School of Fish - Which technique to use?

#9

Hey guys,

so i was aiming at using the simplest technque possible as i don’t have the scripting experience, or the the time to learn it right now.

So i modelled a fish and did a “swim cycle” for it.

The particles are emitted from a sphere that is hidden. The sphere is a goal for these particles. I am using goalV goalU parent U parentV and goalOffset attributes. The goalOffset allows the particles to be born not directly on the sphere’s surface so that i don’t have that perfect sphere shape.

The particles are moving around the sphere’s surface with a runtime expression where at each frame the goalV is incremented of 0.01: goalV += 0.01

I also set the particles goal weight to .5 and the goal smoothness to 5 i think.

Then i applied a lattice to deform the sphere on which they are flowing along. That lattice is what is translating the school of fish. It’s also deforming the sphere’s geometry(i should accentuate that more i think).

The light is 2 spotlights one from the top with a fog effect in it. the second one is lighting under the fish with a light blue color.

I am doing a second render with a glow added to the fish so as to emphasize their specular and have that “mirror” glitter when the fish change direction.

I still need to remove that pop and probably change the lattice movement and the way it deforms.

Thanks for your interest guys!! If you have any suuggestions please drop a line your critiques, comments and suggestions are VERY WELCOME!!

Cheers!

Xavier.

#10

Hi Xavier. Very cool. I like your approach, simple and effective. You actually don’t move the sphere. Right? You only move the lattice. I don’t understand what you need the lattice for. I know it deforms the sphere…but why is that so important? Coulnd’t you just move the sphere with no deformation?

Thanks man…

-S

#11

Hey stucky,

I guess you are right there, i probably don’t need the lattice i could just animate the scale of the sphere…yeah.

So right now actually the lattice is animated, the whole lattice, which drives the sphere in space. As the lattice is tranlsating, so is the sphere.

you see?

Xavier.

#12

ok dude. Anyway, thinking again, I think you did right in creating the lattice. Because that way you avoid selecting all the vertices/CV’s of the sphere. With the lattice it is more easy to deform the sphere…

Another question. You deformed the sphere so that the particles would move as the goal moves too. Am I right?

Thanks for the explanations Xavier. Keep the good work and show us more stuff as you progress.

-S

#13

very nice simulation and approch.

simple is better!

nice job!

#14

Thank you for the comments guys!!

I didn’t tweak the movement yet, i ust added more fish and played with the glow in maya so as to get a more reflective fish. i need to adjust the blue light though it might a bit too much.

Version 2

http://www.magmafx.com/wip.html

I’ll keep posting updates!

Thanks!

Xavier.

#15

wow. That is very very good. How do you tell the fish to stay pointed to where the sphere moves?

Sorry for beeing a bit lame about this dynamic thing. But I want to start learning more. And I am very confortable with MEL. That will help me…

-S

#16

if you need the interaction between the school of fish and the shark (or other fish of prey) you might try the 3d fluid container… it has been a while since i have tried this but you can take your “swim cycle” particle fish and attatch them to the dynamic force grid of a 3d fluid container… then make a shark that colides with the fluid… this will cuase your fish to swim away form the shark some settings and tests might be needed of couse…
hope that helps… it sounds like a neat project :smiley:

#17

sp0rk3d: Yes! I thought about that it might be a good technique actually because of the dampening attributes of the fluid, the particles might interact smoothely to the “shark”, the shark would have some radial field to it, repulsing the fluid and the particles that are being driven by it. Thanks for suggesting that.

Stucky: the fish are actually moving relatively to the sphere, the sphere is the goal of the particles. These particles are emitted from the surface of the sphere. And the sphere is being moved around by the lattice that is deforming it.

Thanks for your interest guys!!

Cheers!

Xavier.

#18

After a few renders and a few tests this is a new version. It seems the renderer messed up a few frames so i don’t have the whole simulation here. But i have a preview if you want to have a peek.

Let me know what you think. I am trying to stay away from using the Maya ocean to actually cast real caustics. As i believe it would take more time to render. I just want to add to a bit more to the credibility of the school of fish.

The caustics on the floor of the sea are actually a 2D ocean texture from maya mapped in the light and animated with a oceantime = sin(time) expression.

Here is the latest version.

http://www.magmafx.com/wip/fish/School_Sim_v6.mov

Xavier.

#19

Hey Xavier. I like it a lot. Congratulations. :thumbsup: I only have to point one thing though. I think this time, the fish are a bit dark. I mean, I know undersea ilumination comes from above and you get things with less light, but I think it would be better if the fish where a bit more lit in the darken areas(Like the last test with glow that you showed us). I hope I made my self clear.

-S

#20

Simply SuperBBBBBB… The way its orientation is really nice…

regards,
-Baran

#21

Well thank you very much for your comments and suggestions, baran, stucky, bonedaddy, sturmkim, stev.

I’ll post another version soon around wednesday, as it seems i have some glitches in the render.

Cheers!

Xavier.

#22

Really, really loving it. The only thing that still throws me off is the simplistic background – the staid color and the pretty solid volumetrics. The caustics helped, but it still could use a little oomph, you know?

That said, this looks really, really great. Very professional. Good work!

#23

Cheers BoneDaddy!! Thanks for the comments!! It’s nice to know that i did a good job!

So here is the latest version that might be the final. Keep in mind my first objective was to do a good simulation for a school of fish. I know the background is kind of empty…i’ll probably add coral later but i have to show this on wednesday to my, maybe, future employer.

I removed the pop i had at 2 seconds at the beginning.
The fact that my render was always different and popping sometimes…well guess what, is that i DIDN"t cahce the particles. Duh!

As a new thing in the render, I just added specs floating in the water.

“Right-Click” and “Save As” - Simulation_v9

http://www.magmafx.com/wip.html

Enjoy!

And let me know your comments!

Cheers people,

Xavier.

#24

Again, looks great, dude. If you’re doing this as a work sample for some company, don’t let them just have it – if they absolutely have to have a copy, give them a watermarked copy or something. Never work for free. They should totally hire you on the basis of that, if that’s what they’re looking for.

#25

Bonedaddy, thanks for the reply.

I’ll put the file on DVD, and i will not actually have them have the maya file, if that’s what you meant. Or should i even put a watermark on the video file itself?

#26

Man that’s great stuff. Good luck on the job. You have the skills thats for sure eh? =)

#27

Well, I don’t know this company. I am just wary of places that want you to do some “sample” work for them, you hand it over, they use it, and you never get paid for it. If they’re not super-picky, they may be fine with what you’ve already made, and be perfectly happy to gank it for their purposes. I’d watermark the video, so that they couldn’t just take it and plug it into whatever they wanted to use it for. But I’m a mite paranoid.

#28

Definately don’t give them it for free. Watermarking it is a good idea imo. Most definately don’t give them any scene files unless they have hired you.

I know an FX guy that did a week long FX test: Designing a tornado. He sent them all his work, and they decided not to hire him. You know what happens next… He sees his tornado on TV 6 months later.

(Yes… He tried ot go after them, but they had folded by the time it aired)