Make instances rotate outwards according to proximity using geometry nodes

Question

I have instanced some grass on a plane, and i want an empty (or mesh, or whatever works) to go trough it, while folding, or rotating grass away so it makes a path. Ive been trying to do this with geometry nodes and geometry proximity but no luck, any help?

Answer 1

We can align their rotation to the vector from the empty controller to their position, and modulate this alignment by the distance from the empty controller:

Notice the instancing Suzanne in the background; her origin is located at her bottom. This is important because the rotation will be about that origin. (I also edited her a bit to stretch her out, so I could make sure I could see what I was doing.)

The map range is simply to tune the fall-off, and this should be done to eye. Here, anything more than 1.2 units from the empty will be unaffected.