IntroductionWelcome| 00:04 | Hi! My name is Steve Nelle and welcome
to the 3ds Max 2011: Particle Effects.
| | 00:09 | lynda.com and I are excited to be
able to bring you a comprehensive look at
| | 00:13 | creating a wide variety of special
effects, using one of the industry's most
| | 00:17 | widely used 3D animation programs,
| | 00:20 | working on projects that range from
fluid effects like fountain water and
| | 00:23 | mudslides to visual depictions
of things like smoke and steam.
| | 00:27 | We'll also be discussing how
important materials are in creating
| | 00:31 | realistic special effects.
| | 00:33 | We'll be learning about space warps
like Gravity and Wind and a handful of
| | 00:37 | different deflectors that can be
used to make both particles and objects
| | 00:40 | bounce off each other.
| | 00:41 | We'll be covering how to effectively
use MetaParticles for all kinds of gushing
| | 00:45 | effects, and we'll be getting an in-
depth look at Max's mighty particle flow,
| | 00:50 | an extremely versatile, but sometimes
intimidating way of creating stunning
| | 00:54 | visual recreations.
| | 00:55 | Let's strap ourselves in and get ready
for a fun and exciting ride into creating
| | 00:59 | particle effects in 3ds Max.
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| How to use this course| 00:00 | As an intermediate to advanced title in
3ds Max, I'll be approaching things from
| | 00:04 | the standpoint that you already have
a working knowledge of the software.
| | 00:08 | If we start getting into a concept or
technique that you need a little brushing
| | 00:11 | up on, you can always refer to the
Essential Training titles for 3ds Max in the
| | 00:15 | lynda.com Online Training
Library for whatever you might need.
| | 00:19 | I'd also strongly suggest that you be
sure to use a three-button mouse while
| | 00:22 | working through the videos.
| | 00:24 | Max uses all three buttons extensively
and it's going to important that you do too.
| | 00:29 | Now, if you're exploring the title
simply as a way to sharpen your skills,
| | 00:33 | you'll be happy to know that all
the chapters and subjects have been
| | 00:36 | structured so that you can quickly jump
to only topics of interest that you're
| | 00:40 | looking to tap into.
| | 00:41 | With that said though, I think the best
way to tackle the material is simply to
| | 00:45 | hit it right from the beginning.
| | 00:46 | With both advice and inside tricks
picked up over the years sprinkled throughout
| | 00:50 | the title, you'll definitely get the
most out of the material by watching things
| | 00:54 | through from front to back.
| | 00:55 | There is a ton of stuff here.
| | 00:57 | So no matter what your level of
experience, I think you're going to be able find
| | 01:00 | something that'll help you take your
personal projects to the next level.
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| Using the exercise files| 00:00 | Throughout the Particle Effects title,
I'll be working in 3ds Max 2011 using
| | 00:04 | assets that I've created especially
for the videos you'll be watching.
| | 00:08 | If you're a Premium member of the
lynda.com Online Training Library, you'll have
| | 00:12 | unlimited access to the Exercise
Files used throughout this title.
| | 00:16 | If you're instead a monthly or annual
subscriber to lynda.com and don't have
| | 00:20 | access to the Exercise Files, you'll
still be able to follow along from scratch
| | 00:24 | or by creating your own assets.
| | 00:26 | You'll also want to make sure that you
build a map path in 3ds Max over to that
| | 00:31 | Exercise Files folder on your desktop.
| | 00:33 | Now, you can easily do that by going
to the Customize pull-down menu and
| | 00:37 | choosing Configure User Paths.
| | 00:40 | With the three tabs at the top,
you'll click on External Files.
| | 00:45 | Then over on the right-hand side
you'll click on the Add button.
| | 00:49 | Now this will be where you're going to
want to navigate to the Exercise Files
| | 00:52 | folder on your desktop.
| | 00:55 | When you find it, you'll double-click,
then in the lower right-hand corner,
| | 00:58 | click on the Add Subpaths button.
| | 01:01 | Once you've done that,
you can click on Use Path.
| | 01:05 | That'll add a path or a pointer over
to the Exercise Files folder, making sure
| | 01:09 | that when you open a file that's been
put together using one or more bitmap
| | 01:13 | images that Max doesn't throw up a
warning message saying that it can't find
| | 01:17 | those specific resources. Okay!
| | 01:19 | That'll get us going.
| | 01:21 | Let's go see what we can do.
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1. Introduction to Particle SystemsUnderstanding particle systems| 00:00 | A particle system can be defined as
simply a large collection of similar objects
| | 00:04 | behaving in a similar way and those
objects can be configured to create an
| | 00:08 | incredible range of effects,
anything from water to smoke to sparks.
| | 00:13 | Even environmental weather conditions
like a tornado or hailstorm can be quickly
| | 00:17 | added to a scene by way of a particle system.
| | 00:19 | Now, most systems will be
represented on your computer screen by a
| | 00:23 | non-rendering icon that'll designate
the orientation and position of the
| | 00:27 | particle system in your 3D space.
| | 00:29 | Most particle system icons will have
an arrow or pointer of some kind that'll
| | 00:33 | represent the direction that their
particles will flow as they sped out.
| | 00:37 | The icon that you see on the screen is
referred to as the particle emitter, and
| | 00:41 | it's the position in the viewport
that'll typically represent the location from
| | 00:45 | which the particles will originate.
| | 00:47 | Remember, the emitter doesn't render
only what spits out of the emitter.
| | 00:50 | It's also important to understand that
when creating most particle systems,
| | 00:54 | the viewport that you make it in will
typically make a difference as to the initial
| | 00:57 | direction the particles will travel.
| | 01:00 | That's not always the case, but it
is a good rule of thumb to remember.
| | 01:03 | Let me show you what I mean.
| | 01:04 | I'll create a different particle system
in each of my three orthographic views.
| | 01:08 | I'll then take my Perspective view to
full-screen, center my icons, then scrub
| | 01:12 | things back to see how each particle
system travels in a different direction.
| | 01:16 | Now, in as much as it's the emitter
where the particles shoot out from,
| | 01:20 | those particles sometimes are created
over the entire icon surface like we see
| | 01:24 | with this emitter which is known as a
blizzard, while on other particle systems
| | 01:29 | the particles will shoot out
from a single point in space.
| | 01:32 | There are even particle systems
that restrict or confine their particle
| | 01:35 | production to the volume
inside their particle icon.
| | 01:38 | You'll see that if we
create something called a PCloud.
| | 01:42 | Finally, you'll even find a particle
system in Max that doesn't emit particles
| | 01:46 | from its actual viewport icon at all,
| | 01:48 | instead choosing an object that
you'll pick from your scene as the actual
| | 01:51 | particle emitter, and that's the
case with something called a PArray.
| | 01:55 | Once the particle system's been
created and positioned in your scene, you're
| | 01:58 | then going to find a handful of
settings that you'll be adjusting to meet the
| | 02:01 | needs of your project.
| | 02:02 | Determining things like the number of
particles, the important start and stop
| | 02:06 | times, you'll have control for size and
shape, speed and rotation, even settings
| | 02:11 | for adding force-like
effects like wind or gravity.
| | 02:14 | All adjustments that'll require your
attention and all controls that'll be
| | 02:18 | important to master, if you're wanting
to fully capitalize on Max's particle
| | 02:22 | effect capabilities.
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| Comparing event-driven and non-event-driven systems| 00:00 | Particle systems in 3ds Max
come in two basic flavors:
| | 00:04 | one referred to as a non-event-driven
particle system, while the other is known
| | 00:08 | as an event-driven system.
| | 00:10 | But the major difference between the two
is basically how they work and how much
| | 00:14 | time and complexity there is in setup.
| | 00:16 | With a non-event-driven particle
system, the particles you create operate
| | 00:20 | continuously, meaning they don't
change in some way over the course of the
| | 00:24 | animation due to some
specific event taking place.
| | 00:27 | Hence, the name non-event-driven.
| | 00:29 | Examples might be water springing from a
fountain or maybe smoke coming from a campfire.
| | 00:34 | Neither those effects require
something else, some kind of trigger in other words,
| | 00:38 | in order to operate.
| | 00:39 | They simply work exclusive of
anything in your scene happening.
| | 00:43 | That's a non-event-driven system.
| | 00:45 | Now the story is a little
different with an event-driven system.
| | 00:48 | You see event-driven particles can
change from one look or state to another
| | 00:52 | over the course of the animation,
all depending on what parameters or
| | 00:55 | instructions you plug or program in,
and that makes an event-driven system,
| | 00:59 | which is defined by what are called
events much more flexible as to the effects
| | 01:03 | that it can create.
| | 01:05 | These events that I mentioned are
wired into the particle system and are
| | 01:08 | designed to affect the behavior of the
particles over time in some particular manner,
| | 01:13 | like maybe changing their
appearance or specifically what they do.
| | 01:16 | Let me give you an example of just
how an event-driven system might work.
| | 01:19 | Let's say that we've got a rocket taking
off from a launch pad on its way into space.
| | 01:24 | To create the thrust, the fire and
smoke that'll propel the rocket upward,
| | 01:27 | we will create an event-driven particle system
that we'll position at the back of the rocket.
| | 01:31 | Once the rocket is blasted off,
having made its way through the clouds and
| | 01:34 | further into the atmosphere, we're
going to want to change the look of what's
| | 01:37 | coming out of the back end.
| | 01:39 | Maybe there's something more like a
simple flame without the fire and smoke.
| | 01:42 | Now an event-driven system would enable
us to be able to do just that, allowing
| | 01:46 | us to program or change the look of
the particles after a certain amount of
| | 01:50 | time after liftoff.
| | 01:52 | We'll tell the particles to go from
one look to another after X number of
| | 01:55 | seconds or minutes in other words.
| | 01:57 | Having a drop of water hitting a hot
plate and turning into a puff of steam
| | 02:00 | would be another example
of an event-driven system.
| | 02:03 | The event would be changing the look
of the particle once it made contact
| | 02:07 | with the hot plate.
| | 02:08 | Think about that. Once contact was
made the water drop would magically change
| | 02:12 | its appearance to taking on
the look of a puff of steam.
| | 02:15 | It's pretty cool the way
these event-driven systems work.
| | 02:17 | Non-event systems don't change over
time and don't need a particular event to
| | 02:21 | happen or take place in order to work.
| | 02:23 | Event-driven systems on the other
hand do and can change over time,
| | 02:27 | all depending on how the events in the
effect have been programmed to trip or
| | 02:31 | trigger other events.
| | 02:33 | Now, as you work through the title,
you're going to find that most of Max's
| | 02:36 | particle effects are non-event-driven,
but one in particular called particle
| | 02:40 | flow gives you that special event-
driven setup which we're going to be
| | 02:43 | looking at in detail.
| | 02:44 | Next up, we're going to take a look
at a handful of specific controls and
| | 02:48 | parameters that are fairly
typical on most particle effects.
| | 02:51 | Settings that you'll be adjusting
irrespective of the system that you decide to use.
| | 02:55 | We're going to get to
all that in the next video.
| | 02:56 | Let's go take a look.
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| Controlling particle timing and quantity| 00:00 | As a general rule irrespective of the
type of particle system you choose to use,
| | 00:04 | you'll almost always have a series of
general settings or parameters that will
| | 00:08 | need to be initially set up or adjusted.
| | 00:10 | Let's start by looking at
particle timing and quantity.
| | 00:13 | For my example, I'm going to be
using what is called a Super Spray.
| | 00:16 | You can find it and all the other
particle systems in the Create tab of the
| | 00:19 | Command panel under Particle
Systems. We're ready to go.
| | 00:23 | Let's drop one in the
middle of our Perspective view.
| | 00:25 | Now, let's hide the grid, maybe zoom out a
ways, and reposition ourselves for a better look.
| | 00:30 | Scrubbing the timeline shows us that
the Super Spray particles are designed to
| | 00:34 | travel in the direction of its icon arrow.
| | 00:36 | Let's now change over to the Modify
column so we can get to our actual settings.
| | 00:40 | The way the particles are being
displayed in our viewport is controlled in the
| | 00:43 | Viewport Display area.
| | 00:45 | On the Super Spray, we can choose
between Ticks, Dots, Lightweight Bounding
| | 00:49 | Boxes, or the actual particle Mesh.
| | 00:51 | I'm going to take the setting back to Ticks.
| | 00:54 | We also have control over the Percentage of
Particles being displayed at any given time.
| | 00:58 | Now, this is a good setting to adjust
lower when your computer starts indicating
| | 01:02 | that it might be running
a little low on resources.
| | 01:04 | Something that many times
happens when dealing with particles.
| | 01:07 | So, at 100%, we see a full display.
| | 01:10 | At 50%, only half of our actual
particles are being displayed on our view.
| | 01:14 | Now, this adjustment is only a viewport control.
| | 01:16 | It has nothing to do with the actual
number of particles that will render.
| | 01:20 | Now because a Super Spray emits all of
its particles from a single point,
| | 01:23 | let's see if we can
spread that flow out a little.
| | 01:25 | We can do that a little farther up
to the top under Particle Formation.
| | 01:29 | Off Axis spreads in one direction,
| | 01:31 | let's take that to 25, while Off
Plane spreads in another direction.
| | 01:35 | We'll take that to 50.
| | 01:36 | Orbiting around we can now see what that's
done to the formation and spread of the particles.
| | 01:41 | When you scrub the timeline, you'll
notice that these particles are only being
| | 01:44 | emitted over the first 30
frames of our animation.
| | 01:46 | That's controlled under Particle Timing
in a section called Particle Generation.
| | 01:51 | Changing the Emit Start value will
set the first frame when the particles appear,
| | 01:55 | while Emit Stop controls the frame
at which the last particle will shoot out.
| | 02:00 | So, if you wanted your particles to
start let's say one second into your
| | 02:03 | animation, you'd set the Emit Start time to 30.
| | 02:06 | If you then wanted your last particle
to shoot out of your emitter at Frame 90,
| | 02:10 | you'd set the Emit Stop to 90.
| | 02:12 | Scrubbing the timeline shows
you the changes we've made.
| | 02:15 | Nothing happens for the first 30
frames and the last particle emission
| | 02:19 | takes place at Frame 90.
| | 02:21 | Now a couple other controls under Timing.
| | 02:23 | First, you've got your Display Until.
| | 02:25 | This specifies the frame at which the
particles will no longer show in either
| | 02:29 | the viewport or in your render and
that's regardless of any other settings you
| | 02:32 | might change in the Modify column.
| | 02:34 | The Life value basically sets the life
span and number of frames for each particle.
| | 02:38 | Important to know is the fact that
the lifespan of any given particle is
| | 02:42 | calculated from the frame of creation,
not the first frame of the animation.
| | 02:46 | So for an example if a particle was created
at let's say Frame 30 and had a Life of 60,
| | 02:50 | that particular particle
would last until frame 90.
| | 02:53 | Does that make sense?
| | 02:54 | Now, when it comes to controlling
the actual number of particles emitted,
| | 02:57 | you'll find a couple of different
options under Particle Quantity just above
| | 03:01 | the Timing settings.
| | 03:02 | You'll also hear the Quantity
controls sometimes referred to as the
| | 03:05 | system's particle count.
| | 03:07 | Using Use Rate will specify a fixed number
of particles to be emitted at each frame.
| | 03:12 | So right now we have 10 particles coming out
at each frame the particles are being emitted.
| | 03:17 | Here is how things would look
using 50 particles per frame.
| | 03:25 | And here is a count of
100 coming out at each frame.
| | 03:28 | So, as the number goes up, you can
obviously see there's an increased number of
| | 03:31 | particles in our scene.
| | 03:32 | Now, when using Use Total you'll
instead be specifying the total number of
| | 03:37 | particles that'll be created
over the life of the effect.
| | 03:39 | So right now we have 100
particles being emitted over 60 frames.
| | 03:43 | That's the length we set
for our particle emission.
| | 03:49 | Let's see how that would
look using 500 particles.
| | 03:58 | Here's the effect being instead set to 5000.
| | 04:05 | So, with total of 5000 particles being
emitted over the entire length of the
| | 04:08 | particle emission, you can see that the
number makes quite a bit of difference.
| | 04:14 | Now as a general rule Use Rate is best used
when creating a continuous flow of particles.
| | 04:20 | Something like maybe you'd see when
creating a trail of pixie dust or the metal
| | 04:23 | sparks that would come from a grinding wheel.
| | 04:25 | Use Total on the other hand works
better when creating bursts of particles
| | 04:28 | over shorter periods of time, like maybe an
explosion or other similar type of concussive effect.
| | 04:33 | Let's change things back to the
Use Rate method and a number of 10.
| | 04:37 | So that's it for controlling a
particle's amount and timing.
| | 04:40 | Next, we'll look at adjusting size and speed.
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| Adjusting particle size and speed| 00:00 | Each particle system in 3ds Max
gives you the ability to control your
| | 00:04 | particle size and speed.
| | 00:05 | To show you where you can find the
adjustments, I will be using a file named
| | 00:08 | Particle Settings Size and Speed.
| | 00:10 | Let's start with controlling just
how fast or slow your particles travel.
| | 00:14 | You'll find the setting under Particle Motion.
| | 00:16 | That'll be in the Particle Generation
category on the right-hand side of the screen.
| | 00:20 | Now a particle speed is probably best
defined as the initial speed at which a
| | 00:24 | particle leaves its emitter,
| | 00:25 | a higher number representing a faster velocity.
| | 00:28 | Let's start the playback and
we'll change a few things around.
| | 00:31 | I can do that by simply tapping
the forward slash in the keyboard.
| | 00:34 | Now under Particle Motion
let's change Speed to 2.
| | 00:36 | Now you can see the
difference that's made. Let's try 22.
| | 00:42 | Now the particles are
speeding away at a much faster pace.
| | 00:45 | Let's go back to the
original default value of 10.
| | 00:48 | Now directly under Speed, you have
Variation, which can be used to adjust or
| | 00:52 | vary the initial speed of a particle.
| | 00:54 | Higher values will ensure that each
particle in your system isn't traveling at
| | 00:58 | the exact same velocity.
| | 00:59 | Let's start the play again and
we'll change the Variation to 25.
| | 01:06 | Now, why don't we take
the speed down to about 5?
| | 01:08 | A little tough to see with this type of
viewport display, but a little variation
| | 01:14 | does indeed make things many
times look a little more realistic.
| | 01:17 | Now as far as controlling a particle
size, staying in the Particle Generation
| | 01:21 | category, we have a couple of
different settings that we can adjust.
| | 01:24 | The Size setting controls the overall
size of each particle, with larger numbers
| | 01:28 | producing better particles.
| | 01:29 | Let's change that Size value to 5.
| | 01:32 | Okay, with the larger size we can now
take advantage of displaying our particles
| | 01:35 | using their actual mesh.
| | 01:37 | To do that, we'll go back up to
Viewport Display, changing the option to Mesh.
| | 01:41 | Let's now return to the Particle Size category.
| | 01:44 | Once we are there, let's change the
Size of the particles from 5 to 10.
| | 01:47 | Let's go ahead and play this back
and we can see the difference there.
| | 01:50 | Now, let's go back to the Speed and we'll
just build the speed and the speed variation.
| | 02:00 | Once we are there, I will begin playback.
| | 02:02 | We'll change the Speed to 3,
and the Variation to 50.
| | 02:10 | Now, the Size settings also have
controls called Grow For and Fade For.
| | 02:16 | Grow For controls the number of frames
over which the particle will grow from
| | 02:20 | very small to whatever size you
set for the Particle Size value.
| | 02:23 | Fade For on the other hand determines
the number of frames over which any given
| | 02:26 | particle will shrink down to
1/10th of its size prior to dying off.
| | 02:31 | So particles can be setup to start
small, then grow up to their setting size,
| | 02:35 | or be programmed to gradually shrink in
size before fading away, an effect that
| | 02:40 | many times you will see when creating
dust and smoke, where a dust cloud for an
| | 02:44 | example will grow larger over time
than gradually diminish in size before
| | 02:48 | fading away altogether.
| | 02:49 | So that's your controls for
adjusting both size and speed.
| | 02:52 | Next, we'll take a look at
controlling a particle's rotation.
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| Making particles rotate| 00:00 | The geometry generated by a particle
system can be controlled as to how much and
| | 00:04 | how fast each particle spins or rotates.
| | 00:07 | You can even in some cases
control the direction of that rotation.
| | 00:10 | Now to show you some of the things you
can do, we are going to be using a file
| | 00:13 | named Particle Settings Rotation.
| | 00:15 | Now to best display our results,
let's first make a few changes.
| | 00:18 | We'll start by taking the Life setting
in the Particle atiming out to the
| | 00:21 | end of our animation.
| | 00:22 | That will make sure that each
particle we emit hangs around for the entire
| | 00:26 | length of our active time segment.
| | 00:28 | Here we are in the Particle Timing section,
under Display Until, we'll change the Life to 100.
| | 00:33 | Right away, you'll see in our
viewports that the particles are staying around
| | 00:36 | for a longer length of time.
| | 00:37 | Next, why don't we change the type of
particle being emitted to the shape of a cube?
| | 00:41 | To do that, we'll switch down to Particle Type.
| | 00:43 | We'll open it up, we'll leave it on
Standard particles, and then under the
| | 00:46 | Standard particle section, we'll change to Cube.
| | 00:49 | To control a particle's rotation,
we'll now drop-down to the Rotation and
| | 00:52 | Collision settings a little
further down to the Modify column.
| | 00:55 | To drop down the settings a little
bit quicker, we'll position our mouse
| | 00:58 | inside a grey blank area in the Modify
column, allow the cursor to change it to
| | 01:02 | a hand, and we'll simply right-click.
| | 01:03 | Now when the menu pops open listing
all the available tabs, we'll choose
| | 01:07 | Rotation and Collision.
| | 01:09 | Okay, let's go ahead and begin our playback.
| | 01:11 | Now, the Spin Time controls the number
of frames it takes for each particle to
| | 01:15 | do one 360-degree rotation.
| | 01:17 | The lower the value in frames,
the faster each particle will spin.
| | 01:21 | So with the value of 30 each particle is taking
1 second to basically make a 360 degree spin.
| | 01:26 | Let's slow that rotation down by
changing the number of frames to 130.
| | 01:30 | See how that slowed the rotation down?
| | 01:32 | Let's slow that down even further
by taking the Spin Time to 230. There.
| | 01:35 | So now we get a gradual spin each particle
taking 230 frames to make a full 360-degree turn.
| | 01:42 | Now, if you don't want your particles to spin
at all, you want to take your Spin Time to 0.
| | 01:46 | Let's try that. We'll now play it back,
and you can see the difference there.
| | 01:51 | Now, directly below that, you've got Variation.
| | 01:53 | This simply allows you to vary the
Spin Time from wherever it's set.
| | 01:57 | Phase sets the initial particle
rotation in number of degrees.
| | 02:01 | The Spin Axis Controls group gives
you a few options to determine the spin
| | 02:05 | axis for your particles.
| | 02:06 | The direction of travel in particular
comes in especially handy when creating
| | 02:10 | things like flying sparks or shooting water.
| | 02:12 | You'll see that best if we
again change our Particle Type.
| | 02:15 | This time we'll use Tetra shaped particles.
| | 02:17 | Scrubbing the timeline, you can now see
that flying spark or shooting water effect.
| | 02:22 | The Direction of Travel setting even
provides for a type of blurring effect with
| | 02:25 | your particles by adjusting the stretch.
| | 02:27 | Watch what happens as we
take that setting higher.
| | 02:30 | So that's controlling a particle's rotation.
| | 02:32 | Next, we'll take a look at
Max's standard particle types.
