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I created a planet (deformed Ico Sphere) that I added a particle system to. The particles are supposed to be trees, and so they should face the sky (outwards of center). However I am unable to make this happen.

Here is an image showing the problem:

My current rotation settings:

enter image description here

EDIT: To clarify, all trees should face outwards of planet center, like so: enter image description here

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    $\begingroup$ The planet's ground isn't ideally spherical, so particles won't point exactly outwards of object's shape because normals don't. You could try to add another perfect icosphere inside of this one and add trees as particles to it.. but they won't touch ground exactly, sometimes flying in the air. $\endgroup$
    – Mr Zak
    Mar 11, 2016 at 22:30

2 Answers 2

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Unfortunately you are not able to do that simply with particle system, but there is a workround:

  1. Go to Modifier stack, clock Convert button on Particle System panel to convert these particle trees to real duplicates. Then disable the renderability and visibility button, or delete the particle system. (You may want to then deselect the earth, then group all selected trees for easy control in the following steps)
  2. Select one of the trees, add a Track To constraint, set the "earth" as target (or use an empty object that shares the same origin location).
  3. Use Copy Constraints To Selected Objects operation to copy the constraints to all trees. (You can find it in Objects > Constraints menu, or simply search it by hitting specebar).

enter image description here enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ It's also possible to copy constraints with Object > Constraints > Copy Constraints To Selected Objects menu. $\endgroup$
    – Mr Zak
    Jun 10, 2016 at 11:57
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I think you want to use the object/global Z enter image description here

Edit after your clarification: If you want to orient towards face the normal, you need first to rotate your object on X axis 90° in edit mode: enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ Unfortunately that's not the case. As you can see in the picture you provided, trees on the side are facing upwards and they should be facing outwards of center (to the left or right respectively) $\endgroup$
    – Niebieski
    Mar 11, 2016 at 22:03
  • $\begingroup$ But they are rotated towards the face normal. And i need them to be rotated outwards of object center. The sphere is deformed and so the normal doesn't face that way like yours do. link $\endgroup$
    – Niebieski
    Mar 12, 2016 at 7:54
  • $\begingroup$ Then Mr Zak solution it's a viable option. Otherwise you can convert the particle system and add a trackTo constraint to every instance (apply to 1 then copy constraint) and make it track a distant object. Adjusting the influence will blend between the face-normal and the global-Z $\endgroup$
    – diramazioni
    Mar 12, 2016 at 8:28

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