Aura

Well I figured since we have a Particle Flow discussion and a Mental Ray thread discussion, I might as well try an start up an Aura Discussion Thread.

So to start out, i’ll put up a couple of links that i’ll try to add to once we all start pitching in our R&D and test shots.
[color=DarkOrange][size=2]
[/size][/color]Aura Home Page & Examples[color=DarkOrange][size=2]

      [/size][/color][Aura Public Test Build (Aura Itself)](http://www.spot3d.com/AURA/publicbeta/chaosAura_0.63.02.msi)[color=DarkOrange][size=2]
      [font=Verdana][size=1][color=YellowGreen]Latest Build: 0.63.02 | Released : Feb 16, 2005[/size][/font][/color][/size][/color][color=DeepSkyBlue]
    
    [color=White][size=2]Hope we'll be able to get this thread kickin' with our contributions!
    :D
    [/color][/size][/color]   [color=DarkOrange][size=2]  
       
       
       
       [/size][/color]

Smokin idea!

Here is my first test using this sweet, sweet gift from the people at Chaos. Uses a simple wind and vortex.

Smoke Test 01

I cannot wait to get some free time and mess around with this stuff some more!

Posted these in the AURA forums already and pflow thread but I’ll just do it in here since this is the official thread.

Heres just some basic smoke+fire.

http://www.3dluvr.com/treed/my%20stuff/images_animations/AURA_fire.mov
http://www.3dluvr.com/treed/my%20stuff/images_animations/AURA_fire1.mov

And then, the candle I’m currently working on.

http://www.3dluvr.com/treed/my%20stuff/images_animations/AURA_candle.mov
http://www.3dluvr.com/treed/my%20stuff/images_animations/AURA_candle1.mov
http://www.3dluvr.com/treed/my%20stuff/images_animations/AURA_candle2.mov

Just have a little color adjustment on the candle and then I think it’s perfect. I have to make it transparent near the bottom because that’s how a real flame is.

Ok, let me post these again…lol…(I’m sure people are sick of seeing them by now)

Here’s my latest test:
I used a skull model as an emitter, then just hid it from the camera. I had to use a very small cell & high number of cells to get the details though…over 3 million cells so that’s why the animation test is a bit short!

Here’s a screen grab:

And the very short (12 frame video):
http://www.jeffpatton.net/CG-post/Aura-skull.avi

and here’s an older test:

And here’s the video (I know the jet is moving too slow…I’ll fix that next round):
Download video

JP

I tried to create a nuclear explosion with AURA. But I couldn’t get the scale big enough. I was able to do it with Maya Fluids, so I assume AURA should be able to do something similar?

So, who wants to give a nuclear explosion a shot?

Its pretty easy. Get Loran in here, he’s posted his nuclear test explosions in the chaos forums… I’m having a hard time with aura so far; the settings are very precise, and being off .1 units can totally change your simulation… :sad:

Great job Jeff, the skull is great…
I’ve got aura install for few days now but still haven’t got spare time to explore it…
tell us, how long did it take to simulate & render the smoke skull?

cheers

The simulation calc was taking about 3-5 minutes per frame (I think) when I stopped it. The render didn’t take too long at all, around 5-10 mintues total for those 12 frames (used a VRay area light)

JP

I like this thread!

A question to all: has this beta public test a lot of features or it has just a couple of basics things??? (haven’t tried it yet)
Because i need a plugin for volumetric effects for a little short im doing…

How are you guys getting this to work? I downloaded the .msi file, but when I try to run the script in Max, it’s not found (.msi isn’t an extension that’s listed). So I tried renaming it to a .ms, .mcr and .mse since they are listed in the drop down, and I get a Maxscript Filein Exception error.

Then I tried creating a custom toolbar, but couldn’t find aura anywhere in the list of commands to add.

Just double click the .msi file in windows explorer.

Ah, thanks. I didn’t realize (untill you said that) the .msi stood, apparently, for MicroSoft Installer. I was thinking this was a script, not a plugin, and since the MaxScript files are .ms files, I assumed the .msi stood for MaxScript I____.

<-- noob.

Thanks again

Um, does it not work in Max 6? I’m getting the error at load saying this plugin doesn’t work with this version.

I got that error too, at first. You have to launch that .msi file again and reinstall it. This time, however, turn off installing plugins for max 5. If you have max 5 and you want to install it for that too (for whatever reason) you’d have to find the max 5 root folder and turn off installing the max 6 plugins.

Alright, heres my new candle flame. I think it’s a lot better than the rest but have no idea why the light isn’t flickering in the render, it does in the viewport though.

http://www.3dluvr.com/treed/my%20stuff/images_animations/AURA_candle4.mov

Someone posted a nuke test… can anyone help me find it?..
I want to try to make the nuke effect… how good can aura beta do it?..
can anyone help pls

cheers

S.W. posted a nice version of his nuke/mushroom cloud over on the chaos forum. You can find that thread here.

Sorry guys. I’d have lots of tests to post but i’ve gotten the dreaded menuman.cpp error for max 6 and I can’t fix it. I guess i’m going to have to reinstall it

Ok, sorry for the delay, but heres what I think looks quite a bit better in terms of the movement. But can anyone tell me how I can add the little blue part near the bottom? For some reason the curves aren’t allowing me to do that and make it transparent at the bottom.

http://www.3dluvr.com/treed/my%20stuff/images_animations/AURA_candle6.mov

Hi Treed,
I’ve posted an bcurve on the chaos board. http://www.chaoticdimension.com/forums/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=65198#65198

I don’t know whether this will work for you. I’ve used it for my “ring of fire” test and it came out quite nice.

Why my aura doesn’t seem to have those cool self shadows eventhough it’s on?
do i need vray to render it or it should work in standard scanline renderer??

Works with scanline too. You have to turn on the shadows of your light plus turn on “Atmosphere Shadows” in the shadow parameters. That should do the trick