Major Project: nParticles 'Bee Swarm' Test #6

Over the weekend I set up a test render for another bee swarm. This time I attached the particles to a sphere, so the mass of small spheres take on the shape of one large sphere. I then used a combination of fields and solvers (turbulence, gravity, newton) to control the swarm so they break away from their original sphere mould and scatter.

Unfortunately, the computers restarted over the weekend so it didn't render the full frame range. In the original scene, the swarm eventually disperse near the end of the animation. Something odd happened in my scene when I tried to reopen it to continue rendering (I had a cache) the orbs wouldn't break away from their original moulding. So, I was unable to re-render the remaining frames unless I began the simulation from scratch, which may not marry up to the frames I already created. So, I thought I'd post this animation rather than spend the time re-rendering the entire thing.

Despite the issue I had with the computers restarting, I quite like the results especially with the camera movement. I wanted to focus on some smaller spheres first, then zoom out to reveal the mass of spheres creating one large sphere. I was able to get a depth pass, but it was limited compared to what I wanted. Even with the file set to a 32 bit image, uncompressed, and set to raw...it still turns pure white really quickly. I'm still struggling to get the hang of the AOV system which is frustrating, but I'm doing what I can at least.