Fuel serves what via Oceans?

[Duncan]

The fuel grid on the fluid node is probably not very useful for oceans. By default it is not used with oceans. You could enable the fuel grid and use it on one of the wake or foam fluid textures, although I'm not sure how you would use it. (one could think of it as a utility grid... the temperature grid was used to create foam, for example)

Duncan

[Fess]

The whole Fuel/Oceans relationship was vague and I could not find info on it at all....

Thks for the explaination.......


As usual, I've got another question:

I'm up to the "Pouring" fluids part of the Dvd. The glop_pour/blobby surfaces pouring simulation was very well explained and I understand.

But my problem is my scene, it slows down when the particles are birthed. If I open your example file, your scene plays smoothly (shaded or wired).
In your scene, I saw that you keyframed the emitter's Rate (Particles/Sec) to fill the cup and pour.

I tried to achieve the same effect and I get a slow scene. Can you advise on this?

I'm not to fimaliar with cached or baking but is this where I need to look?

scene_available (http://www.mohan-conceptual.com/maya/Blobby_Pouring_Fluids.zip)

Thank you
Fess

[-heavy-]

hi
i`am sorry but, what DVD do U talking about?
i want to know all about fluids.
is it a dvd that sells is price back?

thx. heavy

[Fess]

i`am sorry but, what DVD do U talking about?
i want to know all about fluids.



The dvd discussed is Maya Techniques™ | Maya Fluid Effects. If you don't know much about expressions/mel you will find it tedious as it is advanced.
Not all of it is consist of scripting, their are a few examples that are quite easy to understand and produce amazing results.

These resources have what you're looking for:
digital-tutors (http://www.digitaltutors.com/digital_tutors/index.php?referrerid=23273) (basic/advanced)
Alias (http://www.alias.com/glb/eng/products-services/learning_tool_details.jsp;jsessionid=E2TV1NLVKP5GBQCLCWSSM44AJMK0IJVC?itemId=2600012) (advanced)
Gnomon (http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/) (basic/advanced)

Good luck
Fess

[Duncan]

I tried to achieve the same effect and I get a slow scene. Can you advise on this?..

I think your speed problem is that there are simply more particles in your scene, but they are all scrunching together. Good fluid is relatively incompressible. If you scrunch it together at the start state it will explode outward. Instead make your emitter volume shape a cylinder and size it up to the start volume of water. Emit one frame at a rate that just creates a full density of fluid. Also for the size of your particle try increasing the field maxDistance to 2. It is a balance between maxDistance, magnitude and attenuation to get a good effect where the particles just overlap enough, yet repel strongly enough that the fluid is not too springy, yet also not unstable. One problem is that the emitter creates a random distribution of particles within the volume, but for a fluid it is better to have a relatively uniform distribution. Particles created too close together will suddenly fly apart.

Duncan

[Fess]

Duncan,

Regarding the burningTorus.mb.......

I understand the construction of the scene, but after creating the first emitter, torus, and doing the Fluids>Add/Edit Contents>Emit from Object, tweaking the attributes, I found that the emitted fluid from the torus was not effected by dissipation or perhaps it was something else because my flames were very intense.

I went to the Dynamic Relationship editor and connected the torus to the "Fluid1" container and my torus adopted the same intensity as the first emitter.

I recall you instructing me to look into the dynamics relationship editor when I had my ocean wake problem Thread (http://forums.alias.com/WebX?14@410.afd7aQKedLb.17@.3bb0d701/7)

After that explanation, I just want to be sure what was actually going on...

Conclusion:
Buy using the Dynamics Relationship Editor, I've "plugged" in the dynamics connections of fluids1 output into the fluidEmitter2 arrays inputs?

Thank You
Fess

[Fess]

Duncan,

I need some assistance with the "puppet_AIM_blast" if you're available.

Surprisingly, I figured out most of the setup. What I don't understand is how you created that AIM or "view" constraint with the fluid container/emitter/vol Axis Field.