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| Exploring standard particle types| 00:00 | Max offers a wide range of choices when it
comes to the actual shape of your particles.
| | 00:05 | In this video, we are going to be
looking at the standard particle types
| | 00:08 | available for most 3ds Max particle systems.
| | 00:11 | To get us going, we'll be using a
file named Standard Particle Types.
| | 00:15 | Now your choices for particle shapes
are going to be found in the category
| | 00:18 | named Particle Type.
| | 00:19 | Before we take a look at the options
though, let's go up to the Viewport Display,
| | 00:22 | changing the type of display to Mesh.
| | 00:24 | That way, we'll see the actual
particles being displayed in view.
| | 00:27 | Okay, staying on the right, we can now
open the category called Particle Type.
| | 00:32 | Directly below the tab name in the
Particle Types category, we'll make sure it's
| | 00:35 | set to Standard Particles.
| | 00:37 | Making sure we are in the right
category, we can now drop down about an inch
| | 00:40 | below using the standard particle shapes.
| | 00:42 | Now, the Triangle is the default
Particle Type on most Max particle systems, and
| | 00:47 | they'll render exactly the way
they look, as three-sided triangles.
| | 00:50 | Now, the triangular shape works well
sometimes when creating effects like smoke and steam.
| | 00:55 | When the material you've applied to
the particles incorporate some kind of
| | 00:58 | opacity map, that effectively
feathers out the particle's edges.
| | 01:01 | To the right of Triangle, you've got Cube.
| | 01:03 | This renders out six-sided
boxes just as the name represents.
| | 01:09 | Below Triangle, there is Special.
| | 01:11 | This type of particle basically
consists of three intersecting
| | 01:14 | two-dimensional squares,
| | 01:15 | another good choice when using a
material that effectively blends the edges of
| | 01:19 | the particles into its background.
| | 01:21 | By using three flat squares at 90-degree
angles, you many times can get a little
| | 01:26 | more of a three-dimensional
look to your mapped particles.
| | 01:28 | To the right of Special, you've got Facing.
| | 01:30 | Although not looking like much, this is
many times the particle type of choice
| | 01:34 | when using a material as your
primary means of creating your effect.
| | 01:38 | It basically creates 2D flat
squares that always face the camera.
| | 01:42 | So no matter where or what angle your
camera is at, you can rest assure that
| | 01:45 | your particles will always maintain a
perpendicular orientation to that camera.
| | 01:50 | So that's a Facing particle and it's
going to turn out to be an important tool
| | 01:53 | in your effects arsenal.
| | 01:54 | Also, something to keep into
consideration, Facing type particles only render
| | 01:58 | correctly in a Perspective or Camera view.
| | 02:00 | Constant type particles are kind of
nice because they always remain the
| | 02:03 | same size regardless of their distance from
the camera, which can come in handy sometimes.
| | 02:08 | Well, that's another one of those
particle types that only works correctly in a
| | 02:11 | Perspective or Camera view.
| | 02:13 | Tetra shape particles are
created in the shape of a tetrahedron.
| | 02:16 | Application for these would
include things like raindrops or sparks.
| | 02:20 | SixPoint renders each particle as a
six-pointed 2D star, frankly something
| | 02:24 | that's probably a little bit
limited in its applications.
| | 02:26 | And last but not least, we
have got the good old Sphere.
| | 02:30 | Bubbles, distant raindrops, or maybe a
meteor shower would be all good examples
| | 02:34 | of where these might come into play.
| | 02:35 | So that's a look at the standard type
of shape particles that you'll find in
| | 02:39 | most of Max's particle systems.
| | 02:41 | As you create more effects, you'll
come to learn which one to rely on to get the job done.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using metaparticles for fluid-type effects| 00:00 | 3ds Max's MetaParticle type
particle is your ticket to creating fluid
| | 00:04 | like visual effects.
| | 00:05 | Things like flowing liquids, dripping
cake batters, and melted down metal being
| | 00:09 | poured into a mold would all
be the job for metaparticles.
| | 00:13 | Now before we get going, it's important
to understand that metaparticles can be
| | 00:16 | potentially very render intensive,
especially if not set up correctly.
| | 00:20 | So we need to make sure you know darn
good well when you're getting into before
| | 00:23 | you start jumping into your fluid effects.
| | 00:25 | Trust me, this baby can throw down
machine-crashing amounts of calculations into
| | 00:29 | a scene very quickly.
| | 00:30 | So please follow with me closely.
| | 00:31 | We are going to get going
using a file called MetaParticles.
| | 00:35 | Let's start by selecting the Super
Spray icon on our scene, then going to the
| | 00:38 | Modify column for our adjustments.
| | 00:40 | We'll begin under Viewport Display by
changing to Mesh and in the Percentage
| | 00:44 | of Particles to 50%.
| | 00:46 | In the Particle Formation category above,
we'll change the Off Axis Spread to 10
| | 00:50 | and the Off Plane Spread to 50.
| | 00:52 | Now to make sure that none of our
particles die off before the end of our
| | 00:55 | animation, we'll open up the Particle
Generation category and under Life we'll
| | 00:58 | change to 100 frames.
| | 01:01 | For Particle Size, we'll use 30, and then for
Particle Size Variation, we'll set that to 50.
| | 01:05 | That will mix the sizes up a bit.
| | 01:07 | Now as far as our use rate, which sets
the number of particles we are going to
| | 01:11 | create each frame, we're fine leaving it at 10.
| | 01:13 | Let's now drop down to
the Particle Type category.
| | 01:16 | Here is where we want to make the
change under Particle Type from Standard
| | 01:19 | Particles to MetaParticles.
| | 01:22 | Now here is a big one.
| | 01:23 | Under MetaParticle Parameters,
turn off Automatic Coarseness.
| | 01:26 | That will activate both the Render
and Viewport options directly above.
| | 01:30 | Now, for Viewport, let's
change that to a value of 5.
| | 01:32 | This controls how accurately the
particles are being calculated.
| | 01:35 | In this case, within the viewports.
| | 01:37 | Now the higher the coarseness
value, the fewer the calculations.
| | 01:40 | That in turn though would give you a
lower quality but quicker screen redraw.
| | 01:44 | Now very important, on the Evaluation
Coarseness setting, let your video card,
| | 01:47 | processor, and RAM
determine just how low you can go.
| | 01:50 | Trust me, if you take these
particle values too low, you'll know it.
| | 01:53 | You will be digging yourself out of a
system crash, or you will be sitting
| | 01:56 | around long enough to go get a sandwich.
| | 01:58 | I'm using a pretty beefy system here.
| | 02:00 | I'll take my Viewport
Evaluation Coarseness to 3.
| | 02:02 | That will give me a little higher quality
as far as the way things look in the view.
| | 02:06 | Now let's go ahead and render.
| | 02:09 | Now again, if your machine can
handle it, you can also decrease
| | 02:12 | your Render Evaluation Coarseness. Let's do that.
| | 02:15 | Let's try rendering again.
| | 02:20 | Now, we are getting a little more
finite detail to our blob structure.
| | 02:24 | Now, the real fun with metaparticles
comes when you start working with your skins.
| | 02:28 | Let's say we wanted to
create the look of liquid silver.
| | 02:30 | We'll close the render,
then open up the Material Editor.
| | 02:33 | You can do that by simply
tapping the M key on your keyboard.
| | 02:35 | Now, I am setup using the
compact version of the Material Editor.
| | 02:38 | If you've instead opened up the Slate
Material Editor, brand new for Max 2011,
| | 02:42 | you can quickly make the change to the
compact version by going to the dialog
| | 02:45 | box in the upper left-hand corner
under Modes and making your change here.
| | 02:51 | Okay, in the Materials Editor, let's go
to the horizontal row of icons at far left,
| | 02:54 | choosing Get Material.
| | 02:55 | We'll now open up one of
Max's material libraries.
| | 02:58 | To do that, we'll go to the downward-
pointing arrow in the upper left-hand
| | 03:01 | corner of the dialog.
| | 03:02 | From here we'll choose Open Material Library.
| | 03:05 | Now, it's just a matter of navigating
over to where the material library is.
| | 03:09 | That's usually located on your hard-drive.
| | 03:12 | From there, we'll go to Program Files/Autodesk.
| | 03:16 | You'll want to choose Max 2011, and
then into the materiallibraries folder.
| | 03:23 | From here, let's open the
3ds Max material library.
| | 03:26 | With it now opened, let's
navigate down in the material
| | 03:28 | named Reflection_chromic.
| | 03:29 | I will double-click on that icon
to load it into the Material Editor.
| | 03:33 | From here, with our Super Spray selected,
we'll simply apply the material in the scene.
| | 03:36 | Okay, with contact made, I know that
because of the white triangles around the
| | 03:40 | material sphere, I can now
go ahead and render again.
| | 03:42 | Now, take a look at that.
| | 03:43 | Let's reposition the icon and go to a
different frame, rendering one more time.
| | 03:57 | There you've got your look of liquid silver.
| | 03:59 | Now, you can also easily do
something like molten lava.
| | 04:02 | That again is a pre-built
material in the 3ds Max material library.
| | 04:05 | Let's go see if we can't get that.
| | 04:11 | We'll go back to Get
Material, the library opens.
| | 04:14 | We'll navigate to Lava Crust.
| | 04:16 | We'll again double-click to load it in
the Materials Editor, and from there with
| | 04:19 | the Super Spray selected
we'll apply it to our scene.
| | 04:22 | Let's go ahead and render that.
| | 04:24 | So it's pretty cool the way
that Lava effect turns out.
| | 04:27 | Imagine rendering out the animation,
having this animated flowing over surface.
| | 04:31 | Now if you're smart enough to be using
the mental ray rendering engine, you can
| | 04:34 | create some unbelievably
stunning effects like recreating water.
| | 04:37 | Let's go ahead and change over to mental ray.
| | 04:39 | We'll open up the Render Scene dialog box
directly inside the Render Frame window.
| | 04:43 | Under the Common tab, we'll go all
the way down at the bottom, under Assign Render,
| | 04:47 | next to Production, we'll go ahead
and assign the mental ray render.
| | 04:52 | We can now close up all our render windows.
| | 04:58 | Now, in the Material Editor, we can
select the New Sample Sphere and choose a
| | 05:01 | different type of material.
| | 05:05 | We'll click on Standard, then close the
3ds Max library within the browser, so
| | 05:10 | we have a little more room,
going down to mental ray.
| | 05:13 | From here, we'll navigate down to the
material type called Autodesk Water.
| | 05:17 | When we are there, we'll load it in the
Editor by double-clicking. Okay, same story.
| | 05:20 | With the Super Spray selected,
we'll go ahead and assign it to our scene.
| | 05:23 | Now, using the mental ray
renderer, take a look at the results.
| | 05:26 | Rendered up against the jet-black background,
we really can't see much of the water effect.
| | 05:30 | Let's go ahead and change the
background color to let's say light gray.
| | 05:33 | We'll go under Environment and Effects,
then in the upper left-hand corner click
| | 05:36 | on the color swatch
directly below the name Color.
| | 05:38 | From here on the right-hand side, we'll
simply take our value to let's say a medium gray.
| | 05:44 | Here we go. We can close that up,
and we can go ahead and re-render.
| | 05:48 | So that's Max's metaparticles,
| | 05:50 | your guy for creating any type
of blobby or fluid-like effect.
| | 05:53 | I am going to save this out as
MetaParticles Completed if you'd like to look at over.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using a scene object as a particle| 00:00 | When creating particle effects,
you'll sometimes find that the standard
| | 00:04 | off-the-shelf particle shapes that Max
offers fall just a little short in giving
| | 00:08 | you the exact particle shape you need.
| | 00:10 | Now in situations like that come up,
you'll be glad to know that any scene
| | 00:13 | object, as long as it's 3D and can
render, can be used as a particle shape.
| | 00:19 | It's easy to set up using what
Max calls Instanced Geometry.
| | 00:23 | Now I'm going to be using a file
named Instanced Geometry Particles to show
| | 00:26 | you how things work.
| | 00:28 | If we scrub the Timeline, we'll see
that currently our particle system, which
| | 00:31 | in this case is a Super Spray, is emitting
standard type triangular shaped particles.
| | 00:36 | If we wanted to change that particle
emission to a custom shape, as long as we
| | 00:40 | had a 3D mesh object on
hand, we'd be ready to go.
| | 00:43 | Now you'll notice in the view, in
the right-hand corner, we've already
| | 00:46 | created two objects:
| | 00:47 | a light blue cylinder, and a yellow teapot.
| | 00:50 | Let's start by getting our Super
Spray system to emit the cylinders.
| | 00:53 | We can do that by selecting our Super
Spray, then turning our attention to the
| | 00:57 | Modifier column on the right.
| | 00:58 | Now in the commands, we're going to
need to go a little further down to a
| | 01:01 | category called Particle Type.
| | 01:02 | What we're going to want to do is
change from Standard particles to
| | 01:06 | Instanced Geometry.
| | 01:08 | Now to make the change over to the
cylinders as being the particles, we have to
| | 01:11 | go a little further down in our settings.
| | 01:12 | In the category called Instancing Parameters,
notice the big button that says Pick Object.
| | 01:17 | What we'll do is we'll turn that on.
| | 01:19 | Then carefully click on the original
cylinder in the lower right corner of the view.
| | 01:23 | Now that's all there is to it.
| | 01:24 | If we now scrub our Timeline, you'll
see the Super Spray emitting not the
| | 01:28 | original triangles, but actually
the larger now sized cylinders.
| | 01:32 | Now the reason the particle size
cylinders are larger than our original
| | 01:36 | cylinder shape is more than likely,
because of the size value that we've set on
| | 01:40 | the Super Spray system.
| | 01:41 | Let's go see if that's in fact the case.
| | 01:42 | We'll find the size setting
under Particle Generation.
| | 01:45 | There it is under Particle Size.
You'll see the Size currently set at 2.
| | 01:49 | If we take that value back to 1, you'll
notice the particles are being emitted
| | 01:53 | at the same size as the original cylinder.
| | 02:01 | Now if we instead wanted to use
the teapot for our particle emission,
| | 02:03 | we basically repeat the steps over.
| | 02:05 | Let's go back down to Particle Type.
| | 02:07 | We'll again leave things set to
Instanced Geometry and go a little further down.
| | 02:11 | Okay, under Instancing Parameters,
click on the Pick Object button.
| | 02:14 | Then in the lower right corner, let's
go ahead and select the yellow teapot.
| | 02:18 | Now for this example, let's go ahead
and get the teapot looking a little bit
| | 02:21 | larger as far as the emission of the particles.
| | 02:23 | To do that, we'll want to
go back up the Size settings.
| | 02:26 | Let's say crank it up to 1.5.
| | 02:27 | So now, something to note, what you can
select for a particle can be either an
| | 02:32 | individual object, some kind of linked
or a parented hierarchy, or even a series
| | 02:36 | of objects that have been grouped together.
| | 02:38 | Each and every one of those
examples can be used as Instanced Geometry.
| | 02:42 | Now if you're instanced object was
animated, that animation would actually carry
| | 02:45 | over to the particles.
| | 02:46 | Let's see if we can't have a little fun there.
| | 02:48 | We're going to turn on our Auto Key.
| | 02:51 | We'll take our Timeline back to the first frame.
| | 02:53 | We can do that by tapping
the Home key on our keyboard.
| | 02:56 | Okay, let's now open up the
Materials Editor by tapping M. I'm going to be
| | 02:59 | using the compact version of the
Materials Editor for my example.
| | 03:02 | Let's take the currently selected sample
slot in the upper left-hand corner and
| | 03:05 | apply it to our original yellow teapot.
| | 03:08 | Okay, now we'll go ahead and animate that color.
| | 03:10 | I'm going to open up the Diffuse Color swatch.
| | 03:11 | Why don't I go ahead and start
with that original bright yellow?
| | 03:15 | I'm going to go about 50 frames in my Timeline.
| | 03:17 | I'm going to change that color to let's say Red.
| | 03:19 | I'll then go to frame 100.
| | 03:22 | From there, we'll convert the
red color over to bright green.
| | 03:25 | Now if we scrub the Timeline, we'll
see the original teapot in the lower
| | 03:28 | right-hand side of our
view indeed changing color.
| | 03:31 | What we won't see though is the
particles making that same color switch.
| | 03:35 | To make that happen, we'll go back to
the Super Spray settings on the right,
| | 03:38 | again, entering the Particle Type category.
| | 03:41 | Right now, are particles are being driven off
the wireframe color of our Super Spray icon.
| | 03:45 | To make the change over to the
animated color on our original teapot,
| | 03:49 | under Instancing Parameters, we'll drop down
to the Material Mapping and Source section.
| | 03:53 | From here, we'll leave it
set to Instanced Geometry.
| | 03:55 | Then click on the Get Material From button.
| | 03:57 | Let's see what happens now.
| | 03:58 | As these play through,
there is our color change.
| | 04:03 | Now back on original teapot, if we
applied and animated a modifier, that too
| | 04:07 | would travel on to our particles.
| | 04:09 | Let's see we can do there.
| | 04:10 | We'll select the teapot, the
original one in the lower right-hand corner,
| | 04:13 | applying a Stretch modifier.
| | 04:15 | Let's now return to the
first frame of our animation.
| | 04:17 | Okay, back in the Stretch modifier,
let's adjust the Stretch amount.
| | 04:20 | Now you'll see how that's
affected our original teapot.
| | 04:23 | Let's now scrub the Timeline and see
whether or not that also carries over to
| | 04:26 | our instanced particles.
| | 04:27 | Now check that out. It indeed does.
| | 04:33 | Let's again go around Frame 50.
| | 04:34 | Why don't we this time take the
Stretch down to a negative number, kind of
| | 04:39 | flattening things out?
| | 04:41 | Okay, now because of the amount of
geometry on our screen, you'll notice that
| | 04:44 | from time to time, I've
been going into Box mode.
| | 04:46 | The reason for that is the Adaptive
Degradation setting has been left on.
| | 04:50 | Let's turn that off.
| | 04:51 | We'll go to the Views pulldown.
| | 04:52 | We'll simply uncheck Adaptive Degradation.
| | 04:55 | Now over to the right, you see we can
also use the keyboard shortcut, the letter O.
| | 04:58 | Okay, now we scrub the Timeline
irrespective of how hard we've got to push
| | 05:02 | our system, we will remain out of box mode.
| | 05:05 | Okay, let's continue animating our Stretch.
| | 05:07 | We'll go little farther down in time.
| | 05:08 | I'm going to go to maybe
frame let's say 85 or 90.
| | 05:10 | I'll remove the Stretch, taking
it back to original value of 0.
| | 05:13 | Let's scrub that through
and see how things look.
| | 05:15 | So we've got things
stretched out and then flattened out.
| | 05:22 | Then the teapots return to their original shape.
| | 05:24 | Now the timing of the animated effect
on each particle can even be offset.
| | 05:28 | Here is how we'll do that.
| | 05:29 | We'll go back and select the Super
Spray, returning to the right-hand column.
| | 05:32 | Back in the Instancing Parameter section,
you'll notice directly below the Pick
| | 05:36 | Object button, we have a
category named Animation Offset Keying.
| | 05:40 | We're going to change that
setting from None over to Birth.
| | 05:43 | With this change, each animated
particle is no longer synchronized or tied to
| | 05:47 | the project's timeline.
| | 05:49 | Using the setting of Birth, the
animation will now be timed up to the actual
| | 05:52 | frame at which the particle is birthed.
| | 05:54 | So as you can see on the screen, we
now have various shapes at our particles
| | 05:58 | at any given frame.
| | 05:59 | Each particle is now being animated as
to its birthrate, and not the original
| | 06:03 | frames that we see down on the timeline.
| | 06:05 | So that's pretty nice, being able to
not just pick an object from our scene as
| | 06:08 | our type of particle, but to also be
able to use the object's animation to play
| | 06:13 | out over the course of that particle's life.
| | 06:14 | That's some of the options
available when using Instanced Geometry.
| | 06:18 | Now I'm going to save this out as
Instanced Geometry Particles Completed, if
| | 06:21 | you'd like to look it over.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding rendering and viewport redrawing| 00:00 | Particle Effects are without a doubt
very taxing to both render times and
| | 00:04 | viewport redraw speeds.
| | 00:06 | It makes sense why, as thousands if
not hundreds of thousands of pieces of
| | 00:09 | geometry are hitting your computer
resources at each and every frame during an effect.
| | 00:14 | But in as much as that weight on your
system can be expected, there are a few
| | 00:18 | things that you can do to minimize that effect.
| | 00:21 | I'm using a file named Speed Things Up to
illustrate a few things to take advantage of.
| | 00:25 | When it comes to your viewport redraw
speeds, when things start to bog down,
| | 00:29 | consider reducing either the
amount or type of visual display.
| | 00:32 | Under the Viewport Display controls,
you can switch to a lighter weight
| | 00:36 | representation using either Dots or Ticks.
| | 00:39 | Switching instead to Bounding Boxes
lightens things up while still giving you a
| | 00:43 | fairly accurate idea of
the particle effect size.
| | 00:45 | You might also consider turning on
what is called Adaptive Degradation.
| | 00:49 | Now it's located under the Views pulldown menu.
| | 00:51 | It works by changing the Viewport
Display automatically to Box mode anytime
| | 00:55 | your video card becomes a bottleneck
in being able to accurately display
| | 00:59 | what's on the screen.
| | 00:59 | Now the option works on all viewport
operations, not just scrubbing through a
| | 01:03 | collection of particles.
| | 01:04 | When it comes time to render, again
you've got a couple of optimization
| | 01:07 | options to consider.
| | 01:08 | First, as a general rule of thumb, when
building your particles, or better put
| | 01:12 | when building the look of your particles,
consider whenever possible using the
| | 01:16 | material to create the look of the
effect as opposed to actual geometry.
| | 01:19 | Now that's obviously not always possible.
| | 01:22 | But for an example, when creating an
effect like smoke or fire, flat lightweight
| | 01:26 | rectangles can be substituted for
heavier spheres or boxes to give you the look
| | 01:30 | you're shooting for.
| | 01:31 | Let's take a look at an example of that.
| | 01:32 | We'll open up the Material Editor.
| | 01:34 | As you can see in the upper left-hand
samples slot, I've gone ahead and already
| | 01:37 | cratered a smoke-like looking material.
| | 01:39 | Let's double-click on
that to get a bigger version.
| | 01:42 | Okay, we can now go ahead and
apply it to our particle system.
| | 01:45 | Now once we've done that, because
we're now going to be using a material as
| | 01:48 | opposed to geometry to create the effect,
we're going to want to change the type
| | 01:51 | of geometry being
emitted by the particle system.
| | 01:54 | Let's go back on the right-hand
side and enter a Particle Type.
| | 01:57 | Now from here, we'll change from
Instanced Geometry back to Standard particles.
| | 02:01 | We're also going to want to go a little
further down below that under Particle
| | 02:04 | Types, changing the Facing.
| | 02:06 | Because we're going to want these now a
little bit bigger, we'll change the size to 25.
| | 02:09 | Why don't we also increase
the amount of the Use Rate to 5?
| | 02:18 | Now let's render the
effect to see how things look.
| | 02:21 | So here is an example of using a
material as opposed to actual geometry to
| | 02:25 | create the look of our particle system.
| | 02:26 | I'm going to go ahead and take things
back to the way they originally looked.
| | 02:29 | Also, when test rendering,
consider lowering the actual number of
| | 02:33 | particles being emitted.
| | 02:34 | You can usually get the gist of
an effect using fewer particles.
| | 02:37 | Once you've nailed down what you're
aiming for, you can always then go back and
| | 02:40 | crank that number back up for your final render.
| | 02:43 | So for this one, let's take our Use
Rate, which is now at 3, down to 2.
| | 02:46 | We'll render the effect.
| | 02:48 | We still very capably get the
overall idea of what we're looking for.
| | 02:51 | Let's change the Use Rate down
to 1 and see how that looks.
| | 02:55 | So there we go, using much fewer
particles to test render, but still getting the
| | 02:58 | gist of what we're aiming for.
| | 03:00 | I'll take the Use Rate back to 3.
| | 03:02 | You can also when test rendering,
consider lowering the actual number of faces
| | 03:06 | on your particle objects
when using Instanced Geometry.
| | 03:09 | Now you will lose a little of the
details, but the time savings when testing is
| | 03:13 | usually worth that reduction.
| | 03:14 | Come final render, you just take the
geometry count on each particle back up to
| | 03:18 | its original setting.
| | 03:19 | So for this, let's select the original sphere.
| | 03:21 | We're using its Instanced Geometry
located in the lower right corner of our view.
| | 03:25 | We'll now in the stack, go down to the
Sphere settings, and change the Segment
| | 03:28 | count from 50 to let's say 20.
| | 03:31 | So we have a little less detail, but we
still get the overall look of the effect.
| | 03:35 | You'll also notice by scrubbing the
timeline, things are going much quicker.
| | 03:38 | Let's try a Segments count instead of 10.
| | 03:41 | Again, a better viewport redraw than
when rendering, a still fairly accurate
| | 03:45 | account of the particle look.
| | 03:47 | Let's take our Segments count back to 50.
| | 03:50 | Lastly, one important thing to remember
is that you can always cancel out of a
| | 03:54 | rendering midstream by simply
hitting the Escape key on your keyboard.
| | 03:57 | Many times a quarter or a third of the
way through a test render, you can see
| | 04:01 | whether or not you're getting the
actual look that you're aiming for.
| | 04:04 | Now above all else when working
with particle effects, think smart.
| | 04:07 | Use the tools that Max gives
you for speeding things up.
| | 04:10 | You'll be able to finish your projects
earlier and you'll lose your patience
| | 04:14 | less often due to having to
wait around for your results.
