Thick Volcano Smoke Question

[alexx]

it is possible getting that one with particles but i think the motion is the biggest problem about it..
not that i have checked out fluids really but the sample files of the 3d explosion look exactely like what you need..

see them :)

cheers

alexx

[CobraX]

Fluids seem to be really hard...justby taking a glance at the channel box...OMG..But if you say so :D i will check them out :D

I wonder how i might get the Volumic very detailed texture though...and the mouvement indeed is a big issue...as this smoke is going to be used for the trail of a shockwave ...on earth...

Cheers alex for the insight :) thank you man.

[alexx]

was just a hint, not an insight. :)

you are welcome

[CobraX]

alexx, as i am doing some tests on a scene i already created for this effects before trying and learn fluids...would you have an idea on how to do this or something similar to this effect with particles?...

I did an intersection cureve between 2 spheres. one sphere is Scaling with time, scaling then the intersection curve from which particles are emitted. Particles which are set to clouds.

This is not easy... :) But worth testing :D

[Duncan]

I would check out the puff and/or the nuke fluid example file.(FluidEffects->getFluidExample).
In the files look at the notes section in the attribute editor for the different fluid shape nodes for more info on how to use these files.

The fluid node has built in textures for detail, and one can animate these textures to get a boiling cloud effect.

Duncan

[alexx]

what more do i have to say if the master himself speaks :)

cheers

[CobraX]

Hey Guys,

Thank you very much for helping me out on this one :)

I have a clip of the effect i want to achieve, so here it come: http://cobraxvfx.tripod.com/Shockwave.avi

I really hope to find some fast way of learning on how to do it....as i am being watched closely...

Thanks for suggestions and tips/hints/tricks on how i should start doing this in Maya...

I did take a look at those fluid effetcs....:surprised soooo many settings possible...

I don't know if i should use particles on multiple layers...(sprites for clouds...multipoints for fiery effetc...or just Cloud particles..or...or..man i fear to get myself lost..)

Thank you for guiding me guys, Alexx and Duncan. The clip is in DivX 5.0.5.

Xavier.

[CobraX]

alexx, as i am doing some tests on a scene i already created for this effects before trying and learn fluids...would you have an idea on how to do this or something similar to this effect with particles?...

I did an intersection cureve between 2 spheres. one sphere is Scaling with time, scaling then the intersection curve from which particles are emitted. Particles which are set to clouds.

This is not easy... :) But worth testing :D

[alexx]

the link from above does not really seem to work..
can you check?

[CobraX]

try "Save Target As"..it works fine....for me, now is it good for you?

[alexx]

ok.. now is see..

ok.. that i think can really be done with particles quite well..

the intersection curve is a good start for that one..

going to the smoke particles now:
emit them with radiusPP and have a LOT of them emitted.
i found, that when emitting only few but very huge ones, the final shading looks way duller than when having quite some more but smaller ones.. but be careful with the final amount.. that eats a lot rendertime..

to the shading:
make them quite dense, no roundness.
give them a dark color, and make them self shadowing with a low diffuse value and a low color.

light them with 1 (for the start) directional light with ray trace shadows on. that is quite important to get a good surface shading on the dense cloud. if you omit that the cloud will likely look like dull dust and not dense dirt..

then.. play play play with lights, back lights, transdlucency and so on..

cheers

alexx

[CobraX]

WOW thanks lots alexx. i am sure this is going to help me lots!!! :)

You are right about rendering time...it is awful how long it is...
I will do what you said, i am sure i will get this done, and you helped me man, thanks a lot.

Are you working right now? Where can i see your work? :)

Thanks again:)

Take care.

[alexx]

have a look there in the showreels section..

that was the times, when our gfx department was about 60 ppl..
now there is 2 left :(

http://217.9.103.110/flash/start.swf

(the domain name got deleted by our very clever ISPs)

cheers

alexx

edit: if a showreel does not show up, enter the IP adress in the URL..

[CobraX]

:surprised wooooaaahh 20 Maya Licenses!?!?! Damn!


That's nice!!..which is not nice though is that you lost soo many workers....what happened?.. :(

I am trying to get your reels...but it is kinda slow..

I am going to try your tips right away, but do you mean that all the effect should be done with Clouds particles? Oh and by the way do you have an idea how to get those fiery effects trhough the clouds. I know that i can play with the clouds' oppacity but to get a fire effetc INSIDE them...i have no clue....

I'll get back to yyou when i'll see the reels :)

Take care :D

[CobraX]

Damn!!! alexx!!! the work of your company is reeeeeeealllly cool :surprised

Congrats man!!! Really! All those effects are pretty cool, and moreover youa re specialised in multiple domains...WHoaa!!! :D

Nice! :)

[CobraX]

alexx... for the Intersection Curve between the 2 spheres i have a problem..as i am scaling the one that produces the shockwave, when it grows in scale it tends to slow down everything.

What i did:

Select the 2 spheres.
Modeling mode>NURBS>Intersect Surfaces>Options>:

. Curve Type 3D world.

Now you get a curve whenever those surface intersect...which actually is nice...but when you animate the scale of the smaller sphere....it really SLOWS down everything.

Do you have an idea on how not to have this slowdown?

[alexx]

if you dont need it to go all around, you can just project the curve to the surface and scale the projected circle.. that is quite fast

cheers

alexx

btw.. thanx for the comments to the website :)

[CobraX]

Hey all,

Those pics are the kind of smoke i would like to reproduce using Maya. And you can imagine the kind of animation that goes with it.

All this has to move in a shockwave fashion. I did try the cloud particles..but i don't seem to get to THAT effect...any suggestions on how to use those type of particles...I know i stil have to play with them.

Alexx Your tips helped me a lot, thanks lots!!! But it is not as dense at those...as i said i have to play more with those particles...but it is slow to render..
Anyways i will manage , with your help guys to get that effect!

Right-Click>Save Target As... for the following Links.
Or Copy-PAste Adresses in New web browser.

Excuse me please about the inconvienience.

http://cobraxvfx.tripod.com/Plume1.jpg
http://cobraxvfx.tripod.com/Plume2.jpg
http://cobraxvfx.tripod.com/Plume3.jpg

http://cobraxvfx.tripod.com/Shockwave.avi

Thanks for the Help guys

[alexx]

quite easy what happened: the main company went insolvent..

edit:
when i see the images, i think that look is only possible with fluids.. but as mentioned i have not really checked them out as well so i am no big help there..

[Duncan]

I agree with Alex. I don't think you will be able get that kind of detailed volumetric self shadowing with Maya particle rendering. I think you should probably look at fluids. The 3D nuke preset example comes close to that sort of look. If you open the preset there are comments in the fluidShape node attributes that explain how to use this effect.

If the motion is not too fast and the scene short, you might try simply taking an image of a volcanic plume and slowly morphing it over a few frames. I believed that's the way this fellow did it:

http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=65541

Duncan

[CobraX]

Hey Duncan, alexx, guys,

Thank you very much for your support :) A lot! I have been playng around with the cloud particle and the FIre effect and this is what i got after 30 minutes. It doesn't look bad, needs to be tweaked much more though i guess.

How do you like it?

Right-Click>Save Target As
or
Copy-Paste adress in new Browser

http://cobraxvfx.tripod.com/Wave.jpg

[Duncan]

This might work OK for the shock wave, but if you need a closeup self shadowed volcano plume you will find it difficult with particles.

Duncan

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