Can you briefly explain the workflow?

Thanks
Fess

[Duncan]

To aim a 2D fluid node so it aways points to the camera:
1. view->select camera
2. shift select the 2D fluid
3. constraint->aim
4. set the created aimConstraint aim vector to 0 0 1

I had additionally grouped a particle emitter with the fluid, so the
particles and fluid could be moved together as an object.

Duncan

[Fess]

I understand now, thanks.

I actually was trying to read the help files on it to get a deeper understanding but it just fustrated me even further.

This help page in particular prompted some hair pulling:
Maya6.5/en_US/CharSetup/aimconstraints.html

Christ, who writes this?

Fess

[Fess]

This whole constraints area is proving difficult for me to understand.

I've applied the aim constraint to the persp cam & the fluid container. Works fine...

I want to animate my render, so I made a camara and tried to constrain it to the fluid container, but the container does not follow the camara.

I don't understand why I can constrain the persp cam but not the cam I made. Is the first constraint causing confliction?

Scene (http://mohan-conceptual.com/maya/puppet_blast_final_with_hair_camara.zip)

Any input would be appreciated
Fess

[Duncan]

It sounds like you are trying to constrain the fluid to the current camera being rendered. The constraint node does not have any knowledge as to which view is being drawn or rendered. You can only constrain to face one camera at a time.

Duncan

[Fess]

I understand your explanation.....

I deleted the constraint for the persp and was able to constrain the new cam without problem.

Thank you sir....

[Fess]

Duncan.....

Regarding the clouds. I did the simple workflow for creating it but, I don't really like the default cloud bank becasue the clouds are to small. After tweaking it, I did a camara fly through and notice that the bottom of the clouds are all level, giving it a fake look.

Example:
http://mohan-conceptual.com/maya/lower_clouds.jpg

How can I ramdomize the bottom of the clouds as to appear not level/random with each other?

Scene (http://mohan-conceptual.com/maya/cloud_bank_scaled_test.zip)

Thank you
Fess

[Duncan]

Unfortunately the density gradient(opacity input) used before texturing cannot be adjusted to rolloff at the bottom. You can increase the edge dropoff which will soften the bottom of the clouds a bit. (you could also experiment with center gradient or constant, depending on the look you are after) Also It will help if the camera is not near the bottom edge of the cloud layer. For a good sky you may need to lower the camera nearer the ground and possibly extend the fluid in x and z to provide a larger sky. Unfortunately the fluid does not curve like the real atmosphere, so the horizon tends to merge vanishing point in an unnatural fashion. This is not as noticable if the camera is relatively close to the ground and the clouds are high up.

It might be possible to merge a few intersecting fluid nodes to better approximate the curvature of the earth. You could also create several small fluid nodes that just contain a couple of clouds and scatter them around for variety( changing the noise settings on each, and/or rotating them ).

Duncan

[Fess]

Hmmm...

The constant & center gradients give fair results.

Maybe I'll go with a few small containers with the center gradient setting.

I sent you a private message, when you're available, I'd appreciate your input. :thumbsup:

Thanks
Fess

[Fess]

Duncan,

Need some help bomb dispersion plume files please........

Most of the fluid workflow is understandable to me.

I'm taking a few days to study the help files on 2D/3D aspect of paint effect.

When I paint the city mesh, I then go to Modify>Convert>Paint Effects to Polygons.

I select my "manhanttan1MeshGroup" & the fluid container and try Fluid Effect>Make collide and get a error stating "Need to select NURBS or mesh"

How did you get the emitted fluid to collide with your city?


I figured it out. I was selecting the "group" and trying to make collide.
I tried manually select the objects in the group (main, leaf etc..) and the "make collide" worked.

Seems select the group is not actually selecting ?

P.S. Regarding autodesk/alias situation. What does it mean for Maya's future? Hope everything goes well for ya....


Fess

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