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|
|
2. Particle System TypesSpray| 00:00 | A spray particle system, one of the
3ds Max original particle effects,
| | 00:04 | is ideal for creating simulations
like water coming out of a fountain,
| | 00:08 | raindrops falling from the sky, or
maybe the rocket thrust that you would see
| | 00:12 | spitting out the back of
the spaceship during takeoff.
| | 00:15 | Let's take a look at some the settings.
| | 00:17 | In the Command panel we'll go under
particle systems, we'll choose the Spray, and
| | 00:21 | I am going to drop on the middle of my Top view.
| | 00:23 | Why don't we now hide our grids
so we can better see the effect?
| | 00:39 | And I'll reposition and resize our
emitters so we get the best view.
| | 00:45 | Let's scrub the timeline. With the
Spray the particles travels in a straight
| | 00:48 | downward fashion in the direction of
the stick on the system's viewport icon.
| | 00:54 | Let's take our front view full
screen for closer inspection.
| | 00:59 | Now once we there why don't we also get
the particles lasting a little longer?
| | 01:03 | On the right at the bottom under timing,
we'll be the Start time set at zero.
| | 01:07 | This represent when the particle
emissions starts and we'll change the Life of
| | 01:10 | our particle system to 100.
| | 01:12 | This gives us the last frame
the particles will be spit out.
| | 01:15 | Now if you scrub the timeline, you'll be
able to the effect that change has made.
| | 01:23 | The particles are now being
emitted for a longer elected time.
| | 01:28 | As far as the controls for how the
particles appear in the viewport, we have a
| | 01:31 | couple of different choices
in the Particles category.
| | 01:33 | By default we've been displaying in Drops.
| | 01:36 | Let's see how things would look
using Dots and why don't we also check out Ticks.
| | 01:44 | Okay, I am going to change my back to Drops.
| | 01:51 | Now just above that there are also
controls for the number of particles that
| | 01:54 | display in each view and during render.
| | 01:57 | Under Viewport count let's
change it from 100 to 333.
| | 02:07 | Let's try 1000, and we'll then take them
back the original default value of 100.
| | 02:19 | This is only affects which
you see inside your viewport.
| | 02:21 | It has nothing to do with
when you actually render.
| | 02:24 | That control is directly
below that with Render Count.
| | 02:27 | Right now our particles will be a
little bit too small to render, so let's go
| | 02:30 | down to the Drop Size and we'll take that to 10.
| | 02:35 | Let's render up and see how things look.
| | 02:40 | Now we will take the Render
Count to 333 and render again.
| | 02:48 | Now if you close the render, you'll
notice there is no additional particle count
| | 02:51 | inside the viewport.
| | 02:52 | Remember again, this is only when rendering.
| | 02:55 | Let's try and Render Count of 1000 and
we will take another picture of that.
| | 03:01 | Okay, we will close that and we'll return
the Render Count to the original 100 value.
| | 03:08 | Now when wanting to control the
speed of your emission, you've got a
| | 03:10 | control called Speed.
| | 03:12 | Let's begin playback and then we'll
change the speed of the emission to 5.
| | 03:21 | You can see how things have been slowed down.
| | 03:23 | Let's try a Speed value of 2, and
again, things are going much slower.
| | 03:34 | We will take that back to 5.
| | 03:37 | Below that we have a setting that
controls how the look varies in both speed and
| | 03:41 | travel direction from one particle to the next.
| | 03:45 | Let's change our Variation
to 1 and see how that looks.
| | 03:54 | We'll try 2 and we'll take that back to 0.
| | 04:00 | Render wise, this Spray particle system is
pretty limited to the actual look of each particle.
| | 04:05 | Before we start rendering,
let's change our display to Dots.
| | 04:13 | Then down below that we'll see
two different options for rendering,
| | 04:16 | Tetrahedron and Facing.
| | 04:18 | Go ahead and render.
| | 04:21 | Now at this point our tetrahedrons,
which are simply long slender piece of
| | 04:24 | geometry, are quite small.
| | 04:26 | To get a better look at the actual
tetra geometry, let's change the size of
| | 04:30 | each particle to 50.
| | 04:33 | Now we can render again.
| | 04:35 | So there are your Tetrahedrons, ideal for
creating things like rain, water, or sparks.
| | 04:40 | Now we also have a particle shape called Facing.
| | 04:43 | Let's change over that. This is the
render flat square shaped geometry that will
| | 04:47 | remain perpendicular or flat to our screen.
| | 04:52 | Facing type shape particles are
designed to be used primarily when using a
| | 04:56 | material to create your effect and
they only work in either a camera or
| | 04:59 | Perspective view, so let's switch
over to using the Perspective window.
| | 05:11 | Let me shown an example of how this would work.
| | 05:13 | If we open up the Material Editor, you
will see that I have already created a
| | 05:16 | material that's going to
take on the look of smoke.
| | 05:19 | Let's double-click on a sample slot
so we can get a larger viewing window.
| | 05:24 | We can now close that out and apply
the material to our particle system.
| | 05:33 | Having changed over to the render type of
Facing, let's go ahead and see how things look.
| | 05:39 | The Drop Size might be a
little bit too big for this effect.
| | 05:42 | So let's take that from 50 to 35,
and we can then render again.
| | 05:58 | So that's Max's Spray particle effect.
| | 06:00 | Now in the next video we're going to
take a look at the Snow particle system.
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| Snow| 00:00 | Max's snow particle effect is another one of
the holdovers from the early days of 3ds Max.
| | 00:05 | And it works great for
creating things like snow or confetti.
| | 00:09 | It also offers a little more
versatility over the Spray particle system by
| | 00:13 | giving you a few additional settings
for tumbling and rotation effects, in
| | 00:16 | addition to a couple of extra render options.
| | 00:19 | Let's drop one into our Top view.
| | 00:32 | Now as you scrub the Timeline,
you'll see how the particles travel in the
| | 00:35 | direction of the icon stack and
move in a random side-to-side fashion.
| | 00:39 | Let's take our Front viewport
full screen for closer inspection.
| | 00:47 | We've got some controls as far as
the way the particles display in view.
| | 00:51 | Over on the right in the top
particle section, you see we've got Flakes,
| | 00:55 | Dots, and then Ticks.
| | 01:05 | Render wise, we can output in six-point
stars, triangles, or facing particles.
| | 01:09 | Now as far as the particle count, you've got
controls for both the viewport and during render.
| | 01:15 | Both are located at the top of our settings.
| | 01:17 | So for example, if we took our
Viewport Count to 333, look at the difference.
| | 01:23 | Here is with a setting of 50 and
we'll take that back to the original
| | 01:27 | default value of 100.
| | 01:28 | Now this has no effect whatsoever
over your render. That would be the render
| | 01:33 | count directly below.
| | 01:34 | Let's go ahead and render first one time
through so we can see we're starting with.
| | 01:39 | Leaving in the render window open,
let's change our Render Count from 100 to 333.
| | 01:46 | Rendering again.
| | 01:47 | Why don't we also
experiment with a value of 3000?
| | 01:56 | And when rendered you can
see the difference there.
| | 01:59 | Let's take that back to 100.
| | 02:07 | Now as far as the size of the actual
particles, directly below your Viewport and
| | 02:11 | Render Counts you'll see Flake
Size. Let's try to setting of 5.
| | 02:17 | We'll render again and why don't we
instead experiment with a value of 10?
| | 02:26 | Once that's set, we'll render one more time.
| | 02:27 | Okay, I'm going to take that back to 2.
| | 02:33 | Directly below Flake Size we've got Speed.
| | 02:38 | Now to slow things down let's go
ahead and change our Speed to let's say 5.
| | 02:46 | We'll try 2 and you can
see the difference there.
| | 02:51 | Now, with a slower rate you'll notice
the particles don't travel as far down to
| | 02:55 | the bottom of the screen.
| | 02:59 | This is because the value we have
set for our last particle's emission.
| | 03:04 | If you go a little farther down on
the settings under Timing we'll want to
| | 03:07 | now change our Life.
| | 03:08 | Why don't we type in 100
and see the difference here.
| | 03:16 | This will simply control the variance
in speed from one particle to the next.
| | 03:22 | So here we have things set at 2.
| | 03:24 | Let's try 4 and then we'll go to 1.
| | 03:33 | So with the Variation value, you're
controlling not just the speed of each
| | 03:36 | particle's travel, but also the
direction that they are flying in.
| | 03:40 | Now with Tumble you can control the
amount of rotation with each particle.
| | 03:46 | The setting ranges from 0 to 1.
| | 03:49 | So with the setting of zero, we're
getting no rotation per particle.
| | 03:57 | With instead of setting it 1,
we're now getting the maximum amount of
| | 04:00 | rotation with each particle.
| | 04:03 | Below that we've got our particle rate.
| | 04:06 | This controls the actual speed of that Tumble.
| | 04:13 | So watch the difference in rotation
between the default setting of 1 and let's say 5.
| | 04:23 | You can see with the higher number
each particle is indeed spinning faster.
| | 04:28 | We'll take that back to 1.
| | 04:31 | Under Timing one more thing I want to mention.
| | 04:36 | You can control not just the start and
end times your particle emission, but
| | 04:40 | also what is referred to as birth rate.
| | 04:44 | Now to get that setting available
we'll first want to turn off Constant.
| | 04:51 | The Birth Rate controls the number of
new particles that are going to be born at
| | 04:54 | each frame, so watch what happens
if we take our Birth Rate to 10.
| | 05:01 | We'll go back to the beginning,
playing things back from there.
| | 05:07 | You can certainly see the difference
in particle emission that that's made.
| | 05:11 | That's the Snow particle system.
| | 05:13 | Next we'll take a look at the Blizzard.
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| Blizzard| 00:00 | Max's Blizzard effect represents an
advanced version of the software's original
| | 00:04 | Snow particle system.
| | 00:05 | So it can be used for the same various
applications of the snow, falling debris,
| | 00:09 | or maybe a moving cloud formation for
an example, but it offers a few extra
| | 00:13 | bells and whistles for rotation
effects when the particles collide with
| | 00:17 | something else in a scene.
| | 00:18 | Let's drop a Blizzard in our Top view.
| | 00:28 | And we'll move the icon around
in the windows for a better look.
| | 00:40 | Now if you scrub the Timeline, you'll
notice like with all other Max particle
| | 00:43 | systems, the particles originally
travel in the direction of the icon's stick.
| | 00:48 | Over on the right in the modify
column you'll notice how things are now
| | 00:51 | broken down by category.
| | 00:54 | Under Particle Generation, you'll
find the typical controls for a number of
| | 00:58 | particles, Speed, Timing, and Size.
| | 01:10 | Below that in the Particle Type category,
you'll see that you now have options
| | 01:14 | for choosing between standard
shape particles like Spheres or Facing,
| | 01:18 | in addition to options like
MetaParticles and instance geometry, both of which
| | 01:23 | we will be addressing in detail a
little bit later on in the title.
| | 01:25 | Further down in the settings, you'll
also notice advanced controls as mentioned
| | 01:29 | earlier for Rotation and Collision.
| | 01:31 | I'll get to those by right-
clicking inside the Modify column.
| | 01:35 | When the menu opens, I'll
choose Rotation and Collision.
| | 01:40 | Under Spin Speed Controls
you'll find your Spin Time.
| | 01:43 | This allows you to control how
long it takes for each particle to do
| | 01:46 | one complete rotation.
| | 01:48 | That setting would be in the number of frames.
| | 01:52 | The Axis values offer you the
ability to adjust the actual direction that
| | 01:56 | each particle rotates.
| | 02:02 | And with Interparticle Collisions, you
have the ability to dictate how and what
| | 02:07 | a particle would do if it collides with another.
| | 02:11 | There is also a Particle Spawning
Effects which will be demonstrating and have
| | 02:14 | a chance to play around with an upcoming video.
| | 02:21 | If you're looking for a little
jumpstart in creating certain types of effects,
| | 02:24 | you also have a handful of
preconfigured preset selections.
| | 02:33 | In the options you can choose
things ranging from blizzards,
| | 02:43 | to rain effects,
| | 02:48 | to something a little slower like mist.
| | 03:01 | There is even the opportunity to
build your own effects, being able to save
| | 03:04 | them for later use.
| | 03:05 | Blizzard particle systems also come in
handy for creating flocking type effects,
| | 03:10 | like maybe a swarm of
bees or an army of soldiers.
| | 03:13 | So there is all kinds of different
things that you can do by simply snooping
| | 03:16 | around on the controls.
| | 03:18 | So that's the Blizzard. Next up we're
going to take a look at a particle system
| | 03:21 | called PArray. We'll get
to that in the next video.
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| PArray| 00:00 | The PArray particle system dances to
the beat of a little bit different drummer
| | 00:04 | than most of 3ds Max's other
particle type effect emitters.
| | 00:08 | PArray, short for particle array, allows
a set of particles to be distributed over
| | 00:13 | or emitted from an object
that you pick from your scene.
| | 00:16 | So unlike most other Mac systems where
it's the actual particle viewport icon
| | 00:20 | that forms the location for particle
emission, with the PArray any 3D object in
| | 00:24 | your scene can be chosen as from
where the particles will originate.
| | 00:28 | And that makes the PArray extra
flexible for creating a wide variety of effects
| | 00:33 | including explosions, where the object
surface can be ripped into chunks that
| | 00:37 | can then be precisely controlled
to produce the explosive effect.
| | 00:41 | Let's see what we can do.
| | 00:42 | Because the particles on a PArray
emanate from a scene object and not the
| | 00:46 | system's viewport icon, we're going to
first need to create something in our
| | 00:49 | scene for that particle emitter.
| | 00:51 | I'm going to use a basic sphere for
my example, dropping one in my Top view.
| | 00:55 | Now, so you know, the PArray can
generate particles from any object that
| | 01:00 | contains renderable faces.
| | 01:02 | Because of what I'm going to be
doing in just a moment, let's right-click,
| | 01:05 | converting this down to an editable poly.
| | 01:11 | Now, zooming out in the top view, I'll place
a PArray directly at the side of my sphere.
| | 01:28 | The particle array's placement,
orientation, and icon size have absolutely no
| | 01:32 | influence on the particle
effect. Once in view,
| | 01:35 | let's turn our attention of the
controls on the right-hand side.
| | 01:38 | First up under Object-Based Emitter
let's click on the Pick Object button.
| | 01:42 | This is our way of signaling to Max
that we want to now select an object from
| | 01:46 | our scene as the particle emitter.
| | 01:48 | We can now click in any
viewport on top of our sphere.
| | 01:52 | Before going any further, verify on the
right-hand panel the Object says Sphere001.
| | 01:58 | Let's now change our Viewport Display to 100%.
| | 02:08 | And so we can get a better visual
display of things, we'll change the
| | 02:11 | wireframe color on our sphere to navy blue and
the color of our PArray icon to bright yellow.
| | 02:27 | Once we've done that, if we now
deselect and scrubb our timeline, we'll now have a
| | 02:32 | better look at how the
particles are being dispersed.
| | 02:34 | I'm going to also zoom out of
ways in each of my four views.
| | 02:54 | So there we go. As we can see, the particles
are actually being emitted from my sphere object.
| | 03:03 | With the PArray reselected,
let's go to the right and look under
| | 03:05 | particle formation.
| | 03:07 | These are a series of options that
give us an opportunity to control just
| | 03:10 | exactly where on the surface the
particles are being emitted from.
| | 03:14 | You can see we have choices Over
Entire Surface, Along Visible Edges,
| | 03:19 | At Vertices, and Distant Points.
| | 03:21 | And a way at the bottom in that category an
option for using selected subobject faces.
| | 03:27 | Let's do this we'll activate Use
Selected SubObjects. We'll then return to
| | 03:32 | having our sphere is being selected.
| | 03:34 | Okay, let's open up the Editable Poly entry
in the stack going down to the Polygon level.
| | 03:39 | In my Front view I'm going to select the
top of my sphere as a series of polygons.
| | 03:46 | To reselect the PArray, I'll use my
select by name hot key, the letter H.
| | 03:51 | When the list opens, I'll
select Parray from the dialog.
| | 03:56 | Let's now scrub the Timeline so we can
see where on this sphere the particles
| | 03:59 | are now being emitted.
| | 04:08 | We might get even a better visual
display by deselecting the PArray and
| | 04:12 | scrubbing our Timeline again.
| | 04:17 | So check it out. Now the particles are being
emitted only from our series of selected polys.
| | 04:24 | Let's try this.
| | 04:26 | We'll reselect our sphere, getting
back to the Polygon level selection.
| | 04:31 | This time in the front view will window
select only one or two middle rows of polys.
| | 04:40 | Scrubbing our Timeline this time
reveals a completely different interaction.
| | 04:51 | Let's go back to dispersing our
particles over our entire object, so I can show
| | 04:55 | you a couple of nifty presets PArray offers.
| | 04:58 | We'll get out of Polygon mode,
reselect the PArray, then under Particle
| | 05:01 | Formation turning off Use Selected SubObjects.
| | 05:06 | Let's scrub the Timeline to make sure the
entire sphere is indeed emitting the particles.
| | 05:16 | Now, let's take our
Perspective view full screen.
| | 05:21 | The PArray comes with a
set of preconfigured presets.
| | 05:25 | Let's take a look at those.
| | 05:25 | Now, they are quite a way down in our
settings, so we'll put our mouse inside
| | 05:29 | the Modify column,
turning the cursor into a hand.
| | 05:32 | From here, we'll right-click then
from the menu choose Load/Save Presets.
| | 05:38 | Let's begin our playback by
using the forward slash in our keyboard.
| | 05:41 | Now, as far as something as
preset options, change over to Bubbles.
| | 05:52 | Here is how things would l
ook using a Comet effect.
| | 05:56 | Why don't we also try Geyser?
| | 06:02 | Then Shimmer Trail.
| | 06:06 | So there is a bunch of different
presets that you can play around with.
| | 06:09 | Let's get back to our default setting and
we can return to a few more setup options.
| | 06:20 | When you're wanting to create something
like an explosion, you'll want to change
| | 06:23 | over to a different selection
under the regular particle types,
| | 06:27 | using what Max refers to as object
fragments for the look of your particles.
| | 06:32 | Let's do that. We'll right-click
again on the right-hand side going back up
| | 06:35 | to the Particle Type.
| | 06:39 | Now, the option we're going to work with
is directly below the Particle Type tab.
| | 06:43 | We're going to change from
Standard particles to Object Fragments.
| | 06:47 | We'll now go down to a series of settings
that are called Object Fragment Controls.
| | 06:51 | Before we can actually see the results
of these we're going to need to take our
| | 06:54 | Viewport Display over to Mesh mode.
| | 06:57 | That's going to take us just
for a moment back to the top.
| | 06:59 | I'm going to right-click
and go to my Basic Parameters.
| | 07:04 | Then under Viewport
Display, we'll change to Mesh.
| | 07:08 | Now, we get back to the fragments.
| | 07:16 | Let's take things back to frame
1 and we'll scrub our Timeline.
| | 07:25 | As you can see we now have hundreds of
pieces of geometry coming off the sphere surface.
| | 07:30 | Now, by the way as I scrub, take note
that it's not the actual sphere that's
| | 07:35 | breaking into chunks.
| | 07:36 | The particles are coming off of the
sphere, but being created by the Parray.
| | 07:47 | Back on the right under object fragment
controls, we can make adjustment for the
| | 07:51 | number of chunks, and their
thickness, and their overall behavior.
| | 07:54 | Let's see what we can do there.
| | 07:56 | Let's take our settings from All Faces
down to Number of Chunks. Then for this
| | 08:01 | example, I'll take the
Minimum number from 100 down to 5.
| | 08:04 | This should create a total of
five fragments coming off our sphere.
| | 08:10 | Let's scrub the Timeline and see if that's true.
| | 08:18 | Why don't we go ahead and play
that back and see how things look?
| | 08:27 | Let's change a couple of things real quick.
| | 08:29 | The frame at which the explosion
occurs and the speed at which the fragments
| | 08:32 | come off the surface.
| | 08:34 | Both of those settings are going to
be found under the Particle Generation
| | 08:37 | tab. Let's get there.
| | 08:42 | Now to begin, we'll take our
particle timing Emit Start to Frame 30.
| | 08:48 | This means the fragments won't blow
away from the sphere until one second
| | 08:51 | into our animation.
| | 08:53 | Let's also change the Speed to 3.
| | 08:58 | Now, if we scrub the Timeline, we'll
also notice the particle chunks are hanging
| | 09:02 | around only for what
looks to be about 30 frames.
| | 09:05 | The reason for that is under particle
timing on the right our Life has been set
| | 09:08 | to 30. Let's change that to 100.
| | 09:14 | This will keep the fragment chunks
visible for the entire length of our animation.
| | 09:22 | Let's now go back down to
our object fragment controls.
| | 09:28 | Once we're there we can begin playback.
| | 09:34 | Now we've got a control for
the thickness of each fragment.
| | 09:36 | Let's change that Thickness value to 3.
| | 09:41 | See how now each chunk is got
little thicker? Let's instead try 5.
| | 09:47 | And you can see during playback, the
fragments each of them being little thicker still.
| | 09:50 | Let's return that value to 3.
| | 09:54 | Now as far as the Number of Chunks, why
don't we change that? We'll go up to 25.
| | 10:01 | And why don't we also
try 200 to see that effect?
| | 10:10 | So now we have a bunch of
smaller fragments totaling 200.
| | 10:16 | Let's return the number of chunks to 25.
| | 10:24 | The look of the geometry by the way,
the pattern of each broken piece in other words,
| | 10:27 | is coming from the original
layout of the face as on our mesh sphere.
| | 10:32 | So when using fragment geometry for
your explosions, you may need to consider
| | 10:36 | the need to specifically model in a
particular pattern or layout to the way the
| | 10:40 | faces in the geometry break apart.
| | 10:42 | Now, you'll also notice that the
fragment pieces appear to just pull away from
| | 10:47 | the surface, moving in a
straightforward and non-rotating manner.
| | 10:52 | You can give those fragments a spin
or rotation by going into the Rotation
| | 10:56 | and Collision controls.
| | 10:58 | I'll stop the playback, re-entering
my settings menu by right clicking on
| | 11:02 | the right-hand side.
| | 11:04 | Okay, from the menu let's now
choose Rotation and Collision.
| | 11:08 | Let's go to reinitiate the playback.
| | 11:15 | Under the Spin Speed
Controls you'll see Spin Time.
| | 11:18 | This is the number of frames to
complete one 360-degree rotation.
| | 11:22 | Well that would be per particle.
Now the lower the number the faster the spin.
| | 11:28 | So let's try a Spin Time of
30 and see how things look.
| | 11:34 | Each particle is now doing a 360
degrees rotation over one frame.
| | 11:38 | Let's try a Spin Time of 60.
| | 11:43 | You can see how things have slowed
down. Let's also experiment with 160.
| | 11:50 | So there we go with a little more
acrid of Rotation Spin for our particles.
| | 11:56 | Now under Spin Time, you'll
see a setting called Variation.
| | 12:00 | This will allow us to vary the amount
of spin for each particles, so maybe
| | 12:03 | things don't look quite so uniform.
| | 12:09 | Let's try setting the Variation to 50
degrees and on playback, you can see the
| | 12:17 | difference that that's made.
| | 12:27 | So that will give you a rundown of some
of the more important PArray controls.
| | 12:31 | We're going to be using those and
many others as we get to the projects
| | 12:34 | portion of our title.
| | 12:36 | Next up, we'll take a look at the PCloud.
| | 12:38 | I'll save this file as PArray particles
completed if you'd like to look it over.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| PCloud| 00:00 | Max's PCloud or particle cloud particle
system works by forming particles in a
| | 00:05 | couple of different ways.
| | 00:07 | They can be dispersed and delivered in
all directions, in a single direction
| | 00:11 | that you can define, or its particles
can be restricted or confined to the shape
| | 00:15 | and size of the systems emitting icon.
| | 00:18 | And that gives the PCloud system an
extra edge up in some instances over its
| | 00:22 | other particle system brothers and sisters.
| | 00:24 | Creating cloud formations, space nebula,
even soldiers marching in tandem or a
| | 00:29 | school of fish can all be
recreated with the use of the PCloud.
| | 00:33 | If we create a PCloud in the Top view,
it could be drawn out like a box.
| | 00:37 | In other words, a three
dimensional shape that has an inside volume.
| | 00:51 | Now once in view, let's take
our Perspective view full screen.
| | 00:57 | In the right-hand side controls, you
can change the shape of the particle
| | 01:01 | emitter, using either a sphere, cylinder,
or an object that you pick from the scene.
| | 01:06 | In each instance, your particles
can be configured to remain or stick
| | 01:10 | within that viewport icon.
| | 01:18 | Using an object-based emitter
can come in particularly handy.
| | 01:21 | I am going to create a cone to the
left-hand side of the emitter icon.
| | 01:37 | Reselecting the PCloud Emitter, I can
now pick that cone as my 3D container.
| | 01:49 | If we now change our Viewport Display
to Wireframe by typing F3, we can now see
| | 01:54 | how the particles are now
being contained inside the cone.
| | 01:57 | Now to get a better look at this, on
the PCloud, let's change our Use Rate,
| | 02:01 | the number of particles per frame, to 2000.
| | 02:10 | Now once you do that, you will more
easily see how the particles are indeed
| | 02:14 | contained inside the cone.
| | 02:16 | Now, a couple of different
examples on where you could use this.
| | 02:19 | Let's say we have a crystal ball that we
would like to fill up with smoke or maybe
| | 02:22 | we have some kind of fluid effect
that we would like to confine to a bottle
| | 02:25 | or other similar type of vessel.
| | 02:27 | Now to continue on, let's select
the cone and delete it from our scene.
| | 02:31 | This automatically takes us back
to using a boxed shape emitter.
| | 02:35 | We can now center that emitter on
the screen by simply typing Z key.
| | 02:38 | For a few more settings let's reselect the
PCloud, getting back to the right-hand column.
| | 02:47 | We might also want to lower our Use Rate.
