Is there a way to shrink particles to mesh surface? I attempted to create a dripping effect like this:



On a curved surface using this technique, however the long particles don't conform to the surface, looking very unrealistic (it looks particularly bad on sharp corners).

Is there another way to get this effect, or a way to use this technique on a curved surface?

In other words, I want to make the particles stick to the surface (while still being able to slide freely) and somehow leave trails behind them.



Image from Blender Guru
Sardi Pax released a tutorial for applying metaball particles as raindrops to glass, I believe there is no reason that prevents his method from being applied to a curved surface.
If this method is used instead of sculpted particles, they should conform to a non planar surface.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDte-IzvHlg