F5 Tornado WIP

#1

http://www.delta3d.com/viseff/Tornado.mov

Ok fokes, don’t judge too harshly just yet, this is just the start I’m getting some general settings down so I can save some settings…

Other than the face that the tornado is coming from the bottom up… what do you think so far? I want it to be a violent F5 tornado which is gonna go into a fully dynamic scene where things get…to put it nicely… destroyed…

I’m not exectly sure how high to make it, this might be a good size but I may make it taller, for the msot part once it goes into the scene you won’t see the top too much, matter of fact, maybe only a few seconds in the actual scene when its put in…

So is it too dirty? is it rotating too fast? Is it too cloudy? Give me your best shot!! I want this to be the perfect storm!! (no pun intended)

#2

good start, decent looking shader too, but be sure to check out some reference video, here’s a few critiques I’d make:

tornadoes form fairly slowly, there’s a number of precursors that are generally visible shortly before the tornado takes shape. There should be an in-flow of air from a wide ground level as well as a funnel cloud dipping down from the meso.

Your debris should come in from a bit wider (and less dense) ground plane. Right now it looks a bit too thick and uniform from the origin - needs more varying opacity and turbulence in the rotation.

Building up a bit of anticipation as the tornado is starting to form will make it more interesting theatrically as well.

As far as the rotation - the speed will largely determine the perceived scale of the tornado - generally slower means ‘bigger’. A bit hard to tell if yours is too fast or too slow without something else in the scene to give it some scale - but if what you have right now is a full top-to-bottom funnel - it’s waaaay too fast.

YouTube is FULL of good close-up tornado shots, here’s a few that may be of use to you:
(and apologies in advance for some of the SUPER-ANNOYING commentary)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Qu9wR03GVA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRWUy2Ueh84&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4iofIQTX7o&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDK-EJPM_e4&feature=related

#3

http://www.delta3d.com/viseff/town.mov

Just an FYI I’m using Maya 2011

Ok here’s an update to the tornado, I put a small little town in to give it some scale…
I’ve seen those references before, I’m probably going to need more tweaks but I’m anxious to hear some crits on this so far…

Keep in mine, i want this to be a devastating tornado…

1 maya fluids container resolution 42x50x42 with a size of 84x100x84

It was hard making adjustments to the speed, one of the things I did was take down the simulation rate scale, which helped…you can see the volume axis curve but as you can tell I scaled down everything so it squished the field lol… but easily fixable if I need to make adjustments… both fluid containers were cached before I scaled everything down

#4

Looking at scale/speed again - still too fast of a rotation - especially now with some reference (the town). The tornado also seems a bit on the tall side, though without seeing the cloud layer, can’t nit-pick it too much.

The separation of the debris and funnel are much better, still a bit of tweaking to do though - starts a bit too abrubtly. Try ramping up the density of the debris cloud instead of just the size.

I’d say your headed in a good direction overall, but gonna be important to really nail down the speed and scale early on.

#5

I know it has been a while but here’s the latest update.
I have been working endlessly on this…

http://www.delta3d.com/viseff/tornado_town.mov

you’ll notice that towards the bottom its kind of wierd, not sure whats causing it…
I can post the scene if necessary…here is also a screenshot

This time I’m emitting fluids from particles to get the effect…
using a volume axis curve and also using a vortex field to get the spin

#6

new update…

moving tornado this time, though I probably should’ve kept the camera still…

http://www.delta3d.com/niseff/tornado_rendered2.mov

#7

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.