Why don't we take that down to about 50.
| | 02:56 | Now in the Particle Generation category,
under Particle Timing, we will take the
| | 03:00 | Emit Start time to 30 and the Emit Stop to 90.
| | 03:08 | If we now scrub the timeline, we will
see that currently our particles are now
| | 03:11 | forming over two seconds.
| | 03:24 | Let's reduce the number of particles
being displayed a little further, taking our
| | 03:27 | Particle Quantity back to a Use Rate of 10.
| | 03:38 | By scrubbing the timeline, you will see
the particles are still being confined
| | 03:41 | to the Emitter icon.
| | 03:42 | We are simply now using a
fewer number of particles.
| | 03:45 | Now, I am going to Hold right here.
| | 03:49 | If you run into a situation where you
want all your particles to be there from
| | 03:53 | the first frame on, you would simply want to
set both your Start and Stop times to zero.
| | 03:57 | Let's try that.
| | 03:58 | We would probably at this point also
want to crank up the number of particles.
| | 04:06 | So under Particle Generation, we will
switch over to Use Total and we will
| | 04:09 | change that value to 1000.
| | 04:16 | This sets the total number of particles
over the entire course of the animation
| | 04:20 | to 1000, which will serve to more
aggressively populate our confined area.
| | 04:31 | If you scrub the timeline, you will see
that now the particles are just there,
| | 04:35 | not specifically forming
over a specified period of time.
| | 04:38 | Now a setup like this would work
perfectly in the case of let's say forming a
| | 04:41 | star field or maybe an underwater
scene where you wanted to have some
| | 04:45 | particulate matter floating in the water.
| | 04:47 | In each of those instances, we would
have a set number of particles confined
| | 04:50 | to a specific space.
| | 04:51 | Now I am going to return back to where I
was originally working by fetching my scene.
| | 04:59 | Scrubbing the timeline, you will see our
Particle Timing is back to a Start time
| | 05:03 | of 30 and a Stop time of 90.
| | 05:06 | By giving the particles a speed,
we can now have them break away from
| | 05:09 | their confined space.
| | 05:11 | Under Particle Generation
let's change our Speed value to 2.
| | 05:25 | Now when you play things back,
watch the way things now look different.
| | 05:31 | So now the particles still form over
those two seconds between Frames 30 and 90
| | 05:36 | but now they are no longer confined to
the space inside the actual Emitter icon.
| | 05:40 | How would things look if we change
the speed instead to let's say 5?
| | 05:46 | Now, here you can see the particles are
breaking away in a more rapid fashion.
| | 05:53 | Let's take our speed back to two.
| | 06:02 | You can even restrict the
direction of your particles.
| | 06:05 | In the Particle Motion section,
we will change the Direction Vector.
| | 06:09 | This would come in handy for maybe a
school of fish or let's say a flock of birds.
| | 06:16 | Leaving the Vector setting of 1 in the X-
direction, let's go ahead and scrub our timeline.
| | 06:28 | If we took X to zero and Y to 1,
you will see that simply now moves our
| | 06:32 | particles in a different direction.
| | 06:33 | I am going to change that back to the
particles moving across my screen left to right.
| | 06:49 | Now what could do in a situation like
this is to build let's say a fish or bird
| | 06:52 | using it as instance geometry.
| | 06:58 | If you then animated your instance fish,
swinging its tail from side to side, or
| | 07:02 | maybe your instance bird, flapping
its wings up and down, you would then be
| | 07:06 | able to create either a school or flock,
either way, on its way to their next destination.
| | 07:11 | It would be that easy.
| | 07:13 | So that's the PCloud.
| | 07:14 | Think of it as a volume or
container of particles that can either stay
| | 07:18 | restricted to a confined space or have the
flexibility to shoot out in one or all directions.
| | 07:24 | I am going to go ahead and save our
scene out as PCloud Particles Completed if
| | 07:28 | you would like to look it over.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Super Spray| 00:00 | As non-event driven particle systems
in 3ds Max go, the SuperSpray offers
| | 00:05 | probably the most versatile set of
tools and potential effects for your scenes.
| | 00:10 | Smoke, sparks, fluid effects, they
can all be easily set up using what
| | 00:15 | many think of as Max's Swiss Army knife for
special effects, the good old SuperSpray.
| | 00:20 | Let's take a look at how it works.
| | 00:22 | I'll drop a SuperSpray in the middle of my
view then rotate and reposition for a better look.
| | 00:50 | Now to get a better visual, we'll
change the Viewport Display from 10% to 100%.
| | 01:01 | The emission on the SuperSpray starts
at the middle of the particle icon and
| | 01:05 | travels in the direction of the arrow.
| | 01:07 | Although the particles emit from a
single point in space, their spray can be
| | 01:11 | adjusted using the Off Axis and Off
Plane values near the top of the settings
| | 01:15 | under Particle Formation.
| | 01:17 | I might change the Off Axis Spread
to 20 and the Off Plane Spread to 50.
| | 01:30 | If we now orbit the view, we'll see
the difference that's made as far as
| | 01:33 | particle dispersion.
| | 01:37 | I'll perform my orbit using
the Alt+Middle Mouse combo.
| | 01:40 | Now as with all of Max's particle
systema, you can quickly change the way the
| | 01:43 | particles are displayed in the viewport.
| | 01:46 | With the SuperSpray, you have options
for Ticks, Dots, Mesh, all of the particles
| | 01:51 | are now looking quite small, and
BoundingBox if you're using instanced geometry.
| | 02:01 | For this illustration I'll
take my display back to Ticks.
| | 02:04 | Now as far as particle timing, by
scrubbing the timeline you'll notice the
| | 02:10 | SuperSpray is set to initially emit
particles only over the first 30 frames of animation.
| | 02:15 | So inevitably you want to crank that
number up to whatever frame number fits
| | 02:19 | your effect in project length.
| | 02:21 | To add to that emission time, we'll go
into Particle Generation, changing the
| | 02:24 | Emit Stop value to 100.
| | 02:42 | You can see how that change now
allows us to emit particles over the entire
| | 02:46 | length of our timeline.
| | 02:52 | Why don't we also increase our particle
Size and switch over to using the Mesh
| | 02:56 | display within our view?
| | 02:57 | I'll do the latter first.
| | 02:58 | We'll go to the backup to the top,
changing the Viewport Display type to Mesh.
| | 03:04 | Now for the Size, we'll find that
value under Particle Generation,
| | 03:07 | a little further down.
| | 03:13 | In the category, let's change our Size to 10.
| | 03:21 | As for our particle type, we've got all
the standard particle shapes to choose from.
| | 03:26 | We'll find those under the
category named Particle Type.
| | 03:33 | We can choose between Spheres,
Cubes, and Facing should we be creating a
| | 03:38 | material driven effect.
| | 03:43 | Under Particle Type, we can also
choose to use Instanced Geometry.
| | 03:47 | This will give us the option of being
able to pick an object from our scene as
| | 03:51 | to the look of our particle.
| | 03:53 | Let's take a look at how
that would work using a teapot.
| | 03:55 | I'll go back to the Create tab, under
Geometry, creating a Teapot on the lower
| | 03:59 | right-hand part of our view.
| | 04:05 | Now to make the switch over to using
our Teapot as our particle shape, we'll
| | 04:09 | reselect the SuperSpray, then change
our Particle Type to Instanced Geometry.
| | 04:16 | Once we've done that, we'll have to
identify the Teapot as being that particle shape.
| | 04:20 | You can do that a little
further down in our settings.
| | 04:25 | Under Instancing Parameters, click on the
Pick Object button, then select the Teapot.
| | 04:33 | Because we have our particle size set up to 10,
obviously things are blown out of control.
| | 04:39 | With that teapot now selected and the
original size it is, we'll change the size
| | 04:43 | of our particles on our
SuperSpray back down to 1.
| | 04:50 | Let's now scrub the
timeline to see how things look.
| | 04:59 | Now the SuperSpray also offers a
particle type called MetaParticles, which comes
| | 05:03 | in real handy when creating fluid type effects.
| | 05:07 | We're going to be looking at
MetaParticles in detail in another video, but let's
| | 05:10 | see if we can set something up real
quick to give you an idea of how they work.
| | 05:14 | Now they are very render intensive
without changing a couple of specific
| | 05:17 | settings, so please
follow along with me closely.
| | 05:20 | Let's start by going back up to
the top of our controls, changing the
| | 05:23 | Viewport Display to 50%.
| | 05:30 | We'll now for effect change the
Spread settings, Off Axis going to 10, Off
| | 05:35 | Plane staying at 50.
| | 05:40 | Now we'd also like to make it so our
MetaParticles don't die off after a
| | 05:43 | certain number of frames.
| | 05:45 | So under Particle Generation,
we'll take our Life value to 100.
| | 05:51 | This is where we need to be more careful.
| | 05:53 | Let's first take our timeline back to frame 0.
| | 05:56 | You can do that by simply
hitting the Home key on your keyboard.
| | 06:00 | For our MetaParticle effect, we'll now
change the size of our particles to 30,
| | 06:04 | and we'll vary that size by 50.
| | 06:07 | That'll mix things up a bit.
| | 06:15 | Okay, now that we've done that, and you
are at frame 0, let's go and change our
| | 06:18 | Particle Type from Instanced to MetaParticles.
| | 06:25 | Now before scrubbing the timeline
we've got another big one here.
| | 06:29 | Under MetaParticle Parameters,
turn off Automatic Coarseness.
| | 06:32 | Now that'll activate the Evaluation
Coarsenss for both Render and Viewport.
| | 06:39 | For the Viewport Coarseness, change that to 5.
| | 06:45 | What this does is control how
accurately the particles are calculated, in this
| | 06:49 | case within the viewports.
| | 06:51 | The higher the coarseness value the
fewer the calculations. With those fewer
| | 06:55 | calculations though, comes a
lower detailed particle flow.
| | 06:58 | So at a viewport setting of 5, we won't
be slowing ourselves down too much and
| | 07:02 | still we'll get some detail to our particles.
| | 07:04 | Now with that in place
let's go and scrub our timeline.
| | 07:10 | So that's pretty cool how that works.
| | 07:12 | Now if you want a little more viewport detail,
you can crank that number down to let's say 3.
| | 07:18 | You are going to need to let the
quality of the components in your computer
| | 07:21 | determine just how low you can go.
| | 07:22 | Now if you scrub the timeline and you
start choking, you might have taken things
| | 07:26 | done a little bit too low
for your system resources.
| | 07:30 | Scrub the timeline again and you
can see how things have turned out.
| | 07:37 | To finish things up, I want to take
things back to the Standard Type particles.
| | 07:47 | The SuperSpray also has control for
Spawning Effects, where one particle can
| | 07:51 | spawn or divided into several.
| | 07:53 | Now these settings allow you to
specify as to what happens to your particles
| | 07:57 | once they either die off or if they
collide with something else in your scene.
| | 08:01 | This comes in real handy for creating
things like metal sparks for example.
| | 08:05 | Coming off of a grinding wheel and
breaking into dozens of smaller pieces
| | 08:08 | as they hit the floor.
| | 08:09 | That can all be controlled with spawning.
| | 08:11 | Lastly at the bottom of the
SuperSpray controls, you have a series of
| | 08:15 | preconfigured presets that could be
pulled right off the shelf to get an effect
| | 08:19 | up and running in as little time as possible.
| | 08:23 | Bubbles, Fireworks,
Welding Sparks, they're all there.
| | 08:26 | These controls that I've just
highlighted will make for the possibility
| | 08:29 | of hundreds of different effects, making the
SuperSpray a real go-to tool for particles.
| | 08:35 | Now we're going to be using this power
packed system for creating several of
| | 08:38 | the effects that we've got coming up, but
don't limit yourself to what I'm showing you.
| | 08:42 | This baby is chock-full of things
that it can do, so get to playing around.
| | 08:46 | You learn the ins and outs of the
SuperSpray and you're going to be a good deal
| | 08:49 | closer to being able to call
yourself a special effects master.
| | 08:52 | I'll save the scene out as SuperSpray
Particles Completed, if you'd like to take a look.
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|
|
3. Introduction to Particle FlowUnderstanding particle flow| 00:00 | The particle flow works differently than
all of 3ds Max's other particle systems.
| | 00:05 | It's referred to as an event driven
particle effect, meaning that certain events
| | 00:10 | over the course of the system's life
trigger different things to happen as to the
| | 00:14 | particle systems look and behavior.
| | 00:16 | Those changes could be in the particle
shape, its color, whether it spends or
| | 00:21 | may be whether it breaks
off an even more particles.
| | 00:24 | So there are all kinds of things that
can be programmed into an event, and the
| | 00:29 | number of events a particle flow can
take on are endless, meaning a flow
| | 00:33 | particle could go through dozens of
different states or conditions over the
| | 00:36 | course of an animation.
| | 00:37 | Let me give you an example of how
an event driven system might work.
| | 00:42 | Maybe you have a project that calls
for a change in the weather. Using a
| | 00:45 | particle flow you could create a cloud
formation positioned over your scene.
| | 00:49 | Those clouds are originally looking
wispy and white. At a later point in the
| | 00:53 | animation as the weather begins to
change, your skies all of a sudden turn cold
| | 00:58 | and gray, signaling to your
audience that there's a storm just ahead.
| | 01:02 | Moments later the clouds open up,
sending rain falling to the ground.
| | 01:06 | Those changing weather conditions could
be easily controlled within the particle flow
| | 01:10 | merely by the way you create,
wire together, and test your flow events.
| | 01:15 | It'll make more sense once you put
a few flows together for yourself.
| | 01:19 | The big thing to understand at this
point is that a Pflow is driven by the
| | 01:23 | events that you program into it.
| | 01:25 | Each event being able to change the
behavior of what flows into that event.
| | 01:29 | Now does that make sense?
| | 01:30 | It's pretty neat how it works.
| | 01:32 | Now obviously with all those possible
changes comes a much longer list of
| | 01:36 | different parameters and
settings that may need to be adjusted.
| | 01:39 | So in as much as a particle flow
is more versatile than it's non-event
| | 01:43 | driven counterparts,
| | 01:44 | it's definitely also more
comprehensive and time-consuming in its setup.
| | 01:49 | With a particle flow, no doubt about it,
you dance to the beat of a different drummer.
| | 01:52 | Why don't we go ahead and move
into the next video where we'll start
| | 01:56 | putting things together?
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| Navigating the Particle view| 00:00 | A particle flow incorporates a very
step-by-step add pieces to the puzzle
| | 00:04 | methodology in creating its effect.
| | 00:07 | Let's add one to our scene,
and we'll see what we can do.
| | 00:10 | On my right we'll go under Standard
Primitives, choosing Particle Systems.
| | 00:14 | The top left entry labeled PF
Source is our particle flow.
| | 00:18 | Let's drop one into the
middle of our Perspective view.
| | 00:29 | In the controls on the right under the
Emission tab, you have your Icon Type.
| | 00:34 | This controls the shape of your emitting icon.
| | 00:37 | Your options are Rectangle,
Box, if you want to go a little
| | 00:41 | more three-dimensional.
| | 00:44 | You can choose to emit particles
from a circular shape or from a Sphere.
| | 00:50 | As a side note you can also use
Instanced Geometry from your scene as the
| | 00:54 | emitter, which comes an
awfully handy in certain situations.
| | 00:58 | Now, for this example I'm going to
change the Icon Type back to Rectangle.
| | 01:02 | The Quantity Multiplier settings
control the percentage of visible particles in
| | 01:06 | both your viewport and during a render.
| | 01:09 | Now this ones a big one to keep in
mind when your system starts slowing down
| | 01:12 | because of running out of gas,
something that unfortunately happens quite often
| | 01:16 | when dealing with particles.
| | 01:18 | When scrubbing the timeline, you'll
notice the particles spit out of the emitter,
| | 01:22 | traveling in the direction of the icons arrow.
| | 01:24 | So the PFlow in that instance works like
most of the other particle systems in Max.
| | 01:29 | Okay, when constructing your flow, you'll be
working in what is called the Particle view.
| | 01:34 | You've got a button for that about
halfway down the right-hand side or you can
| | 01:37 | use the hot key, the number 6.
| | 01:43 | This is the main interface for setting
up a PFlow effect, where things called
| | 01:47 | events are built and wired
together to control a particles behavior.
| | 01:51 | Now, the Particle view has
five main elements or areas.
| | 01:55 | The largest area on the upper left
is referred to as the event display.
| | 01:59 | This is where the particle diagram appears.
| | 02:02 | That's what Max calls what you currently see.
| | 02:04 | The event display is the
real meat of particle flow.
| | 02:07 | It's where the adding
and organizing takes place.
| | 02:10 | What you see at the moment is the
default particle flow setup, which contains a
| | 02:14 | particle emitter and the minimum
necessary components, in other words
| | 02:18 | the minimum number of events in order to
create the most basic of PFlow systems.
| | 02:22 | Those two separate boxes are the events.
| | 02:24 | One is listed as PF Source 001;
| | 02:27 | the other is named Event 001.
| | 02:28 | Now those are just their default names.
| | 02:31 | Both though are considered events.
| | 02:33 | The second box named Event 001
contains a series of what are called operators
| | 02:37 | that control the particles.
| | 02:40 | You've got an operator called Birth that
controls the particles emit, start and stop times.
| | 02:45 | There's a Position operator that
determines where the particles actually emit from.
| | 02:50 | You've got Speed and Rotation operators,
a Shape operator that controls the actual
| | 02:55 | shape of your particles, and the final
entry, a Display operator, which dictates
| | 03:00 | the display within your viewport windows.
| | 03:03 | Now, something important to know.
Max calculates the operators in an event from
| | 03:08 | the top of the list down.
| | 03:10 | So the higher up in the list, the earlier
that particular operator will be put into effect.
| | 03:15 | Now sometimes that can be important,
where an operator is positioned in the list.
| | 03:19 | At other times though, an operator's
position makes no difference whatsoever.
| | 03:24 | You'll get a better feel for all that
once you've played around a little more.
| | 03:27 | So the default setup consists of
two events. One called PF Source, the
| | 03:32 | other called Event 001.
| | 03:34 | Now that top of that is always
referred to as a global event, meaning that
| | 03:39 | anything, any operator in that event,
will effect every particle in the system.
| | 03:43 | The global event takes its name from
whatever you type in as the name of
| | 03:47 | your PFlow icon on the screen.
| | 03:49 | It'll be called PF Source unless you rename it.
| | 03:52 | Now, by default the top of that
consist of a single operator that simply
| | 03:56 | specifies the rendering properties
for all the particles of the system.
| | 04:00 | That operator as you can see is called render.
| | 04:02 | Now if you click on it or any other
operator name in the flow, the settings or
| | 04:07 | parameters for that operator are going
to be displayed over on the right-hand side.
| | 04:11 | That area is called the Parameters panel.
| | 04:14 | Now take a look at that second event.
| | 04:15 | That event is referred to as the Birth event.
| | 04:19 | It gets its name from the fact that
it must contain a Birth operator, which
| | 04:22 | controls both the number of particles
emitted and as mentioned earlier, their
| | 04:26 | start and stop times.
| | 04:29 | That Birth operator should always be
at the top of the Birth event, as it
| | 04:33 | describes the actual emission of the particles.
| | 04:35 | Now below the event display is an area
called the depot, which holds all the
| | 04:40 | available particle flow actions.
| | 04:42 | An action is simply a general term that
Max uses to identify a PFlow operator
| | 04:47 | or what we'll be using quite
often, something called a test.
| | 04:50 | You can think of the depot as the
particle flow's supply or part store.
| | 04:55 | Where you'll go whenever you're looking
to add something, a new part into the flow.
| | 05:00 | Operators are displayed as either blue
square or green circle icons, while the
| | 05:04 | tests are shown in the list as gold diamonds.
| | 05:07 | If you click on either an operator
or test, the Description panel on the
| | 05:11 | right will display a description or
summary of what that particular operator
| | 05:15 | or test is designed to do.
| | 05:17 | So you'll see the Shape operator, for
example, being in the creation method for
| | 05:20 | both 2D and 3D particles.
| | 05:22 | A Speed operator, controlling the
initial speed of your particles, and an
| | 05:28 | Age Test, being used to control when a
particle might pass from one event to another.
| | 05:32 | Lastly, at the top of the dialog
you've got your menu bar, which contains the
| | 05:37 | options you'll use for
adjusting and analyzing the PFlow.
| | 05:42 | So that will give you a general
overview of some of the things you need to know
| | 05:44 | when using the Particle view.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Working with operators| 00:00 | Let's talk about working with operators.
| | 00:03 | The file on screen is named PFlow
operators and it represents the carryover
| | 00:07 | from our last video.
| | 00:08 | Opening up the Particle view we can
take a look at the structure of our
| | 00:11 | current flow system.
| | 00:13 | Now we can do that either clicking on
the Particle view button on the right or
| | 00:16 | simply using the
keyboard shortcut, the number 6.
| | 00:20 | Each entry currently displayed is an operator.
| | 00:23 | Simply put, an operator provides a
set of parameters that control a single
| | 00:27 | component of a particle system.
| | 00:29 | Those parameters can many times be
animated, which allows a particle to change
| | 00:33 | behavior even within a single event.
| | 00:36 | Clicking on the name of any operator
opens its settings and controls on the top
| | 00:40 | right side of the Particle view.
| | 00:42 | That right side section being
officially referred to as the Parameters panel.
| | 00:47 | Behind each operator's name in the event,
in parentheses, is that operator's most
| | 00:51 | important or most typically adjusted parameter.
| | 00:54 | With Birth, that would be the particle
emission times, both stop and start and
| | 00:58 | the total number of particles.
| | 01:01 | The Rotation operator listing the
direction the particles travel, while the
| | 01:06 | Shape operator gives us an indication of the
actual shape of the particles being emitted.
| | 01:11 | Using the resources in the Depot, an
additional action can easily be worked into
| | 01:15 | the current PFlow layout.
| | 01:17 | You may remember that the word "action"
simply serves as a general term that can
| | 01:21 | be used to describe
either an operator or a test.
| | 01:24 | To add something to the existing
particle flow structure you'd simply drag it
| | 01:28 | from the Depot over into the Event display.
| | 01:31 | Still holding down your mouse that
action could then be either added to the
| | 01:34 | event or used for the purpose of
replacing an already existing action, which
| | 01:39 | of those ways you go is determined by how
and where you drop the action into the event.
| | 01:44 | Let's go into the Depot and
select the Scale operator.
| | 01:48 | Now holding down your mouse we'll
drag it into our second or lower event.
| | 01:54 | Notice that you see either a red or blue line.
| | 01:58 | If when you drop the event a blue line
shows up, you'll be adding that action
| | 02:02 | into the existing event, in between the
actions above and below where the blue line shows.
| | 02:07 | Let's try that. So you can see now
the Scale operator has been positioned
| | 02:13 | between the Speed operator
and the Rotation operator.
| | 02:17 | Now any time you want to delete an
action you can simply select it and hit the
| | 02:20 | Delete key on your keyboard.
| | 02:23 | If you instead let go of your mouse,
basically dropping it into the event when
| | 02:26 | a red line shows, the existing action,
the one your mouse is over, will be
| | 02:30 | deleted and replaced by the
action that you are dropping in.
| | 02:34 | As you see the Scale operator
has now replaced the Speed operator.
| | 02:39 | Let's take things back to the way they
were using the Ctrl+Z, Undo shortcut.
| | 02:45 | Now, when dragging and dropping for the
Depot, you actually have a third option.
| | 02:49 | If you instead take your action and
drop it into an empty area of the event display
| | 02:53 | you'll be creating a
brand new event. Let's try that.
| | 02:57 | With that, we would now have a third event
that we could wire into our particle system.
| | 03:02 | For our example, let's select that newevent,
its labeled Event 002, and then hit Delete.
| | 03:07 | By the way, any eent can be turned off
by merely clicking on the light bulb to
| | 03:12 | the right of its name.
| | 03:16 | An action can be disabled within an
event by simply clicking on its icon.
| | 03:25 | And you can easily change the layout of
your particle events by merely grabbing
| | 03:29 | their name, holding the mouse,
and moving it around the screen.
| | 03:31 | So that will give you a few things
regarding working with operators.
| | 03:39 | Next step, we will check out how you
go about adding tests into an Event.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding a test to an event| 00:00 | In this video, we'll take a look
at adding a test into an event.
| | 00:04 | I'll be using a file named PFlow Test, which I
have held over from work done in our last video.
| | 00:09 | Now what makes particle flow such an
extremely versatile particle system is
| | 00:13 | that its particles can be programmed to
travel from one event to another, which
| | 00:17 | then completely changes the look or behavior
of the particles as they enter that new event.
| | 00:22 | That transferring from one event to
another is set up by creating something in
| | 00:26 | the event called a test, which is merely
a set of conditions that must be met in
| | 00:31 | order for the particle to be
passed along to the new event.
