Agent group

An Agent Group handles a group of Agents and their behaviours.

Each Agent has a dependency graph responsible for building the pose of the agent at each frame and a variable set of custom data that we call Metadata. Metadata can be attached to almost every Atoms entity. Agents are just one of them. For a full list of metadatas, please check this section.
Users can assing Behaviour modules to each Agent Group to customize their simulation. During the simulation Behaviour modules will edit the Agents dependency graph or their metadata, this will make them behave differently. The modules are evaluated in order. By placing a "follow curve" curve module before an "agent avoidance module", Atoms will evaluate the "follow curve" first. For a full list of Behaviour modules and their parameters, please check this section.

Add a behaviour module

Maya

From the Behaviour module list press the "Add button" and select a module.

Houdini

From the Behaviour module list choose a module.

It is possible to disable a module without removing it from the list using the checkbox next to the module name. You can remove or move a module up or down in the list using the 3 buttons on the bottom

The first module to add must be a layout module. Atoms has several layout module ("gridLayout","pointsLayout","cacheReader",etc...). These modules creates agents inside the agent group during the simulation. After a layout module you can add an animation module ("clipReader", "stateMachine", etc...). These modules add animation to the agents creating the network of nodes to rean animation clips inside the agent dg network. After them you can add all the other modules to drive the agents or set metadata.

HOUDINI ONLY: please make sure to use only the right side buttons for moving, deleting or disabling a module. Never use the buttons on the left side.

Edit Behaviour module attributes

Maya

After selecting a module from the Behaviour module list, you can edit its metadatas from the "Behaviour module Options" panel. The metadatas are converted to standard Maya attributes and the UI is just a user friendly representation. You can animate the attributes from the UI or use standard Maya tools.

Houdini

After selecting a module from the "Modules Attribute" tab, tab you can edit its metadatas. The metadatas are converted to standard Houdini parameters so they can be animated and connected.

Some attributes can be edited per agent with the "Agent Override dialog". You can open the dialog using the button on the right side of the attributes.