PDA

View Full Version : How to make mesh interact with the maya ocean?

gyamath
05-20-2010, 04:44 PM
Hello everybody,

i'm doing an ocean for an animated movie and there is a whale coming out the water.
My problem is to make the mesh interact (collide) with the ocean. I'm gonna fake the foam emission which results from the interaction but i'm sure it won't be enough. Right now my whale just cross the ocean without any reaction and it really looks bad.
I've tried with a wake around the mesh but the result isn't sharp enough.
I've been thinking about converting my animated displacement texture into mesh (or into fluids maybe?) and then make them collide but i've just succeded in converting one frame into one static mesh. (modify, convert, displacement to polygon) and maybe the all idea is stupid, i really don't know and i've got nobody to ask to.
If someone knows how to transform the ocean texture into an animated mesh, it could really help me out.
Of course if someone has another method, i'll be glad to hear about it.

Thanks a lot, i'm waiting for your answers.
Duncan
05-20-2010, 11:01 PM
In Maya2011 you can use the new displacement to poly WITH HISTORY to convert an ocean to poly.


However if you want to sharpen a wake it is useful to note that the wave speed on the default wake tends to be too fast for large scale oceans. Lowering the simulation rate scale on the wake fluid will slow down the wave speed and allow the waves to pile up. You could also lower the dropoff on the wake emitter (or use a surface emitter from your whale) so that the emission is not too smooth. With the right settings you should be able to get very fine detailed ripples in the wake fluid. If need be you might also need to increase the wake fluid resolution for more detail (and or the triangulation on the ocean plane).

Duncan
CGTalk Moderation
05-20-2010, 11:01 PM
This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.