| | 00:34 | To understand how things work, think of a test
as the decision-making part of the particle flow.
| | 00:39 | Better put, it's passing a test that
allows a particle to then be redirected to
| | 00:43 | another event as long as the
criteria of that test is met.
| | 00:47 | It would be kind of like having to
give a secret password at the entrance
| | 00:50 | door to the next event.
| | 00:51 | If the particle gives the right
password, which means it going to answer yes
| | 00:54 | to the conditions set forth of the
test, then that particular particle is
| | 00:58 | allowed to pass into the next event, giving
it a brand-new set of parameters and settings.
| | 01:03 | If the particle can't pass the test
because it doesn't meet the conditions
| | 01:06 | outlined in the test criteria then that
figure particle simply remains in the
| | 01:10 | event that its currently in, continuing
to be controlled by the existing event,
| | 01:14 | settings and parameters.
| | 01:16 | In other words, it keeps doing
the same thing it's already doing.
| | 01:18 | So a test triggers a
particle's transfer to a new event.
| | 01:21 | Well, that's if the conditions of that
test are met. And that testing procedure
| | 01:25 | can be done over and over again
throughout the course of an animation.
| | 01:29 | So just because a particle doesn't
pass a given test the first time through
| | 01:33 | doesn't mean it won't be given
opportunities to do so later on.
| | 01:36 | Now, understanding this pass or don't
pass testing procedure is essential if you
| | 01:40 | are wanting to get the most out of your PFlows.
| | 01:42 | Okay, let's go play around.
| | 01:44 | Now by default, PFlow
particles display on the view as ticks.
| | 01:48 | Traveling in the direction of the icons
arrow and being emitted over the entire
| | 01:51 | surface of that icon.
| | 01:53 | Now in the render you'll notice the shape of
the particles is being displayed as 3D cubes.
| | 01:57 | Now that can easily be changed.
| | 01:59 | Let's close the render then open our
Particle view to by typing 6 on the keyboard.
| | 02:02 | Why don't we first change the way the
particles are being displayed in the viewports?
| | 02:06 | Now on the second event down, the Birth
event, labeled Event 001, let's click on
| | 02:11 | the Display operator.
| | 02:12 | You'll find that at the
bottom of that event list.
| | 02:14 | Over on the right you'll notice the
type currently set to Ticks. We're going to
| | 02:17 | change that to Geometry.
| | 02:19 | Now back on the left, on the Display
operator, see that little green dot?
| | 02:22 | That represents the visual
color display within the viewports.
| | 02:25 | I am going to click on that, taking it
to a bright yellow. Now, why cubes?
| | 02:31 | Well, take a look back at the Shape
operator over in the Particle view.
| | 02:34 | In the Shape operator's parentheses,
which is basically its most important
| | 02:38 | setting, you'll see the name Cube 3D.
| | 02:40 | Now when you've clicked on that, we can now
change that setting over in the top right corner.
| | 02:44 | We'll leave it set to 3D then change
from Cube-- now look at all the different
| | 02:47 | options here. Why don't we
go ahead and choose Hearts?
| | 02:51 | Let's go ahead and again render the
Perspective view and see how that looks differently.
| | 02:54 | And we'll close that up,
changing it back to the 3D Cubes.
| | 02:58 | So think what we have here. The Display
operator controls how the particles are
| | 03:01 | displayed and the Shape operator
controls what shape the particles display in.
| | 03:07 | What we're going to do now
is add a test into the mix.
| | 03:08 | We'll then use that test the wire or
associate the Birth event to a brand-new event.
| | 03:14 | So if the particles pass the test
criteria we set up they'll automatically be
| | 03:18 | passed along to the new event.
| | 03:20 | Now, in the Depot find
the action called Age Test.
| | 03:23 | It's the first yellow diamond-shaped icon.
| | 03:25 | To find how the Age Test works click on
its name then turn your attention to the
| | 03:29 | lower right corner of the Particle view.
| | 03:31 | Now look what it says for the Test
Description. An Age Test is basically
| | 03:34 | designed to test the age of a particle.
| | 03:36 | If it meets a certain age that you set
up in the settings it will then be passed
| | 03:40 | on to a new event. That's
basically how it's designed to work.
| | 03:43 | Now here is what we are going to do.
| | 03:44 | We're going to drag the Age Test from the Depot.
| | 03:47 | We'll put it in Event 001 at the
bottom of the list, below Display.
| | 03:50 | Now very important, when you let go, make
sure the color of the line that you see is blue.
| | 03:56 | Remember, if that one is red when
you let go the mouse, that Age Test will
| | 03:59 | instead replace that operator.
| | 04:02 | So there we go, listed as the
last entry in the second event.
| | 04:05 | Now that we have our Age Test in place we can
create a new event, then wire our Test to it.
| | 04:09 | We'll do that in the next video.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Wiring events to change a particle's behavior| 00:00 | In this video, we're going to take a
look at wiring one particle flow event to
| | 00:04 | another by means of a test,
| | 00:06 | that test designed to lay out a
defined criteria for the system particles to
| | 00:10 | either pass or fail.
| | 00:12 | Passing particles being given the
green light to go on to another Event while
| | 00:16 | failing particles, particles that
didn't meet the testing criteria, being
| | 00:20 | instructed to stay exactly where
they are in their current Event.
| | 00:24 | I'll be setting things up
in a file named PFlow Wiring.
| | 00:27 | It's a continuation from our last video.
| | 00:29 | Opening Particle view reveals the fact
that we've added in an Age Test as the
| | 00:33 | last entry in our second event.
| | 00:35 | That being done by a simple drag and
drop from the Depot into the Event Display,
| | 00:40 | which is the formal name of the
largest area in our Particle view window.
| | 00:43 | Now, notice the Age Test entry in the
event looks a little different than all
| | 00:47 | the other operators listed above it.
| | 00:49 | Along with being yellow in color, the
test has a little blue connecter marker
| | 00:53 | to its left-hand side.
| | 00:54 | That connector is referred to as a
Test Output and it's used to indicate the
| | 00:59 | branching or redirecting of
the flow in the particle system.
| | 01:02 | Now remember, a test is kind of like a
door that opens to another event but only
| | 01:07 | if certain conditions or
criteria are met within the test.
| | 01:11 | It's going to be the test marker, off
to the side of the Age Test, that we'll
| | 01:14 | be using to connect our test to a brand-
new event that which we will be setting
| | 01:18 | up in just a minute.
| | 01:19 | Before that though, let's make a couple
of adjustments on the Age Test settings,
| | 01:23 | basically defining our criteria that
our particles will either pass or fail.
| | 01:27 | With the Age Test selected we'll
turn our attention to the upper
| | 01:29 | right-hand settings.
| | 01:30 | For the Test Value we'll use 15.
For Variation we'll take that down to 0.
| | 01:35 | Note that the Test Type
is that the Particle Age.
| | 01:38 | That's right at the top of the settings.
| | 01:40 | This means that with the numbers
we've used, any null particles that have
| | 01:43 | existed for more than 15 frames will
test true, and in doing so will be passed on
| | 01:48 | to the next event, once it's been wired up.
| | 01:51 | Now we'll create a new
event and wire it into the test.
| | 01:54 | What we'll do is have any particles
that passed the test, change shape once
| | 01:58 | it's been on the screen for 15 frames.
So 15 frames after it's been emitted.
| | 02:03 | Because it's a Shape operator that controls a
particle shape we'll use that as our new event.
| | 02:08 | So from the Depot we'll drag a Shape
operator to any empty area of the Event Display.
| | 02:13 | Doing this makes the Shape
operator appear as a new event.
| | 02:16 | Notice its name, Event 002.
| | 02:19 | Now, why don't we reposition our new
Shape event under the second event?
| | 02:22 | We've got a few commands in the lower
right-hand corner of our Particle view
| | 02:25 | that we can use to navigate the window.
| | 02:27 | Okay, see this circular or round icon
sticking out of the top of our new event?
| | 02:31 | That little icon is known as an event input.
| | 02:34 | In other words, where you
input or plugged into the event.
| | 02:37 | Now you might notice our second event,
labeled as Event 001, also has an event input
| | 02:42 | which was automatically
connected to the Global event, the top event
| | 02:46 | when the PFlow was created.
| | 02:48 | Our new third event, it's just
hasn't been connected to anything yet.
| | 02:51 | Also take note that the PFlow automatically
added a local Display operator to the new event.
| | 02:56 | This was done so we'll be able to
see the particles from the new event
| | 02:59 | displayed in our viewports.
| | 03:01 | Now, one comment real quick.
| | 03:03 | On that new event we just created,
where it was positioned in the display
| | 03:06 | window makes no real difference.
| | 03:08 | We put it where we did simply to make
the wiring of the two events a little more
| | 03:12 | convenient, which is
probably a good habit to get into.
| | 03:15 | So when throwing in new events, try to
position them in the display window in an
| | 03:18 | easy-to-follow flow design.
| | 03:20 | It will just make things a little
easier to understand and follow.
| | 03:23 | You're going to find that things get a
little busy in the display window as you
| | 03:26 | keep adding in new stuff.
| | 03:28 | So keep your layout logically
organized. It'll reduce confusion if and when
| | 03:32 | things get a little more complicated.
| | 03:33 | Let's now do the actual wiring
of the Age Test to the new event.
| | 03:37 | Position your mouse over the blue dot at
the left end of the Age Test's test output.
| | 03:42 | The cursor should change into
three arrows pointing inward toward a
| | 03:44 | circular connector.
| | 03:46 | Now drag your mouse over the
Event 002 input marker then release.
| | 03:50 | As you drag, your cursor will
change from a three arrow icon to a
| | 03:54 | circular connector.
| | 03:55 | That's the way it'll look when over empty space.
| | 03:58 | When you're directly on top of the
Event 002 input marker that cursor will
| | 04:02 | change again, this time
looking like a four arrow icon.
| | 04:05 | Now, if you did things right you should now
see a blue wire connecting the two events.
| | 04:10 | That wire indicates that any particles
that meet the conditions stipulated in
| | 04:14 | the Age Test will be passed
through the wire to the new 002 Event.
| | 04:18 | Being then influenced by whatever
variables have been set up in that other new event.
| | 04:23 | Now if you ever mess up and want to
remove a connecting wire, all you simply
| | 04:26 | have to do is window-select the wire.
| | 04:28 | It'll turn yellow. Then
right-click, choosing Delete Wire.
| | 04:31 | Let's go ahead and reconnect things back up.
| | 04:33 | Now you can actually drag either way.
| | 04:34 | So this time we'll do it
in the opposite direction.
| | 04:37 | Another way to delete the wire is to merely
select it then hit the Delete key on the keyboard.
| | 04:41 | Now at this point, if you want, you
could reposition any of your events.
| | 04:44 | So we now have the Particle Flow setup,
so any particle that's been around for
| | 04:48 | 15 frames will be passed along to the
new event, which through the new Shape
| | 04:52 | operator, the new event will change shape.
| | 04:54 | Now if you're having any trouble with
your screen redraws you could always go to
| | 04:59 | the right-hand panel down at the bottom,
changing the Quantity Multiplier for the Viewport %.
| | 05:04 | This would simply remove some of the
particles being seen in your view when scrubbing.
| | 05:07 | Okay, let's now go into the new
event and change the particle shape.
| | 05:11 | To do that we'll go into the
Shape operator for our event named 002.
| | 05:15 | in the right-hand panel let's now
change this from 3D Cubes over to Torus.
| | 05:19 | Let's minimize the view window
again, scrubbing one more time.
| | 05:24 | Now I've yet to see any
difference as far as the original viewport display.
| | 05:27 | We better get back in Particle view.
| | 05:29 | Well, look at Event 002. Here is the reason why.
| | 05:32 | The Display has been set to Ticks.
| | 05:34 | We'll select the Display operator, then
change the type of display to Geometry.
| | 05:38 | Let's now scrub the Timeline.
| | 05:39 | Now check out what's happening.
| | 05:41 | Starting at frame 16 the particles
that are at the head of the stream start
| | 05:45 | changing into Torus, indicating that
they've now entered that new third event.
| | 05:49 | Remember, 15 frames is what
we set as the Age Test value.
| | 05:52 | As you get further into the animation
more and more particles pass the age of 15
| | 05:57 | and in doing so become eligible then to
enter the next event, which changes them
| | 06:01 | into the look of a Torus.
| | 06:02 | That's how you go about setting up your test
criteria, then wiring one event to another.
| | 06:07 | In our next video, we'll see if we
can finish things off by making a few
| | 06:10 | additional adjustments to
our particle flow settings.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adjusting particle flow settings| 00:00 | With our particle flow now wired into a
new event, let's make a few adjustments
| | 00:04 | to some of our operator and test settings.
| | 00:07 | We'll do that using a file named PFlow
Adjustments, which was saved up at the
| | 00:11 | end of our last video. Okay!
| | 00:13 | Let's see what we can do.
| | 00:14 | For the purpose of a cleaner redraw
during video viewing, let's change our
| | 00:18 | playback speed in Max's
Time Configuration dialog.
| | 00:21 | We can do that by right clicking at
any of the timeline arrows down in the
| | 00:24 | lower right-hand corner.
| | 00:25 | In the Playback settings about a third
of the way down, we will leave it set to
| | 00:28 | Real Time but change it to one-half speed.
| | 00:31 | Now for even a cleaner redraw, let's
change the Viewport Display to 35%.
| | 00:37 | We can do that on the PFlow icon under
Quality Multiplier on the right-hand side.
| | 00:41 | Okay! Let's open our Particle view
and let's see what we can do.
| | 00:43 | You again can do that typing
the hot key, the number six.
| | 00:47 | So we can work in Particle view and
still see what's happening on our screen.
| | 00:50 | We're going to have to move our PFlow
icon over to the right-hand side of the view.
| | 00:54 | Okay! Let's start by changing the speed of
our yellow cubes. Now that's going to be
| | 00:58 | done under the event labeled Event 001.
| | 01:01 | We're going to want to
select the Speed operator.
| | 01:03 | Let's now change that Speed down to 150.
| | 01:07 | You could see the way that slowed things down.
| | 01:09 | Now a higher value would obviously
take us in the opposite direction.
| | 01:12 | Let's try a Speed of 600, so you can see
things are now dropping much more rapidly.
| | 01:17 | Let's return that value back to 300.
| | 01:19 | Now on the Speed operator, we can also
change the direction of the Particle Emission.
| | 01:22 | Let's change that from an
Along Icon Arrow to Random 3D.
| | 01:26 | Now for the size of our Torus, let's
drop down to the event labeled Event 002.
| | 01:31 | In there we're going to want to
highlight the Shape operator. Okay!
| | 01:33 | Back on the right, let's change the size to 30.
| | 01:35 | This should increase the
size of our Torus threefold.
| | 01:40 | Now from here if we wanted,
we could also change the particle shape.
| | 01:43 | Let's switch from the Torus to the Star of 5-point.
| | 01:46 | If we wanted to change the viewport
display color of either particle,
| | 01:49 | we could do that also.
| | 01:51 | Let's stop the play and
I'll work on the yellow cubes.
| | 01:53 | Now that again is going to be labeled Event 001.
| | 01:56 | If you look to the right of the Display
operator, you'll see that little yellow dot.
| | 02:00 | Let's click on that, changing it to red.
| | 02:01 | Why don't we also see if we can put
a little spin on our second particles?
| | 02:05 | Now that's going to require us to add a
brand-new operator into the second event.
| | 02:09 | In the Particle view depot,
locate the Spin operator.
| | 02:12 | We can now drag and drop that
operator anywhere within the 002 event.
| | 02:17 | Now I'm going to position mine
between the Shape and Display operators.
| | 02:20 | Now remember when you drop, you're going
to want to use a blue line and not a red.
| | 02:24 | Let's change the Spin Rate from 360 to
90, and to vary the green star rotations
| | 02:29 | will take the Variation to 500.
| | 02:31 | So now we have some stars spinning
quickly while others are going much slower.
| | 02:35 | Now I want you to notice the only
particles that are actually spinning are going
| | 02:38 | to be the ones in that 002 event.
| | 02:41 | The red cubes are getting their
orientation from their Speed setting.
| | 02:44 | Remember we set that
direction to Random 3D. Okay!
| | 02:48 | Why don't we now adjust our Age Test?
| | 02:50 | Now remember, it's been set to go off at
15 frames, so each particle that's been
| | 02:54 | around for one-half second or 15
frames will immediately pass on to that new event,
| | 02:59 | that event taking it from
looking like a cube over to a green star.
| | 03:02 | Let's change that Test value
on the Age Test to instead 30.
| | 03:05 | This will keep the red cubes hanging
around for longer and if we change that
| | 03:09 | instead to 5, well, you can see
the difference in the effect there.
| | 03:13 | Now the cubes are only taking five
seconds in order to change to the Star.
| | 03:16 | Let's return that back to
the original setting of 15.
| | 03:21 | Now, that we have our events a little
more nailed in place, we can rename them.
| | 03:24 | Let's change the name of
Event 002 to Spinning Stars.
| | 03:28 | Now to do that in Particle view,
you'll select the name of the event,
| | 03:31 | right-click, then choose Rename.
| | 03:33 | Once you've typed things in, hit Enter
on your keyboard to lock things down.
| | 03:40 | Event 001, let's name that Red Cubes.
| | 03:42 | Now you can also add what are called
Comments to any event or any entry.
| | 03:47 | Let's add one to the Birth
operator onto the Red Cubes.
| | 03:50 | We'll simply select the birth operator
entry, right-click, then go all the way
| | 03:53 | down at the bottom, choosing Comments.
| | 03:56 | This just gives us an opportunity
to type in a little text as reminder.
| | 03:59 | Why don't we type in "They last 30 frames."
| | 04:03 | When we're done, we can go ahead and
click the OK button down at the bottom.
| | 04:05 | Now when a comment is attached, you'll
notice a little red triangle on the upper
| | 04:08 | left-hand corner of either the
event for the specific entry.
| | 04:11 | To get to that comment, you simply want to
double-click on that red triangle. Okay!
| | 04:15 | Let's now have a second event
particles affected by little wind.
| | 04:19 | Now this brings up something
we haven't talked about yet.
| | 04:21 | With all of Max's other particle systems,
the non-event driven ones, forces like
| | 04:26 | Wind and Gravity, even Deflectors,
were all added to the effect by way of the
| | 04:31 | Bind To Space Warp command.
| | 04:32 | You simply connect to the particle
system to whatever was going to affect it.
| | 04:36 | That's not how things are
done with particle flow.
| | 04:38 | With a PFlow system force-type
effects by way of, you guessed it, either
| | 04:43 | an operator or a test.
| | 04:45 | So it serves as a completely
different way of doing business.
| | 04:48 | Let's first drop a Wind
space warp into our scene.
| | 04:50 | Then I'll show you how to set things up.
| | 04:52 | To do that we'll minimize Particle view,
then go back to four views on our screen.
| | 04:56 | Now we can simply add the Wind the regular
way. We'll do that in our left-hand window.
| | 05:00 | We'll go to our space warps, click on Wind,
then drag it out in the left-hand view.
| | 05:05 | With the settings on the right, let's
change the Strength to 0.2, and we'll take
| | 05:08 | the Turbulence to 5.
| | 05:13 | Now for the Wind to affect our
particles as a force effect, we'll add a Force
| | 05:16 | operator into the mix.
| | 05:18 | Now we're going to want the Wind
to only affect the Spinning Stars.
| | 05:21 | So first find the Force operator in the depot.
| | 05:24 | Now drag it into the Spinning Stars
event, positioning it anywhere along within
| | 05:28 | the entries. I'll put mine below
this Shape and above the Spin operator.
| | 05:32 | Now there is a couple different ways to
get our Wind space warp into the operator.
| | 05:36 | On the right, up at the top, you'll
notice two buttons, Add and By List.
| | 05:39 | Clicking Add would allow you to select
the space warp either from the scene or
| | 05:43 | by a Select list by typing h. Now either
way you want to go, let's go and select
| | 05:47 | that Wind space warp.
| | 05:48 | If you've made a good connection,
you'll now see that Wind space warp
| | 05:51 | name inside the list.
| | 05:53 | Let's now minimize Particle view and
take our Perspective view full-screen.
| | 05:56 | We'll then want to
reposition our particle icon. Okay!
| | 05:59 | Let's play things back.
| | 06:00 | Now I want you to notice the only
thing being affected by the Wind is that
| | 06:04 | Spinning Stars event.
| | 06:05 | We could even see that more dramatically,
if we have our cubes dropping straight down.
| | 06:09 | For that in the Red Cubes entry,
we'll enter the Speed operator.
| | 06:12 | Now for the direction, we'll change that
for Random 3D to instead Along Icon Arrow.
| | 06:17 | So what do you think? How's that for a
solid helping of some of different things
| | 06:22 | you can do using particle flow?
| | 06:23 | Now, I got to be honest, this baby
can be a beast as the number of events,
| | 06:27 | operators and tests build up.
| | 06:30 | So plan on there being a learning
curve you're going to have to digest.
| | 06:33 | The nice thing is the more PFlow you do,
the more you really start to realize
| | 06:37 | how capable it is in
creating killer special effects.
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|
|
4. Special Material and Rendering ConsiderationsUnderstanding material | 00:00 | As you build more and more particle
effects, you'll quickly come to realize that
| | 00:04 | many if not most of those effects
get their look and realism not from the
| | 00:09 | actual particle geometry that you
create, but rather from the .aterial that you
| | 00:13 | apply to that geometry.
| | 00:16 | When you think of producing effects
like dust and smoke for example, there is
| | 00:19 | seldom if ever going to be an actual
particle shape that'll fit the bill for
| | 00:23 | creating a wispy semi-
transparent dissipating effect.
| | 00:27 | In other words, an effect that
fades out over time. This is where the
| | 00:30 | construction of a
convincible material comes into play.
| | 00:33 | A material that will be used to create
an effect, being able to convincingly blend
| | 00:38 | or feather the edges of a particle
shape into or onto its background.
| | 00:42 | Yeah, generating your visual effect, not
relying on a certain geometric shape, but
| | 00:47 | from a skin, a special skin
that you apply to that shape.
| | 00:51 | And when creating that material, you're
going to quickly come to the realization
| | 00:55 | that more than anything else, it's
going to be the effective use of the
| | 00:58 | material's Opacity channel
| | 01:00 | that will either make or break the
believability of just how well your particles
| | 01:03 | turn out looking come render time.
| | 01:05 | Luckily, 3Ds Max offers plenty of
different ways or should I say plenty of
| | 01:10 | different maps in order to pull off
that particle edge feathering effect.
| | 01:14 | Specific map times that we'll be
looking at in the next video, maps that are
| | 01:18 | used when dealing with
particles as masking mechanisms.
| | 01:22 | Now if you're not quite on board yet as
to the importance of the material and in
| | 01:26 | particular a material's ability
to feather out a particle's edges,
| | 01:30 | let's take a look at an example
that I think will drive home the point
| | 01:32 | I'm trying to make.
| | 01:33 | This is a file named Opacity Map Blending.
| | 01:37 | Now the scene is already been setup
with the Super Spray particle system
| | 01:40 | positioned at the end of the
metal pipe you see in the view.
| | 01:47 | The material we'll use to create the
effect has been constructed to take on a
| | 01:50 | look of smoke or steam that we will
have coming out from the pipe's open end.
| | 01:54 | Now this is one of those material
driven effects, so to make things work, our
| | 01:58 | particle type has been set to Facing.
| | 02:00 | That will give us a bunch of flat two-
dimensional rectangles that we can use to
| | 02:04 | best display our material.
| | 02:06 | If we scrub the Timeline, we'll see
the particles are programmed to begin
| | 02:10 | emitting at frame 15.
| | 02:12 | Let's go to somewhere around the middle
of our animation and give it a render.
| | 02:18 | As you can see, we've got a nice
smooth blending between the edges of our
| | 02:22 | particles and the black background.
| | 02:24 | That Feathering effect coming by way
of the map has been loaded into the
| | 02:27 | particle material's Opacity channel.
| | 02:30 | The map used in this example was a mask map.
| | 02:33 | You can explore the way it was put
together by going to the Material Editor and
| | 02:36 | navigating through the skin's various levels.
| | 02:39 | The important thing is the material
incorporates a masking effect by way of
| | 02:43 | its Opacity branch.
| | 02:45 | That's the way we're getting the
blending or feathering of each particle's edges.
| | 02:48 | If we simply remove or temporarily turn off
the use of that Opacity branch's map structure,
| | 02:53 | we'll quickly come to realize how
it's the Opacity map that's driving the
| | 02:57 | realism of the effect.
| | 02:59 | Let's open up the Material Editor, turn
off the Opacity branch, and render things out.
| | 03:16 | You can certainly see the
difference that that's made.
| | 03:18 | Let's now turn the Opacity branch
back on, and render again so we can see the
| | 03:22 | actual effect we are aiming for.
| | 03:38 | So that's much better and it doesn't
matter what frame we render. We're going to
| | 03:41 | get a quality result in each and every case.
| | 03:43 | Let's change to a
different frame and render again.
| | 03:54 | Now you're going to find that there's
many ways of creating the feathering
| | 03:57 | effect that a material-driven
particle will need to render correctly.
| | 04:01 | My guess is you'll end up using the one
or two techniques that you feel either
| | 04:04 | most comfortable with or best
understand and that's perfect.
| | 04:08 | Just spend the time to get to know the
handful of maps that can do the effect.
| | 04:12 | Then plug-in the one
that best does that job. Oh!
| | 04:15 | And one last comment on
blending maps and backgrounds.
| | 04:18 | My advice would be always get the
background that you're going to end up
| | 04:22 | using in place before you start
worrying about blending your particles
| | 04:25 | against that background.
| | 04:27 | Which you'll find many times is your
feathering technique on the same particle
| | 04:31 | effect will look different
against one background than another.
| | 04:34 | So decide on the background for your
scene first, then dive into blending
| | 04:38 | the particles into or onto that
background. Doing that will save you on both
| | 04:42 | time and aggravation.
| | 04:44 | Now let's go take a look at some of the
maps that you can use for those particle
| | 04:48 | to background blending effects.
