Is there a way of constraining any of the built-in particles to a choreography path?

Not specifically.

-You can use forces to blow and vacuum particles around.

-You could contain particles within an invisible tube and put forces within that tube to herd them along

-You can path constrain your particle emitter, but that's not quite the same as what you want.

-"Flocking" can herd a cloud of models along a path. Some very simple patch image models might resemble particles.

Anyone got other ideas?


Welcome to the forum!

This one is essentially what I want to do. Please, tell me more.

Which part do you have doubts about?

Make a long narrow cylindar. Make sure the normals face *Inward*.
Cap one end with some splines and name the capped end "Emitter".
Apply a particle emitter to the "Emitter" group.
Set the "Initial Velocity" property of the particle material high enough so the particles don't loose all their energy before they get to the end of the tube.
Set the " Life Expectancy" property high enough so the particles don't die before they reach the end.
If it doesn't work the way you want by setting the Initial Velocity, then you will need to create Force Objects (Fan type) and place them along the length of the tube to help push the particles along.

torus with emitter inside bounces inside weird


Click to view attachment


torus with path and emitter following it

Click to view attachment

project for that file

Click to view attachment

just 2 ways

Johnl3D's suggestion to constrain the emitter to a path is the easiest solution, but if you absolutely must shoot particles through a tube, I've found that Fluid particles behave the best. Here is a movie and a project file.