its life, and as it ages, the turbulence increases.

Density
Use this control to adjust the density in the turbulence field. Lower values causes more particle cells to be affected similarly, almost as if “waves” of the turbulence field run through the particles, affecting groups of cells at the same time. Higher values add finer variations to more individual particle cells causing more of a spread in the turbulence field.

pTurbulence Node Conditions, Style, Region, and Settings Tabs

All are common to all Particle nodes, so their descriptions can be found HERE.

About the Author

Justin Robinson is a Certified DaVinci Resolve, Fusion & Fairlight instructor who is known for simplifying concepts and techniques for anyone looking to learn any aspect of the video post-production workflow. Justin is the founder of JayAreTV, a training and premade asset website offering affordable and accessible video post-production education. You can follow Justin on Twitter at @JayAreTV YouTube at JayAreTV or Facebook at MrJayAreTV