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| Setting map options and particle edge blending| 00:00 | Using a material on facing type
particle geometry will never work effectively
| | 00:05 | for creating a realistic looking
particle effect, if correctly blending that
| | 00:08 | material against your same background
can't be accomplished. Let's be honest.
| | 00:13 | It is going to be pretty hard to
convince your audience when you have got a
| | 00:15 | bunch of little square objects
floating around your scene, none of which
| | 00:18 | offering one iota of
believability to your effect.
| | 00:21 | Luckily, 3ds Max has a healthy handful of
mapping options that allow for that all
| | 00:26 | important particle edge
feathering that take place.
| | 00:29 | This video will show you some of those options.
| | 00:31 | As you are probably well aware, a
material's opacity channel in Max works off
| | 00:36 | grayscale values, where the darker
areas in a map will create transparent or
| | 00:41 | visible locations on an object's surface.
| | 00:43 | That surface in a particle effect would
be the actual geometry or geometry type
| | 00:48 | that you have chosen for your particle system.
| | 00:50 | If you can strategically locate the
transparent positions along the edges of
| | 00:54 | your particle, you will achieve a
realistic blending of the particle against
| | 00:58 | its background, and that so many times is
the trick to achieving a believable effect.
| | 01:03 | Your choices for particle feathering
many times began by using a Gradient
| | 01:07 | or Gradient Ramp map.
| | 01:17 | Using the maps radial option,
quickly gives you that white on black
| | 01:21 | feathering to the outside.
| | 01:26 | Adding a little noise breaks up
the evenness of that color to color
| | 01:29 | transition even further.
| | 01:37 | I am taking the amount of
noise to .1 and its size to 2.
| | 01:40 | Now you can adjust the transition even
further by changing the color 2 position
| | 01:44 | setting directly below the color swatches.
| | 01:46 | Here is a value of .4, .7, and I will
take it back to the original default number
| | 01:55 | of .5. The Gradient Ramp does pretty
much the same thing with a few additional
| | 02:03 | controls for adjusting the color layout.
| | 02:12 | Underneath the color ramp, I will take
my gradient type again back to Radial.
| | 02:19 | We can now reverse those black and
white colors by double-clicking on the color
| | 02:23 | flags you see at both ends of the ramp.
| | 02:33 | Under Interpolation, I will change to
Ease Out, Ease In, then back to Linear.
| | 02:50 | The Gradient Ramp map also
gives you the noise controls.
| | 02:53 | Let us try an amount of .1.
| | 02:57 | We can then change the type of noise
directly to the right of the amount setting.
| | 03:01 | Here we are using Regular. Let us try
Fractal. We will change to Turbulence.
| | 03:07 | Then back on the left below
Amount, let's change the size to 5.
| | 03:16 | The Fall Off map can also do a
terrific job in blending edges. Having a
| | 03:19 | handful of different options for controlling
the style of the black and white color dispersion.
| | 03:44 | You have also got the good old Noise
map with its controls for pattern, size,
| | 03:49 | and color variation.
| | 04:04 | Let's also try adjusting the size of the noise.
| | 04:06 | We will go to 10, here is 50,
and we will go back to the original
| | 04:15 | default setting of 25.
| | 04:16 | Now with the color swatches,
we can vary our color variation.
| | 04:22 | I'll click on the white swatch,
first taking it to medium gray.
| | 04:30 | Here is lighter gray, lighter
still, and then I will return to white.
| | 04:37 | Adjusting the intensity of the
color separation, we can use the
| | 04:40 | threshold controls.
| | 04:42 | Let's take our high value
to .8 and our low value to .2.
| | 04:50 | As you can see, that kind of
clamps down on the colors even more.
| | 04:53 | Let's take the threshold back to
the original settings of 1 and 0.
| | 05:03 | And there is the Mask map that
allows you on even more advanced level of
| | 05:06 | feathering control by masking out any
map that might be added to the effect.
| | 05:19 | For my example, I will load a Noise map
in the Map channel and a Gradient map,
| | 05:26 | choosing Radial for my mask.
| | 05:37 | I think the important thing to
realize is that you have a ton of different
| | 05:40 | options when wanting to blend your
particles onto whatever scene or imagery
| | 05:44 | that might be behind it.
| | 05:45 | Learn those choices, experiment with
their various settings, then simply use the
| | 05:49 | ones that do the best job
of creating your effect.
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| Changing particle appearance with age maps| 00:00 | 3ds Max has a handy little map that
enables a particle to strategically change
| | 00:05 | color or design at predetermined
points over the course of an animation.
| | 00:09 | The map is called Particle Age,
and it's the subject to this video.
| | 00:12 | The Particle Age map is basically
designed to work for the actual lifespan of
| | 00:16 | each particle that's emitted
from a given particle system.
| | 00:20 | If the map, for an example, is loaded
into the Diffuse branch of a material
| | 00:23 | that's been applied to a particle system,
each particle in that system at birth
| | 00:27 | will be assigned a certain color.
| | 00:29 | As the Particle Ages, it will
then change to another color.
| | 00:32 | That color being based on how long it's
been around as a percentage since it was
| | 00:36 | birthed from its particle emitter.
| | 00:38 | As the particle continues to age, it's
programmed to change into a third color,
| | 00:43 | again, the timing of that change being
determined as a percentage of how long
| | 00:47 | it's been around since being born.
| | 00:49 | We'll best see how the
map works if we set one up.
| | 00:52 | I'm using a file named
Particle Age Map for my example.
| | 00:55 | This scene is simply a blizzard particle
system that's been spread over 200 frames.
| | 01:00 | I've made the particles, which render
as snowflakes extra big, so we'll more
| | 01:05 | easily see the effect of the
Particle Age map in action.
| | 01:08 | Let's go ahead and render our view at
somewhere in the middle of our timeline,
| | 01:10 | so we can see what we're starting with.
| | 01:13 | Now let's open the Material Editor.
| | 01:17 | From here, let's jump onto the Diffuse
channel of any of the empty sample slots.
| | 01:21 | From the browser, we'll then
choose the Particle Age map.
| | 01:28 | The way things are broken down we've
got three different Color channels, each
| | 01:31 | having its own percentage setting.
| | 01:33 | All three color slots can be
controlled by either a solid color or a map.
| | 01:42 | Color number 1 determines a particle's
color at the start of its life, in other
| | 01:46 | words, at the point at which it's emitted.
| | 01:48 | That particle's color then changes to
whatever we built into the Color number
| | 01:52 | 2 settings, making that change at whatever
percentage has been set in the Color 2 control.
| | 01:58 | So right now, each particle would
start off as black, then at 50% of its
| | 02:02 | lifespan, change to gray.
| | 02:04 | The same idea carries over to the Color
number 3 controls, where in our current
| | 02:08 | example, by 100% of the particle's life,
that particle will have turned white.
| | 02:12 | Does that make sense? Let's do this.
| | 02:14 | We'll change the colors to red, green
and blue, starting with the Color number 1
| | 02:18 | slot, going down to Color number 3.
| | 02:20 | After setting that up,
we'll see how things look.
| | 02:22 | Now we can go ahead and make our color changes.
| | 02:27 | We'll click on the color
number 1 swatch, changing it to red.
| | 02:31 | For color number 2, we'll make that
green, and for color number 3, we'll
| | 02:38 | change that to blue.
| | 02:44 | Let's then apply the material to
the Blizzard icon in the scene.
| | 03:01 | Now, don't be going and looking for our
color change to be happening in the viewport.
| | 03:05 | The Particle Age effect is designed
to be seen only at the time of render.
| | 03:09 | So again, we'll go to somewhere around
the middle of our timeline, then render.
| | 03:14 | Now as you can see, based on each
particle's age, its color is changing over time.
| | 03:19 | As mentioned, that change can even incorporate
a map instead of just a color. Let's try this.
| | 03:24 | We'll close our render,
heading back to the Material Editor.
| | 03:29 | To the right of the red color swatch for
Color number 1, click on the None button.
| | 03:34 | From the browser, then choose Checker,
and then in the Checker settings, we'll
| | 03:40 | change the Tiling to 2 and 2.
| | 03:44 | Going back up to our parent twice,
we'll then turn on the Face map option.
| | 03:48 | Now, once we've done that,
let's go ahead and render again.
| | 03:55 | You can see how the black-and-white
checkerboard pattern has now taken over for
| | 03:59 | the color number 1 control.
| | 04:00 | Now, to see more of the Checker effect,
let's lengthen the amount of time it
| | 04:04 | takes in order to transition
to that second color setting.
| | 04:09 | Back on the Particle Age map, we'll
change the Color number 2 percentage to 85%.
| | 04:13 | Now, once you've plugged that in,
you can go ahead and render again.
| | 04:23 | So now, each particle's Color number 1
color holds on just a little bit longer.
| | 04:27 | Why don't we also add a map
into the Color number 3 control?
| | 04:32 | For that, we'll use a Splat map.
| | 04:47 | On the Splat, we'll change the Color number 1
swatch to yellow and the color 2 swatch to red.
| | 05:02 | We'll then change the Threshold to 0.3,
so we can see a little bit more red in the pattern.
| | 05:12 | Once we've done that, we'll
go ahead and render again.
| | 05:15 | Now, we're not getting much of the third
color effect due to it changing so late
| | 05:19 | in each particle's life.
| | 05:21 | Let's see if we can't change that a bit.
| | 05:27 | We'll change Color number 1 to a
percentage of 35, Color 2 to a percentage of
| | 05:31 | 50, and Color 3 to 75%.
| | 05:42 | Once you've typed in those
numbers, go ahead and render.
| | 05:46 | So now, more the third color, the last
look for each particle plays into the results.
| | 05:51 | If we rendered things out,
things would end up looking like this.
| | 05:54 | I've thrown the clip into the Exercise
Files for this chapter if you'd like to
| | 05:58 | look at it for yourself.
| | 05:59 | It's named Particle Color Change.
| | 06:02 | Now, the Particle Age map is also a
very effective performer when used to
| | 06:05 | control a particle's transparency,
giving the effect of having a particle
| | 06:09 | fade away over time.
| | 06:11 | That disappearing act is
accomplished by adding the Particle Age not to a
| | 06:15 | material's Diffuse channel, but instead
to its Opacity branch, where the color
| | 06:20 | within the material's opacity would
go from white to gray to black over the
| | 06:24 | life of the material.
| | 06:25 | Let's see if we can set something like that up.
| | 06:28 | Now, the real way to control this
transparency thing is to when building the
| | 06:31 | map's structure with the Opacity branch,
to also include the necessary component
| | 06:36 | to achieve the all-important edge
feathering on each particle shape.
| | 06:40 | To get both the edge blending and the
fading away effect, the trick is to start
| | 06:44 | with a Mask map as the
foundation for your Opacity channel.
| | 06:48 | You then use something like a Gradient
map as your base map, then add a Particle Age map
| | 06:53 | as a masking or
feathering mechanism over that.
| | 06:56 | Now, it sounds a little bit
complicated, but it's actually
| | 06:59 | pretty straightforward.
| | 07:00 | Let's see if we can set that up.
| | 07:02 | We'll start by selecting a new
sample slot in our Material Editor.
| | 07:05 | We can then apply that to
our Blizzard particle system.
| | 07:10 | Let's now change the Diffuse
color swatch to a bright white.
| | 07:14 | We can do that by simply dragging and
copying the Specular over to the Diffuse.
| | 07:20 | Now, we'll jump up on the
Opacity branch, choosing a Mask map.
| | 07:27 | For our map component, we'll add a Gradient map.
| | 07:34 | Under the three color swatches, we're
going to want to change that style to Radial.
| | 07:46 | Once we've done that, we'll go to
parent once, then for our Mask component,
| | 07:50 | we'll choose the Particle Age.
| | 07:55 | Now, our first and third colors
are going to need to be swapped.
| | 07:57 | So, we'll drag the black down to the
white, choosing Swap when the dialog opens.
| | 08:09 | Let's also change to a Facing type
particle, which you so often use when driving
| | 08:14 | a particle effect by means of the
material applied to the particles.
| | 08:17 | Now, with the Blizzard system selected,
we'll go to the Modify column for our settings.
| | 08:22 | Down at the bottom, we'll
open up the Particle Type tab.
| | 08:26 | Under Standard Particles, we'll
change from SixPoint to Facing.
| | 08:30 | Now, we probably also want to make our
particles a little bit bigger in size.
| | 08:34 | That control is found under Particle Generation.
| | 08:43 | Let's change that Size from 20 to 35.
| | 08:49 | Above that, under Particle Timing,
let's also change the Life of each
| | 08:52 | particle to 90 frames.
| | 08:58 | This will keep them around a little longer.
| | 09:00 | Then after that, we'll go back down to
Size and change our Fade For setting to 0.
| | 09:05 | This will make sure that each particle
stays full size until they finally die off.
| | 09:11 | A couple things back in the Materials Editor.
Going up to parent we will again turn Face map on.
| | 09:22 | To make the particles a little bit
brighter on our render, we'll also take the
| | 09:25 | Self-Illumination up to 100.
| | 09:29 | Let's now render frame 100.
| | 09:41 | Okay, let's talk about what's going on here.
| | 09:43 | With the Particle Age portion of our
Opacity map setting starting out as white,
| | 09:47 | each particle begins completely
opaque or solid in other words.
| | 09:52 | At whatever time we set the map's gray
color to take over, each particle at that
| | 09:56 | point in its life will appear
to start gradually fading out.
| | 10:00 | When the map a little later on
changes to black, the particle will have
| | 10:04 | completely faded away.
| | 10:05 | This fading away technique works
perfectly for a ton of different effects:
| | 10:10 | smoke, steam, dust, fire, all well
served by incorporating a Particle Age as
| | 10:16 | their transparency control mechanism.
| | 10:19 | Now, if we rendered out the full 200
frames in our timeline, we'd end up with
| | 10:22 | something that looked like this.
| | 10:24 | So now, each particle fades out toward
the end of its life as opposed to just
| | 10:29 | disappearing from screen.
| | 10:30 | Like with the color change clip, I've
saved this also to the Exercise Files
| | 10:34 | folder for this chapter.
| | 10:36 | It's called Particle Age Change
if you'd like to take a look at it.
| | 10:39 | So, that's the Particle Age map, great
for use in both the particle's Diffuse
| | 10:44 | and Opacity map channels.
| | 10:45 | I'll save the file out as Particle Age
Map Completed, if you'd like to go in
| | 10:49 | for further inspection.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Blurring moving particles with the MBlur map| 00:00 | A Particle Motion Blur map officially
referred to in Max as a Particle MBlur,
| | 00:05 | can be used to effectively blur a particle
effect based on each particle's rate of speed.
| | 00:11 | It usually works best when added
to a particle material's Opacity
| | 00:15 | branch, although it can be used in other map
channels for various other types of effects.
| | 00:20 | To demonstrate how the MBlur works, I'll
be using a file named Particle MBlur Map.
| | 00:26 | Now, the scene's Super Spray has been
positioned at the end of a water hose.
| | 00:30 | Our job will be to see if we can
create the look of flowing water.
| | 00:42 | The first thing we're going to need to
do is change the look of our particles
| | 00:45 | so they more closely resemble the
gushing water that you might see coming out of
| | 00:48 | the end of a garden hose.
| | 00:50 | That's going to take us
first to the particle shape.
| | 00:52 | We'll use a tetrahedron-
shaped particle for our effect.
| | 01:01 | Going down to Particle Type, we'll
change the Standard type particle from
| | 01:04 | Triangle over to Tetra.
| | 01:06 | Let's also make sure to change
our Viewport Display to Mesh.
| | 01:14 | Now, go ahead and scrub your timeline.
| | 01:22 | We're also going to want each Tetra
to move in a different way, traveling
| | 01:25 | instead in this specific
direction of our water flow.
| | 01:29 | Now, we can do that by making a couple of
changes under the Rotation and Collision tab.
| | 01:36 | In the Spin Axis Controls category, we'll
change from Random to Direction of Travel/Mblur.
| | 01:42 | To enhance the blurring effect on
each particle shape, we'll also change
| | 01:45 | the Stretch value to 2.
| | 01:49 | Let's go ahead and scrub our timeline again.
| | 01:59 | Now, if you see a few particles backing
up and shooting through the water hose
| | 02:02 | nozzle, we can simply move the
Super Spray so that no longer occurs.
| | 02:14 | When it looks like you have the emitter in
good position, go ahead and render the scene.
| | 02:20 | For the material, we'll close the render
window, then open up the Material Editor.
| | 02:26 | As you know, you can easily do that by
simply typing the letter M on your keyboard.
| | 02:31 | Now, I've created a very basic
water skin, consisting of a bluish-white
| | 02:35 | body color, and a few things I adjusted in for
Opacity, Filter Color, and Self-Illumination.
| | 02:39 | You can go ahead and check in
on those settings on your own.
| | 02:43 | Once you've done that, we'll go ahead and
apply the Water material to our Super Spray.
| | 02:51 | Then we can render again.
| | 02:59 | With no further adjustments, the
water really doesn't achieve the look
| | 03:03 | that we're aiming for.
| | 03:05 | We'll get a much more realistic
effect if we can blur the particles as they
| | 03:08 | shoot out of the water nozzle.
| | 03:10 | This is where the Particle MBlur map comes in.
| | 03:12 | We'll add it to our Material's Opacity channel.
| | 03:25 | Let's now see how that
changes things when rendered out.
| | 03:31 | Take a look at that. You can see the
difference that makes by blurring the edges
| | 03:35 | of our water particles.
| | 03:39 | Now, as far as the settings on the
MBlur map, the Color number 1 color swatch
| | 03:44 | controls how solid or opaque a particle
will be at its slowest speed when coming
| | 03:48 | out of the particle system's emitter.
| | 03:50 | Slower particles typically don't need
the same level of blurring as faster
| | 03:55 | moving particles do.
| | 03:56 | The Color number 2 color swatch
controls how transparent or how blurred a
| | 04:00 | particle will be at its fastest speed.
| | 04:03 | Typically, you can achieve pretty good
results leaving these settings as they are.
| | 04:07 | So, we'll do that.
| | 04:11 | With the Sharpness adjustment, you can
control just how transparent or opaque
| | 04:15 | any given particle looks, relative to its speed.
| | 04:18 | The lower the number, the more
transparent and more blurrier a particle will look.
| | 04:23 | Again, this setting works pretty good
leaving it at its default value, but
| | 04:27 | we can certainly experiment with a couple of
different numbers to see how things turn out.
| | 04:32 | Let's take the Sharpness
to 9, then render again.
| | 04:41 | Now with this, you see that we've
lost a good deal of our blurring.
| | 04:44 | Let's instead try a Sharpness value of 1.
| | 04:56 | When rendered, our results reveal that maybe
now we have a little bit too much blurring.
| | 05:01 | Let's change it back to the default
setting of 2 and render one last time.
| | 05:12 | So, for at least this example,
the default value indeed works just fine.
| | 05:16 | There are a couple of important setting
controls that you need to know in order
| | 05:19 | to get the Particle MBlur
map to work for a given effect.
| | 05:23 | First, not all particle
systems support the MBlur.
| | 05:26 | The ones that do include PArray,
PCloud, Spray, and Super Spray.
| | 05:31 | So keep that in mind.
| | 05:33 | Second, remember when we change
the Particle Spin Axis Controls to
| | 05:36 | Direction of Travel.
| | 05:38 | That's also a must in order for the
MBlur to work, so is setting the Controls'
| | 05:42 | Strength value to a number higher than zero.
| | 05:45 | Lastly, only certain particle shapes and
types are compatible with the Particle MBlur.
| | 05:51 | The ones that aren't, include
constant and facing shapes and meta particles
| | 05:56 | and object fragments.
| | 05:58 | Max has got different techniques
that you can use to blur those.
| | 06:01 | So, there you go with the
Particle Motion Blur map.
| | 06:03 | Now if we rendered out our water effect,
things would end up looking like this.
| | 06:08 | I'll save the file out as Particle
MBlur Map Completed, if you'd like to check it out.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Blurring particles| 00:00 | To achieve a more realistic look to a
particle effect, you'll many times find
| | 00:04 | that blurring your particles in some
manner or intensity will greatly improve
| | 00:08 | their believability.
| | 00:10 | To show you some of Max's blurring
options, I'll be using a file named
| | 00:13 | Blurring Techniques.
| | 00:15 | Now, in the real world, when shot
through a camera lens, fast-moving objects
| | 00:19 | naturally blur due in large part
to the shutter speed on the camera.
| | 00:22 | That speed is basically the time it
takes for the camera's eye to open and close.
| | 00:27 | If an object or a particle moves
significantly during the time the shutter is open,
| | 00:31 | that scene element will
naturally appear blurred on the film image.
| | 00:35 | Well, that's the way it works in the real world.
| | 00:38 | In a 3D software application though,
the story is a little bit different.
| | 00:42 | On the computer, movement is seen and
calculated mathematically, which creates a
| | 00:47 | very vivid and clear representation
on the screen, irrespective of how fast
| | 00:51 | something might move.
| | 00:52 | To counter that, all high-end
applications like Max offer options for adding the
| | 00:58 | needed additional blurring effect.
| | 01:00 | Let's start by looking first at
what is referred to as Object Blur.
| | 01:03 | Scrubbing our timeline reveals that
we have our rock object exploding into
| | 01:07 | several chunks, each particle
fragment traveling away from the original
| | 01:11 | explosion point at a high rate of speed.
| | 01:14 | Let's go to somewhere around
frame 35 and render things out.
| | 01:19 | Even with the particles moving
quickly, we see no blurring effect.
| | 01:22 | When using Object Motion Blur, which
many think of is the easiest of the blurs
| | 01:27 | to use, the blurring effect is object
specific, meaning that the only thing in
| | 01:32 | your scene that blurs is what you identify.
| | 01:35 | The Object version of blur works best when
you have fast-moving objects and a still camera.
| | 01:40 | To use the effect, we'll close our rendered
window, then select the PArray in our view.
| | 01:47 | Once we've done that, we can right-
click, choosing Object Properties.
| | 01:54 | Your Motion Blur settings can be found in
the lower right-hand corner of the dialog.
| | 01:58 | We'll first turn on Enabled, then
directly below activate Object.
| | 02:06 | Let's now render again.
| | 02:11 | Object Blur works by making multiple
copies of the rendered object using
| | 02:15 | the surrounding frames from which to pull
the other images to create the blur effect.
| | 02:20 | The more the additional surrounding
frames are used to calculate the blur, the
| | 02:24 | blurrier the object or particle will appear.
| | 02:27 | Let's see if we can change the number
of surrounding frames that are being used
| | 02:30 | in the calculation, and see
what it does to the effect.
| | 02:33 | To get to those settings, we're going to
want to open up the Render Setting dialog.
| | 02:36 | Now, we can do this directly inside
the rendered frame window at the top.
| | 02:41 | You could also instead use
the keyboard shortcut F10.
| | 02:45 | Either way you will get the same settings.
| | 02:48 | In the dialog, we'll click on the
Render tab, then go down to our Object
| | 02:52 | Motion Blur settings.
| | 02:57 | In the Object Blur
category, you'll see Duration.
| | 03:00 | This controls how many frames to both
sides of the current frame are being
| | 03:04 | included in the calculation.
| | 03:06 | The more frames you use, whole or
partial, the blurrier the effect.
| | 03:10 | Right now, we're using one-half frame on each
side of the specific frame that we rendered.
| | 03:15 | Let's change that Duration
to 1.5, and render again.
| | 03:24 | You can see the difference that's made.
| | 03:26 | Now, that might actually be too blurry.
| | 03:28 | Let's change the Duration to 1.
| | 03:38 | Then we'll render again.
| | 03:42 | To the left of Duration, you'll find Samples.
| | 03:44 | This determines the number of
snapshot pictures taken during render time.
| | 03:49 | So, if your image turns out
looking a little choppy, you can always
| | 03:51 | smoothen things up. Let's do this.
| | 03:54 | We'll take our Duration back to 1.5,
and we'll lower our Samples down to 10.
| | 04:06 | So now, more frames will be used in the
render, but fewer calculations will take place.
| | 04:13 | You can see with these settings we're
not getting a very good blending effect.
| | 04:16 | So, let's go back in the dialog,
changing the Samples once again to 20.
| | 04:31 | More calculations yield a more realistic effect.
| | 04:37 | Max also offers something called Image Blur.
| | 04:40 | The image type of blur applies a post-
rendering smearing effect to your particles.
| | 04:45 | So, unlike Motion Blur, Image Blur is
applied after the rendering is complete.
| | 04:50 | The superiority it has over Object Blur is
that it takes into account camera movement.
| | 04:55 | Let's try that.
| | 04:56 | We'll right-click again on the
screen, choosing Object Properties.
| | 05:02 | We'll then change our Motion
Blur from Object over to Image.
| | 05:09 | We can then close the dialog and render again.
| | 05:15 | The Multiplier setting in the
Properties dialog increases or decreases the
| | 05:19 | smearing along the directions of movement.
| | 05:22 | Let's change that
Multiplier value from 1 over to 2.
| | 05:29 | We can then close things up, and render again.
| | 05:35 | Now, you can see what that
does to your render time.
| | 05:37 | It does though create a nice effect.
| | 05:40 | Let's try a Multiplier of 4.
| | 05:54 | We get a nice, smooth blurring,
albeit at a longer render time.
| | 05:57 | Now, Image Blur also has a set of
controls in the Render Setup dialog that work
| | 06:01 | pretty much the same way
as the Object Blur settings.
| | 06:10 | You might notice that with Image
Blur, you can also apply blur to an
| | 06:13 | Environment map background.
| | 06:25 | There is also something called
Multi-Pass Motion Blur which works off your
| | 06:29 | scene camera, rendering your scene in
multiple passes that are then composited together.
| | 06:34 | For that, we'll select the camera
in our scene, then head over to the
| | 06:37 | controls on the right.
| | 06:40 | A little further down, you'll find
a category called Multi-Pass Effect.
| | 06:44 | Let's first enable that control,
then click on Depth of Field.
| | 06:48 | From here, we'll change to Motion Blur.
| | 06:55 | Let's now render and see how things look.
| | 07:01 | As you can see, the Multi-Pass
Effect used several render passes.
| | 07:10 | As a nifty little option, click on the
Preview button directly to the right of Enable.
| | 07:16 | This gives you a viewport preview
of the effect prior to rendering.
| | 07:20 | Let's now see if we can't adjust the
number of render passes, and we can do that
| | 07:24 | in the Motion Blur Parameters under Sampling.
| | 07:27 | Let's take the Total Pass
count from 12 down to 6.
| | 07:29 | This will render using fewer
calculations, but you might not get the
| | 07:33 | same quality result.
| | 07:39 | Let's take that Total Pass count back to 12.
| | 07:43 | With Duration, same as with all the
other blur types, this controls the number
| | 07:47 | of frames, whole or partial, that
are taken into account when rendering.
| | 07:50 | Let's create a slightly less blurry
effect by taking the Duration to 0.4.
| | 07:58 | We can then render again.
| | 07:59 | I'm going to save this out as Blurring
Techniques Completed if you'd like to look it over.
| | 08:07 | So, that'll give you a rundown
of some of your blurring options.
| | 08:10 | They each do something different, so
play around with the settings, then use the
| | 08:13 | type that best fits your job at hand.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Outputting a render for compositing | 00:00 | Layering effects on top of either other
CG elements or live-action backgrounds
| | 00:05 | is these days pretty
much an everyday occurrence.
| | 00:08 | And although 3Ds Max does indeed
offer the ability to composite scenes or
| | 00:12 | images together through the use of
video posts, you'll more than likely instead
| | 00:16 | take your rendered effects into a third-
party program like Nuke, Fusion or After Effects.
| | 00:21 | With that being the most likely way
you'll go about compositing your scenes
| | 00:25 | and effects, it's going to be
without a doubt important to understand the
| | 00:29 | proper procedures to use in Max in
order to achieve the cleanest data output
| | 00:34 | for your composites.
| | 00:35 | Compositing almost always involves
something called an alpha channel, which is
| | 00:39 | really just a fancy way of saying
that you're going to save your rendered
| | 00:43 | images with a special extra layer of
data that will allow parts or areas of
| | 00:47 | that image to be seen as transparent or semi-
transparent when composited on top of something else.
| | 00:54 | Now there are undoubtedly dozens of
titles on lynda.com that cover alpha channels.
| | 00:58 | So instead of a lengthy discussion on
what they are, what we'll do in this
| | 01:02 | video is concentrate on showing you
how to properly save your Max content so
| | 01:07 | it does indeed include that
all important alpha information.
| | 01:11 | I'll show you all that using
a file named Composite Output.
| | 01:14 | The scene consists of several fire
effects gizmos that have been clustered
| | 01:18 | together to create a fire type explosion.
| | 01:20 | here's how the final effect turns out.
| | 01:24 | With the effect already set up, we'll
be concentrating on what needs to be done
| | 01:28 | preparation wise for saving our
render with a transparency layer,
| | 01:33 | an alpha channel, in other words.
| | 01:35 | Let's go to frame 20 and render things out.
| | 01:41 | We can see the alpha channel
information in the render by clicking on the
| | 01:44 | Display Alpha Channel button on
the top left side of our render.
| | 01:51 | Now if saved out properly, the white
areas within the alpha will remain opaque
| | 01:55 | or solid when composited on something
else, the gray areas in the image will
| | 02:00 | display as transparent, and the black
areas, which comprise the majority of our
| | 02:04 | image, will composite out as
transparent, meaning that the explosion will
| | 02:08 | seamlessly layer on top
of another scene or image.
| | 02:11 | With things coming out so clean, it's
really just a matter of now saving the
| | 02:15 | render using the correct file format.
| | 02:17 | Let's turn off the Display Alpha
Channel button so we can see the
| | 02:20 | full-color image and we'll go in and
take a look at what formats we have to
| | 02:23 | choose from when saving.
| | 02:25 | We can get there in the upper left-hand
corner by simply clicking on the Save Image button.
| | 02:29 | It's vital that you understand that
not all image formats save out with a
| | 02:39 | built in Alpha data.
| | 02:40 | JPEG, for an example, doesn't nor does BMP.
| | 02:44 | The formats that work best for
including Alpha Channel data are PNG, RLA and
| | 02:50 | RPF, TIFF and the one that'll
choose here, the Targa, TGA format.
| | 02:55 | Those are all individual image formats.
| | 02:57 | When rendering out as an animation,
be aware that the AVI file format does
| | 03:02 | not allow you to save with an Alpha Channel,
QuickTime movies with the .MOV format does.
| | 03:07 | But only if you choose the millions
of colors plus setting when saving up.
| | 03:11 | That's all very important as you
would be very happy waiting around for a
| | 03:15 | render to wrap up, then find out after the fact
that your file doesn't include the needed Alpha.
| | 03:20 | Well, in our scenario, we're going to
play things out as if we are rendering
| | 03:23 | the entire animation.
| | 03:25 | What our plan will be though is to
render our scene explosion as a series of
| | 03:28 | sequentially numbered images, which
means the Targa format will work just fine.
| | 03:32 | When we get to the Targa settings, on the
left hand side of the dialog, click on Setup.
| | 03:36 | At the top, under Image Attributes,
we'll want to make sure that Bits Per
| | 03:42 | Pixel is set to 32.
| | 03:43 | It will be that extra 8 bits of
information that'll give us our Alpha.
| | 03:47 | On the right you'll most there's also an
Alpha Split option when using the Targa format.
| | 03:53 | Checking that would render two
separate images, one containing only the color
| | 03:58 | data from the image.
| | 03:59 | The second, a black-and-white 8-bit
image representing the torn away Alpha
| | 04:03 | Channel data that would come in handy
when used in an application that could
| | 04:07 | accept the Alpha
information as a separate component.
| | 04:11 | For our example we'll leave
the Alpha Split option off.
[00:04:16.86 That's about it.
| | 04:18 | We could now render our file.
| | 04:20 | What we would be left with would be a
series of individual images each having a
| | 04:24 | stored level of transparency information
that could then be used in our favorite
| | 04:28 | compositing software.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
5. Introduction to Space Warps Understanding space warps| 00:00 | In a nutshell, a space warp can be
defined as a non-rendering object that's used
| | 00:05 | to affect the appearance or behavior of
other objects or particles in a scene.
| | 00:09 | They can be used to create
a wide variety of effects.
| | 00:12 | Forming ripples or waves in a surface.
| | 00:15 | Adding wind to affect anything from a flag
on a pole to the sprinkler watering a lawn.
| | 00:19 | There is even a subset of space
warps that are designed to have one thing
| | 00:23 | deflect, or bounce off another.
| | 00:25 | So there is a whole bunch of things
that space warps can be used to do.
| | 00:29 | Found in the Create column under their
own tab, Max's space warps are divided
| | 00:33 | into several different types.
| | 00:35 | Atmospheric, or what are called Force
effects, that category offering things
| | 00:39 | like Wind and Gravity.
| | 00:40 | You've got Geometric space warps that
make objects of all shapes and sizes,
| | 00:45 | to form in some ways.
| | 00:46 | There you will find things like waves
and ripples, and a special set called
| | 00:50 | Deflectors which when added to a
scene, you guessed it, make one thing
| | 00:54 | deflect off another.
| | 00:55 | Some space warps are designed to
be used with particles, others used
| | 00:59 | exclusively with objects.
| | 01:00 | So there's a handful of different
things to consider and different things that
| | 01:03 | you can do and like with most of 3ds
Max's particle systems, a space warp's
| | 01:08 | orientation in the scene, in other
words the direction the space warp points
| | 01:12 | or comes from affects how it works.
| | 01:14 | Let me give an example of how space warp
could be used in helping to create an effect.
| | 01:19 | Let's say that we build a fireworks
particle system that we want to shoot into the air.
| | 01:23 | To add realism to the effect, we
will want the fireworks sparks to begin
| | 01:26 | falling back down toward Earth, after they've
had a chance to explode and throw out their colors.
| | 01:31 | To get that to happen, we'll call on
a Gravity space warp to achieve that
| | 01:34 | pulling down effect.
| | 01:36 | Now here is what's A number one
important. In order for the Gravity to affect
| | 01:39 | the fireworks, the Gravity, the space
warp in other words, would need to be
| | 01:44 | somehow linked or associated to the
particle system that it's designed to
| | 01:48 | affect, that particle
system being that fireworks.
| | 01:51 | That connecting or locking one with
the other procedure has an official name.
| | 01:55 | It's called Bind to Space Warp.
| | 01:57 | And until that proper binding takes
place, a space warp, the Gravity in our
| | 02:01 | example here, will have actually no
affect on whatever in the scene it's
| | 02:04 | designed to influence.
| | 02:06 | In our fireworks example, that
would be the actual shooting fireworks.
| | 02:09 | So when space warps influence are used,
all boils down to the binding process,
| | 02:14 | which we'll be taking a look in the
next video, and to increase the usefulness
| | 02:18 | of space warps even further, you could
even bind several space warps to the same
| | 02:21 | object or set of particles, which
would then allow your object or particle
| | 02:25 | system to be affected by several Force-
like effects, all of the same time or all
| | 02:30 | during the same animation.
| | 02:31 | So maybe in a fireworks example, we
could have our fireworks sparks pulled down
| | 02:35 | by Gravity, while at the same
time being affected by gust of wind.
| | 02:39 | You could even go a step further,r
creating a Deflecting space warp that would
| | 02:42 | have the particle sparks suddenly
bounce off the ground, should they actually
| | 02:46 | make their way back down to the
city floor, before disintegrating away.
| | 02:49 | So with space warps, there
is all kinds of possibilities.
| | 02:53 | Okay, why don't we head on into the
next video, where we'll take a closer look
| | 02:56 | at the Bind to Space Warp process?
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using Bind to Space Warp| 00:00 | In order for space warp to affect an
object or particle system, the warp must be
| | 00:05 | bound or connected to that other scene element.
| | 00:08 | This video will show you how that's
done and I'm going to be using a file
| | 00:11 | named Bind to Space Warp.
| | 00:13 | The scene currently displays a simple
sphere object and a space warp called a ripple.
| | 00:18 | The ripple being the light
purple colored icon on the left side.
| | 00:21 | Now at this point, neither has been
bound to the other, so moving the ripple
| | 00:25 | will have absolutely no
effect on the green ball.
| | 00:28 | Let's see if in fact that's the case.
| | 00:29 | Now the story changes if we
actually bind the two together.
| | 00:32 | The command we'll use for
that is Bind to Space Warp.
| | 00:36 | It's found just to the right of the
Link and Unlink commands on the far left
| | 00:39 | side of the toolbar.
| | 00:40 | Now, just like when linking objects,
the binding technique simply involves
| | 00:44 | pulling one to the other while
holding down the left mouse button.
| | 00:47 | You can actually bind going either direction.
| | 00:49 | Although the command formally says
bind the object or particle system to the
| | 00:53 | space warp, and here is how it's done.
| | 00:55 | Let's select the sphere, then make sure the
Bind to Space Warp command is indeed active.
| | 00:59 | Now placing our mouse on the sphere,
you'll notice the cursor changing.
| | 01:03 | With the new cursor picture simply, hold the
left mouse down then pull away from the sphere.
| | 01:07 | Now if you've done this right, your
cursor will now be trail by a perforated line.
| | 01:11 | Now the next step is to take your cursor and
place it directly on top of the space warp.
| | 01:15 | Now when you make a good connection,
you'll again see the cursor picture change.
| | 01:19 | When it does, let go the left mouse button.
| | 01:23 | Right away, we can see the effect
that's now created, with the ripple now
| | 01:26 | affecting the appearance of the sphere shape.
| | 01:29 | Let's select the sphere then go to the
Modify column, to check out the modifier stack.
| | 01:32 | As you'll see in the stack, layered
directly on top of the sphere entry is an
| | 01:36 | entry called Ripple Binding.
| | 01:38 | Okay, let's now go back and select the
Ripple space warp, moving it back and
| | 01:41 | forth from side to side.
| | 01:43 | So look what's happening. Moving the
space warp directly affects the look of the
| | 01:47 | sphere and the same would hold true if
we rotated or scaled the Ripple space warp.
| | 01:50 | Let's try that.
| | 01:56 | Now if you no longer want a space
warp's influence on something it's been bound to,
| | 01:59 | there's two ways to eliminate that binding.
| | 02:02 | Both techniques would require you to
select the sphere then head on over
| | 02:05 | the modifier stack.
| | 02:07 | Option number one would be to simply turn
off the Ripple Binding icon inside the stack.
| | 02:11 | You can do that by clicking once
on the light bulb to the left of the
| | 02:14 | Ripple Binding name.
| | 02:16 | The other elimination option would have
you actually deleting the ripple entry
| | 02:19 | from being on top of the sphere in the stack.
| | 02:21 | Now there's two ways you can do that.
You can either right-click directly on the
| | 02:25 | name Ripple Binding, then from the
menu choosing Delete, or with the Ripple
| | 02:29 | Binding in the stack selected, you
could go below the stack, clicking on the
| | 02:33 | icon that's named Remove
modifier from the stack.
| | 02:36 | Either way you decide to go you'll
be removing the binding and influence of
| | 02:40 | the ripple on the sphere.
| | 02:41 | Now why don't we also check into that
binding process when using a particle system?
| | 02:46 | Let's do this. We'll select
both objects in our scene.
| | 02:49 | We'll then right-click, choosing Hide Selection.
| | 02:51 | Now going up to the right-hand side
of the toolbar, we'll enter the Save
| | 02:55 | selection set area. From the list
that opens, let's choose Particles.
| | 02:58 | And when the dialog box
opens, you can simply say OK.
| | 03:02 | Okay, why don't we now scrub the Timeline?
| | 03:04 | What we have in our scene is a Super
Spray emitting sphere shape particles
| | 03:08 | toward the top area of our screen.
| | 03:09 | You'll also notice a navy blue box in
addition to a couple of space warps.
| | 03:14 | A Gravity positioned to the right of
the bottom of the box and what is called a
| | 03:18 | UDeflector over on the far left.
| | 03:20 | What we'll do is bind the Gravity to
the space warp. We'll then see if we can
| | 03:24 | pull the yellow particle shapes
down more in line with the navy box.
| | 03:28 | Now once we have done that, we'll bind
the UDeflector also to the Super Spray to
| | 03:32 | see if we can get the
particles to bounce off the box.
| | 03:35 | So one particle system with
two space warps bound to it.
| | 03:39 | Now to start, let's select the Gravity
space warp icon, changing its Strength to zero.
| | 03:43 | We can now select the Super Spray and
activate the Bind to Space Warp command.
| | 03:48 | Okay here we go. W'll simply now
drag the Super Spray, with the line attached,
| | 03:53 | over to the Gravity.
| | 03:54 | Now once we have made contact, with the
cursor changing, we'll let go over to
| | 03:57 | the left mouse button.
| | 03:58 | Now we can go ahead and reselect
the gravity and play back our Timeline.
| | 04:02 | Now again with our Force Strength set
to zero, the gravity at this point is
| | 04:05 | having no affect on the yellow particles.
| | 04:08 | Well that's all now I'm going to
change as we increase that Strength amount.
| | 04:11 | Once experimenting a little bit,
I'll set this Strength to 0.06.
| | 04:16 | That will make sure that the particles
are directly in line with the navy blue box.
| | 04:19 | Now the second part of the process will
be to use the UDeflector space warp, to
| | 04:23 | get the particles to bounce off the box.
| | 04:25 | Now I mentioned just a moment ago that the
binding process can go either way, so let's do this.
| | 04:30 | We'll stop our play and we'll select
the UDeflector icon in the lower left
| | 04:35 | hand corner in the view.
| | 04:36 | This time, we'll pull in the opposite direction.
| | 04:39 | We'll verify to make sure Bind to
Space Warp icon is active then, we'll
| | 04:42 | physically bind the
UDeflector back to the super spray.
| | 04:45 | Now again you're not going to want to
let go off your mouse until you verify
| | 04:48 | the cursor has indeed changed shape.
| | 04:51 | Once it has, you can go ahead and
let go off your left mouse button.
| | 04:54 | Now let's go and play that
back and see how things look.
| | 04:58 | So check that out. We've got two space
warps now affecting the Super Spray.
| | 05:03 | The Gravity, to pull the yellow
particles down toward the box and the
| | 05:07 | UDeflector, to ensure that the
particles indeed bounce off the box.
| | 05:11 | Now over on the right with the
UDeflector selected, we could always now
| | 05:14 | change the Bounce amount.
| | 05:17 | Let's try for an example 0.4, and I
wonder how that would look if we went
| | 05:24 | down to let's say 0.1.
| | 05:26 | So there you go with a couple of different
examples of the Bind to Space Warp technique.
| | 05:30 | Now at any time you want your space
warp to actually do something, whether to
| | 05:33 | an object or to a series of particles, that
binding will be a needed part of the equation.
| | 05:38 | I'm going to go ahead and save things
out as Bind to Space Warp Completed if you
| | 05:41 | would like to take a look.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding Gravity to an effect| 00:00 | The Gravity space warp is designed to
apply a gravitational pulling affect to
| | 00:04 | any particle system that it's been bound to.
| | 00:06 | Once added to the scene, both the
direction and the strength of that pull can
| | 00:10 | then be either adjusted or animated.
| | 00:12 | Now to show you how it works, I'm going to
be using a file named Gravity Space Warp.
| | 00:16 | Scrubbing the Timeline reveals that we
have a PArray system blowing up a yellow
| | 00:20 | ball, currently push straight out
from the exploding PArray that's been
| | 00:24 | positioned in the middle of the sphere.
| | 00:25 | That position representing the
origination point for the explosion.
| | 00:29 | Now we won't be covering the
technique until our project on creating an
| | 00:32 | explosion, but I want you to also
notice that the original sphere had to be hid
| | 00:36 | once the PArray fragments explode.
| | 00:38 | That was done using
something called a Visibility Track.
| | 00:41 | That hiding from view process was
necessary due to the fact that it's not the
| | 00:45 | original object, but instead the
PArray particle system that's creating our
| | 00:49 | actual geometry fragments.
| | 00:50 | Now with the typical explosion effect,
sooner or later the debris from the blast
| | 00:54 | will fall to the ground.
| | 00:55 | We'll create that effect by adding
and binding a Gravity space warp to
| | 00:59 | our exploding PArray.
| | 01:00 | The gravitational pull from our
effect will travel in the direction of our
| | 01:04 | Gravity viewport icon.
| | 01:05 | So the viewport we create our
space warp in will be important.
| | 01:08 | For falling down direction, we'll want
to create our Gravity in the Top view.
| | 01:12 | Let's go and do that.
| | 01:13 | In the Create column, we'll
activate the space warp's icon.
| | 01:16 | Under the Forces type of space warp, on
the left-hand side, you'll see the Gravity.
| | 01:20 | Let's go and click on that.
| | 01:21 | Now activating the Top view, we'll
position our Gravity space warp to the
| | 01:24 | right of our yellow ball.
| | 01:26 | Now, although the position of the
Gravity icon in relation to the exploding
| | 01:30 | PArray would be important if we're
using the Decay setting on the space warp.
| | 01:33 | For our example here, the position of
our space warp icon will make no difference.
| | 01:38 | The only thing we really need to be
aware of is that the particle icons stick,
| | 01:41 | the direction of our Gravity, is
pointing downward in our Perspective view.
| | 01:45 | Okay with that now verified, let's
activate the Perspective view, going full screen.
| | 01:50 | We'll make that four to one viewport
conversion using the Alt+W keyboard shortcut.
| | 01:54 | Okay, I think we're ready to go.
| | 01:56 | Let's go ahead and bind things together.
| | 01:58 | I'll scrub to middle frame so I can
better see the PArray icon. Now moving to
| | 02:02 | the upper left-hand corner of the
toolbar, I'll activate Bind to Space Warp.
| | 02:06 | From here, I'll simply bind one of the
particle fragments back to the Gravity.
| | 02:09 | Okay, once I've done that I'll return
to Select mode by hitting the Q shortcut
| | 02:13 | key on the keyboard.
| | 02:14 | Then select and adjust the Gravity
Strength, I'll reselect the Gravity
| | 02:17 | space warp in the view.
| | 02:18 | Now with the Modify column open,
we'll go ahead and play things back.
| | 02:22 | Okay, now as expected you'll see the
particles are being dragged down in the
| | 02:26 | direction of the Gravity space warp icon.
| | 02:28 | Over on the right, let's now
adjust that Gravity Strength.
| | 02:31 | Let's try a value of 2.0.
| | 02:33 | You can see how now things are being
grabbed and pulled down a little more
| | 02:35 | aggressively. Let's try a value of
3.0, and even harder or faster still.
| | 02:41 | Let's take that back to 1.0.
| | 02:43 | If we wanted the explosion fragments to
move more to one side or the other,
| | 02:47 | we would simply rotate the Gravity icon.
| | 02:49 | Let's see how things would look if we
rotate the arrow going more toward the
| | 02:52 | left-hand side of our view.
| | 02:54 | And why don't we also experiment
moving things more to the right?
| | 03:02 | Okay, let's undo those last two
operations, taking the icon arrow back to
| | 03:05 | pointing straight down.
| | 03:07 | Now if we use the negative value for
the Gravity Strength, the pulling effect
| | 03:10 | would go in the opposite or
negative direction. Let's try that.
| | 03:15 | Now look at the difference there.
| | 03:16 | Why don't we try negative 1.0, and as
you can see the Gravity now pushes our
| | 03:20 | fragments a little more
aggressively toward the topside.
| | 03:22 | You know when you think it through, a
normal explosion would have the particle
| | 03:26 | fragments initially going upward, then
once their velocity slowed down, gravity
| | 03:31 | would then kick in pulling them back
down toward the ground, and we can create
| | 03:34 | that look by animating our
Gravity's Strength value. Let's try that.
| | 03:38 | Let's stop the play
returning to the first frame.
| | 03:41 | Now we'll set the initial
Strength of our Gravity to negative 0.5.
| | 03:44 | That will create that upward explosive effect.
| | 03:47 | We can now turn on our Auto Key,
taking our Timeline to frame 45.
| | 03:51 | Okay for the first one-and-a-half
seconds of our animation, we want to maintain
| | 03:55 | the Strength of being negative 0.5.
| | 03:57 | We can lock that value when at frame 45
by merely holding down the Shift key and
| | 04:01 | right-clicking on the Strength spinner.
| | 04:02 | Now once you've done that, notice
the brackets now around that spinner.
| | 04:06 | That's backs us a way of letting us know,
we now have a keyframe at 45 with that
| | 04:10 | same Strength value.
| | 04:11 | So if we scrub the timeline, you'll see
over the first 45 frames, the Gravity is
| | 04:15 | having the explosion effect go up.
| | 04:17 | Now to pull things back down, we'll
go to frame 95 and then change the
| | 04:21 | Strength value to 2.0.
| | 04:22 | Okay now we've kind of run out of frames,
so let's right-click on our playback
| | 04:26 | head and change the total number frames to 150.
| | 04:28 | We can now zoom out a
little bit and play things back.
| | 04:31 | So there is a more realistic explosion.
| | 04:33 | First blowing things up into the air,
then having the gravitational pull
| | 04:37 | pull them back down.
| | 04:38 | That already gives you a few things
that you can now use and apply when using
| | 04:41 | the Gravity space warp.
| | 04:42 | I'm going to go ahead and save my scene
out as Gravity Space Warp Completed if
| | 04:45 | you would like to look it over.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding Wind to an effect| 00:00 | The Wind space warp simulates a
blowing effect that can be used on a wide
| | 00:04 | range of applications.
| | 00:06 | Anything from the movement of particle
leaves on a windy day, to making a flag
| | 00:10 | dance during a dynamic simulation.
| | 00:12 | Let's take a look at some of the settings.
| | 00:13 | Now I have created a scene named Wind Space
Warp that we can use for our demonstration.
| | 00:18 | It simply consists of the Snow particle
systemthat's been spread over 200 frames.
| | 00:23 | If we activate, then play back the Front view,
| | 00:26 | we can see that the snow particles fall
primarily straight down, although the
| | 00:30 | Tumble setting on the system does
provide subtle side-to-side movement.
| | 00:34 | What I'd like to do is to create more of
a windy effect, maybe even blowing the
| | 00:38 | snowflakes one way than the other.
| | 00:40 | Now when creating our Wind space warp, the
viewport it's made in will make a difference.
| | 00:44 | If when looking in the Front view,
we wanted our particles to travel from
| | 00:48 | one side to the other, we'd want to be sure to
create our Wind system in the left-hand window.
| | 00:52 | Let's do that.
| | 00:53 | In the Create column, we'll click on
the space warps tab, then under Forces and
| | 00:57 | on the right-hand side click on Wind.
| | 01:00 | Now, why don't we simply go to the middle of
our left-hand window, drawing out our Wind icon?
| | 01:05 | Once the Wind has been created,
scrubbing our timeline shows the wind as
| | 01:08 | currently having no effect on our snow. Why?
| | 01:11 | Well, nothing has been bound together.
| | 01:13 | So we need to activate the Bind to
Space Warp command and make the connection.
| | 01:17 | I'll select my Snow particle icon,
click on Bind to Space Warp, then hit H.
| | 01:22 | This enables me to quickly and easily
select the wind directly from a list.
| | 01:26 | Okay, let's now activate the Front view
full screen and we'll reselect the Wind icon.
| | 01:34 | We can now go ahead and play things back.
| | 01:39 | Now over on the right, you'll
notice the wind Strength being set at 1.
| | 01:43 | Let's now take the spinners and
adjust that both higher and lower.
| | 01:47 | Now notice the effect when we go to a
negative Strength, the wind now is pulling
| | 01:51 | in the opposite direction.
| | 01:53 | Now you can even animate the wind's
direction, which we'll do in just a minute.
| | 01:56 | But first, let's take a look at
special setting called Turbulence.
| | 02:00 | What Turbulence does is causes the
particles to change course in a more random manner.
| | 02:05 | The greater the value, the more
aggressive the turbulence effect.
| | 02:08 | Now we can probably see it best if we
reduce our Wind Strength back down to zero.
| | 02:12 | Now let's adjust the Turbulence.
| | 02:14 | Let's try a value of 3.
| | 02:15 | You can see the way that the
particles are now being kicked around in a
| | 02:18 | more random fashion.
| | 02:20 | Let's try a Turbulence of 4, and why
don't we also experiment with a value of 5?
| | 02:31 | If we now go back to our Strength
typing in 0.5, we can see both the Wind and
| | 02:36 | the Turbulence effect.
| | 02:37 | The Frequency Setting, down below
Turbulence, causes the turbulence to vary
| | 02:41 | periodically over time.
| | 02:43 | For our example here, we'll
leave the Frequency set to 0.
| | 02:46 | Now you'll notice there is
also a setting called Decay.
| | 02:48 | When set to a value higher than zero,
the strength of the wind will diminish as
| | 02:53 | the distance increases away from the
Wind icon, which creates the opportunity of
| | 02:58 | completely changing the effect.
| | 03:00 | Now you don't need much here, so
let's keep the numbers real low.
| | 03:03 | We'll take the Decay to 0.005.
| | 03:06 | Now with the position of the Wind icon,
look at the way the effect changes with
| | 03:10 | further down in the system.
| | 03:11 | Let's try and set a Decay value of 0.01.
| | 03:14 | Let's take both our Decay and
Strength values back to zero.
| | 03:18 | Now a moment ago, I mentioned that the Wind's
direction could be animated. Let's try that.
| | 03:23 | With the Strength set at zero,
we'll turn on our Auto Key.
| | 03:26 | What we'll do is locked down the Strength at
zero over the first one second of our animation.
| | 03:30 | So at frame 30, let's hold the Shift key
down then right-click on the Strength spinner.
| | 03:35 | Notice the red brackets around the
spinners indicating that we've got a keyframe
| | 03:38 | now set at that frame.
| | 03:40 | Okay, let's now go to frame 80 on the timeline.
| | 03:43 | Here, let's change the Strength value to 3.
| | 03:46 | Now if we scrub the timeline, we'll
notice the snow originally falling straight down,
| | 03:49 | then taking immediate exit to the left.
| | 03:53 | Okay, we'll now go to frame 100,
knocking the Strength value back down to zero.
| | 03:57 | To create the effect of the snowflakes
now rushing in the other direction, we'll
| | 04:00 | go to frame 140 and change the Strength to -3.
| | 04:05 | Now we can take our animation back to
the first frame and play things back.
| | 04:08 | So we've got the snow floating first
downward, then being grabbed by the wind,
| | 04:12 | pulling it left then right.
| | 04:14 | Now with just these few settings
we've experimented with, I got to believe
| | 04:16 | you are going to be able to come up with
quite a few applications in your own scenes.
| | 04:20 | You know how the Wind
works. Now go put it to use.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Rotating particles with Motor space warp| 00:00 | The Motor space warp can be used to
apply rotational torque to both particles
| | 00:05 | and objects participating
in a dynamic simulation.
| | 00:08 | It serves as an ideal way of creating effects
like swirling clouds of dust or other debris.
| | 00:13 | Let's take a look at how it works.
| | 00:13 | We'll start by creating a PCloud
particle system in our Top view.
| | 00:21 | Let's now type in some size
values over on the right-hand side.
| | 00:25 | In the Display Icon category, let's
take the Length to 300, the Width to 300,
| | 00:30 | and for this example,
we'll take our Height to 0.
| | 00:34 | Now, to center our PCloud in world-space,
let's now go to the Move icon and right-click.
| | 00:39 | Using the Absolute:World values in the
left-hand side of the dialog, let's take
| | 00:43 | X, Y, and Z, all to 0.
| | 00:45 | We can now close the window, then
type Z for Zoom Extents selected.
| | 00:49 | Okay, for the total number of
particles we'll use in our PCloud, let's take
| | 00:52 | our Use Rate to 1000.
| | 00:54 | You'll find that under
the Particle Generation tab.
| | 00:57 | Now, we can add our Motor space warp.
| | 00:59 | That too will be created in the Top view.
| | 01:01 | On the right-hand side in the Create
column, let's open up the space warps.
| | 01:04 | We'll stay in the Forces category,
choosing Motor, which is on the top-left side.
| | 01:10 | Let's now create that Warp over to
the right-hand side in our Top view.
| | 01:13 | Now, with the Motor, the size of the
icon doesn't matter, but the position will.
| | 01:18 | Let's now bind the PCloud to the Motor.
| | 01:20 | Okay, once we've done that, we'll go
back and select the Motor icon, planning on
| | 01:24 | aligning it to the middle of
our PCloud in all four views.
| | 01:27 | For that, we'll use the Align tool on
the upper right-hand side of our toolbar.
| | 01:31 | Once you've activated that button,
let's go ahead and click on the PCloud icon.
| | 01:35 | Okay, in the dialog, let's make
sure that the Current Object and Target
| | 01:38 | Object are both set to Center, and
under Align Position, we'll activate all
| | 01:43 | three, X, Y, and Z. Once you've
done that, at the bottom, you can click
| | 01:47 | either Apply or OK.
| | 01:50 | Now, we can take our Perspective view
full-screen. We'll play things back and
| | 01:53 | see how things look.
| | 01:58 | Now at this point, you'll notice
the particles moving very slowly.
| | 02:02 | Let's stop our playback and
change the Motor's Off Time setting.
| | 02:05 | We'll take that from the
default value of 30 frames out to 100.
| | 02:08 | Now, what that'll do is keep the Motor's
influence going until the end of our animation.
| | 02:14 | Let's now go ahead and resume our playback.
| | 02:19 | Now, back on the right, under the
Strength Control, we'll adjust the Basic Torque.
| | 02:23 | Let's take that value to 100.
| | 02:24 | Now, you can see the difference that's made.
| | 02:28 | Let's try instead a Torque value of 500.
| | 02:32 | You can see how things are spinning
away faster still, and why don't we
| | 02:36 | experiment with let's say 1000?
| | 02:42 | So, the Basic Torque setting controls the
amount of, well, Torque on our Motor system.
| | 02:47 | A little further down in the
settings, you'll see a category called
| | 02:50 | Particle Effect Range.
| | 02:52 | When enabled, this will control just
how far into the distance the Motor's
| | 02:56 | influence will affect the
particles in the PCloud.
| | 02:59 | Before we get too carried away,
let's go ahead and zoom out on our view.
| | 03:02 | Let's play things back and turn on Enable.
| | 03:04 | Now, when you do, you'll see a spherically-
shaped icon now surrounding the Motor space warp.
| | 03:09 | Back on the right, notice the
Effect Range is currently set at 1000.
| | 03:12 | Now, watch what happens. We'll take
that to 600, and why don't we also
| | 03:17 | experiment with let's say a value of 400.
| | 03:22 | So, what we see is the Motor's
persuasion or influence travels only out to the
| | 03:27 | far boundaries of the Effect Range.
| | 03:29 | Let's turn Enable off and we'll
see the difference that is made.
| | 03:36 | Back on again, you can see the Effect Range
is quite substantial in its level of influence.
| | 03:41 | Let's continue on by
unchecking the Enable button.
| | 03:44 | Now earlier, I mentioned that the location of
the Motor icon was important. Let's do this.
| | 03:50 | Once we've stopped playback,
we'll zoom back into our system.
| | 03:53 | I'll now move the Motor space warp
to a corner edge of our PCloud icon.
| | 03:57 | Let's zoom back out, then resume
playback to see the difference that's made.
| | 04:07 | As you can see, the particles are
now sweeping to the side of the PCloud.
| | 04:12 | Back on the right, let's re-
enable the Particle Effect Range.
| | 04:16 | Let's try a few different numbers here.
| | 04:18 | We'll take that Range to 1000.
| | 04:26 | Then 500.
| | 04:32 | You can see the difference that's made.
| | 04:33 | Then we'll go back and
turn the Range completely off.
| | 04:36 | So that's the Motor space warp.
| | 04:38 | I'll save my file out as Motor Space
Warp Completed, should you want to look at over.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating swirling effects with Vortex space warp| 00:00 | Max's Vortex space warp is ideal
for creating tornado or other whirling
| | 00:04 | type special effects.
| | 00:06 | The particles that the warp
controls are driven down a spout or what is
| | 00:10 | officially referred to as a vortex well.
| | 00:13 | I will show you how things work
using a file named Vortex space warp.
| | 00:17 | The scene currently consists
of a PCloud particle system.
| | 00:20 | Our work will begin by creating a vortex
to the right of the PCloud in the Top view.
| | 00:25 | To have the vortex now affect our
PCloud particles, we'll bind the vortex
| | 00:29 | back to the PCloud icon.
| | 00:31 | Remember, the binding process can go either way.
| | 00:34 | As we scrub our timeline, it's obvious
that the Vortex position in relation to
| | 00:39 | the particle system that it
affects makes a difference.
| | 00:44 | For our example, let's center the
space warp on top of our PCloud system.
| | 00:48 | To do that, we will select the Vortex,
then open up the Align command on the
| | 00:52 | right-hand side of our toolbar.
| | 00:54 | Now, once the button has been activated,
we can go ahead and click on our PCloud icon.
| | 00:59 | In the dialog box, we will make sure
the Current Object and Target Object
| | 01:02 | are both set to Center.
| | 01:04 | Then above that under Align position, we
want to activate all three, x, y, and z.
| | 01:09 | Now once we have done that at the
bottom, we can click either Apply or OK.
| | 01:12 | Now watch what the difference the
centering has made if we again scrub our timeline.
| | 01:17 | With using the Vortex, the size or area
of the particle icon it affects can make
| | 01:22 | a big difference on how the effect turns out.
| | 01:24 | Let's select our PCloud icon,
changing its Height to 500.
| | 01:36 | Again, then playing things back,
you can see the difference.
| | 01:40 | Let's go ahead and take the PCloud
Height back to the original value of 200 and
| | 01:48 | once we have done that, we will take
our Perspective view then full-screen.
| | 01:53 | Now you can also control the timing
of how long the Vortex holds on with
| | 01:57 | its whirling effect.
| | 01:58 | To show you that, we will have
to go back and select our Vortex.
| | 02:01 | I will use the Select by Name list by
typing H. We can then begin playback, then
| | 02:06 | turn our attention to the right-hand column.
| | 02:08 | Now up at the top, under the Parameters
category, we have a section called Timing.
| | 02:14 | Let's take the Time Off value to 10.
| | 02:16 | So with this, the Vortex affects the particles
only for the first ten frames of our animation.
| | 02:21 | Let's change the Time Off to let's say 50.
| | 02:23 | Here it grabs or holds on a little longer.
| | 02:26 | Let's take that to the original default of 100.
| | 02:28 | You can also control the actual shape
or distance from side to side in the way
| | 02:33 | the particles turn within the well.
| | 02:35 | For this, we will be adjusting the Vortex shape.
| | 02:38 | Under Taper Length, let's
change the number from 100 to 1500.
| | 02:43 | You can see how the Vortex
effect is has now been spread out.
| | 02:46 | Let's take that back to 100.
| | 02:47 | So you can create a tight spiral
downward or something maybe a little more
| | 02:51 | loose like you'd see in a
churning whirlpool out at sea.
| | 02:54 | You can also control what is called the
Axial Drop, which is just how much or how
| | 02:59 | fast the particles travel downward.
| | 03:01 | Let's take our Axial Drop to 0
to see how that changes the effect.
| | 03:06 | Now, the PCloud particles stay
contained within the particle icon.
| | 03:10 | Let's try an Axial Drop value of let's say 3.
| | 03:13 | Now you can see how things
fall at a very rapid pace.
| | 03:16 | Let's take that drop value back
to the original default of 0.1.
| | 03:18 | Why don't we also see how the effect
would change if we move the Vortex back to
| | 03:23 | the side of the PCloud.
| | 03:24 | For that, I will temporarily zoom back
in, then move the Vortex to over let's
| | 03:28 | say the left-hand side of the PCloud.
| | 03:30 | Pulling out back away and playing
things again reveals our results.
| | 03:34 | So there you go with the Vortex space warp.
| | 03:37 | Tornadoes, dust devils,
whirlpools, a lot it can do.
| | 03:40 | I will save the file up as Vortex
Space Warp Completed if you want to check it out.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Blowing things up with Bomb space warp| 00:00 | The Bomb space warp serves as
another way to blow things up.
| | 00:03 | Now unlike its exploding counterpart
the PArray, a bomb's position in your
| | 00:08 | scene will control just exactly
where its blasting effect originates.
| | 00:12 | I am going to drop a sphere
in the middle of my Top view.
| | 00:14 | I will then zoom out a ways in all four windows.
| | 00:17 | Okay, going back on the left, we'll go
where the space warp's looking for the Bomb.
| | 00:21 | Now very important in the Space Warp category,
you will find both the Bomb and the PBomb.
| | 00:26 | It's the Bomb we want for this one.
| | 00:28 | So we will go under the Forces button,
changing over to Geometric Deformable.
| | 00:32 | Now, from here, we can see the Bomb
command over on the lower left-hand side.
| | 00:36 | Let's click on that button then drop a Bomb
in the lower right corner of our Top view.
| | 00:40 | Its icon will look like a
small three-dimensional pyramid.
| | 00:43 | Now once we have it in place, let's go
ahead and bind our sphere back to the Bomb.
| | 00:48 | Once we have done that, let's return to the
Select mode by typing the Q key on our keyboard.
| | 00:52 | Okay, let's now scrub back our timeline.
| | 00:54 | Focusing on our Top view we will see how
the sphere geometry is pushing in the
| | 00:58 | opposite direction than the Bomb icon.
| | 01:00 | We will see indeed how the position
of that Bomb icon makes a difference by
| | 01:04 | moving it to the lower left-hand
corner then scrubbing the Timeline again.
| | 01:08 | Okay, with the Bomb space warp
selected, let's move over to the Modify
| | 01:11 | column for our settings.
| | 01:12 | We can then go ahead and
begin to play things back.
| | 01:15 | For the timing of the explosion, you
will find the control named Detonation
| | 01:19 | under the General category at the bottom.
| | 01:21 | By default, the Bomb's effect begins at Frame 5.
| | 01:24 | Let's change that using a Detonation time of 15.
| | 01:27 | As far as the strength of the
explosion effect, you will see that in the
| | 01:30 | Explosion category under,
you guessed it, Strength.
| | 01:33 | Now, it's currently set to 1.
| | 01:34 | Let's change that Strength to let's say 3.
| | 01:37 | Let's also try a value of 5.
| | 01:42 | Now, if you want the Sphere fragments to
spin in some way, we can change the Spin value.
| | 01:46 | Let's set that to 1.
| | 01:47 | Now if you want that a little slower, we
can take that number down a little bit lower.
| | 01:54 | Why don't we try 0.5?
| | 01:56 | Let's now stop our playback,
changing our attention to the Front view.
| | 02:00 | Now, from here upon Detonation,
there seems to be some pull of gravity.
| | 02:04 | You can find that setting again down
at the bottom in the General category.
| | 02:08 | Let's try a Gravity value
of 0 and see how things look.
| | 02:13 | Let's try 2, and why don't we
also experiment with a value of 5?
| | 02:22 | So the higher value of Gravity,
the more the pulling down effect.
| | 02:25 | Now you can also use a negative
Gravity value to make things look like they
| | 02:29 | are exploding upward. Let's try -1.
| | 02:31 | you can see the difference that's made there.
| | 02:33 | We will take the Gravity back to 0.
| | 02:36 | Returning to our first frame, let's now
move the Bomb to the middle of the sphere.
| | 02:40 | We can do that using the
Align command on the toolbar.
| | 02:43 | In the dialog, we will make sure that
Current Object and Target Object are
| | 02:47 | both set to Center.
| | 02:48 | Then above that in Align position, we
will check all three X, Y, and Z.
| | 02:53 | Once we have done that, we can click on either
the Apply or OK buttons down at the bottom.
| | 02:58 | Now, why don't we switch back to
playing things back in our Perspective view?
| | 03:02 | Okay, now remember, the detonation
occurs from the position of the Bomb icon,
| | 03:06 | which is now in the center of our sphere.
| | 03:08 | Let's scrub the Timeline and
see how things now look different.
| | 03:12 | With things exploding so quickly, let's take
our Strength on our explosion back down to 1.
| | 03:17 | Now, when scrubbing the Timeline,
you will see not just the fragments
| | 03:20 | pulling away from the Bomb's center, but also
the spin of the individual geometric pieces.
| | 03:26 | Using our current settings, the
number of fragments are actually being
| | 03:29 | controlled by the number of
faces or segments on our sphere.
| | 03:32 | Let's go back to the Sphere, reducing
the number of segments down to 10 to see
| | 03:36 | how that would look.
| | 03:38 | Now, you can see the difference that's made.
| | 03:43 | If we want more particles being
generated - now they are still going to be
| | 03:46 | triangles because of the way the
sphere was created - we will change our Sphere's
| | 03:49 | Segment count to let's say 50.
| | 03:52 | Once you have done that,
you can scrub the Timeline again.
| | 03:57 | Now, the Bomb is not perfect.
| | 03:59 | You don't, for an example, have the
same level of fragment control as you do
| | 04:02 | with let's say the PArray.
| | 04:04 | But it certainly can be helpful when
wanting to make a down and dirty explosion
| | 04:08 | in a short period of time.
| | 04:10 | I will save things out as Bomb Space
Warp Completed if you want to go in and
| | 04:13 | experiment a little more.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Blowing things up with PBomb space warp| 00:00 | When used in conjunction with the PArray
particle system, a PBomb space warp can
| | 00:05 | offer a little different technique
and result in blowing something up.
| | 00:09 | To show you how that works, I will be
using a file named PBomb Space Warp.
| | 00:13 | Now the scene consists of a sphere
object with a particle array positioned to
| | 00:17 | its side and bound to it.
| | 00:19 | Both the Speed and Diversion settings on
the PArray have been set to 0, as we are
| | 00:23 | going to be using a PBomb to generate
the explosion and tearing away the object
| | 00:27 | fragments in our effect.
| | 00:28 | A Visibility Track is also been set
up on the sphere so when the PArray
| | 00:32 | fragments blow, things will look as they should.
| | 00:34 | Now you can find more information on
setting up Visibility Tracks in our project
| | 00:38 | chapter on creating explosions.
| | 00:40 | We will create a PBomb to the
side of our sphere in the Top view.
| | 00:44 | The PBomb can be found on the
Forces category of our space warps.
| | 00:48 | Now once created, the icon for the PBomb
will look like one of those old cartoon
| | 00:52 | type bombs with a fuse sticking out at the top.
| | 00:55 | Once we have got our space warp in play,
we can then bind the PArray to the PBomb.
| | 01:00 | Now, once you have made that binding
connection, you might want to go back to
| | 01:03 | the Select mode, tapping
the Q key on the keyboard.
| | 01:06 | Okay, let's now take our Top view full-
screen and we will scrub the Timeline.
| | 01:10 | Now think what's happening here.
| | 01:12 | It's not the PArray settings that are
controlling our explosion, but rather the
| | 01:15 | introduction of our PBomb.
| | 01:17 | Now the PBomb is another one of
those space warps whose detonation point
| | 01:21 | originates from the
position of the icon in the view.
| | 01:24 | Let's see how things would look
different if we instead position the PBomb in
| | 01:27 | the middle of our sphere object.
| | 01:29 | To do that, we will select the PBomb icon,
then activate the Align command up on the toolbar.
| | 01:34 | We can now then go ahead and
select our original sphere.
| | 01:36 | Now it's probably easiest to do that
by using the Select by Name command by
| | 01:40 | typing H. From the list,
you will click on Sphere001.
| | 01:47 | Okay, in the Align Selection dialog,
we want to make sure the both Current
| | 01:50 | Object and Target Object are set to Center.
| | 01:53 | We will then want to make sure up above
that under Align Position all three, X,
| | 01:58 | Y, and Z, are checked.
| | 01:59 | Now once we have done that
we can go ahead and say OK.
| | 02:01 | Why don't we now take our Perspective view full-
screen and now we can scrub over our Timeline.
| | 02:13 | For a slower explosion, let's
change the PBomb Strength to 0.5.
| | 02:16 | That will give us a chance to play things back,
being able to see our effect a little easier.
| | 02:22 | Okay, with that value change,
we can now use our playback.
| | 02:30 | The blasting effect can be
generated a couple of different ways.
| | 02:34 | Over on the right at the top under
Particle Bomb Blast Symmetry, let's change
| | 02:37 | from Spherical to Cylindrical.
| | 02:39 | Now you can see the difference that's
made as far as the way the chunks blow
| | 02:43 | away from the PBomb icon.
| | 02:45 | Why don't we also check into
the Planar type of explosion?
| | 02:48 | Here are things that you can see
blowing more of an up-and-down fashion.
| | 02:51 | Let's change that symmetry back to Spherical.
| | 02:54 | The Duration under the Explosion
Parameters sets the number of frames beyond the
| | 02:59 | first over which the force will be applied.
| | 03:01 | Now you will typically want to keep this
number small, maybe somewhere between 0 and 3.
| | 03:05 | Where the real control comes in the
PBomb is adjusting the explosion range.
| | 03:10 | The Range value controls the maximum
distance away from the PBomb icon that the
| | 03:15 | particles or the fragments will be affected.
| | 03:17 | So if you decrease the Range
enough, and here is what's cool,
| | 03:20 | the PBomb is then placed off to the
side of the particles that it's affecting.
| | 03:24 | You can make it soon up all the
surface's geometry is being affected by the
| | 03:27 | blast, creating a kind of partial
tearing away of the object surface.
| | 03:32 | Let's see if we can do something like that.
| | 03:34 | Now if we scrub our Timeline, we are
still getting a full explosive effect.
| | 03:38 | Now, here is how we can make some adjustments.
| | 03:40 | Over on the right, let's begin,
down at the bottom under Display icon,
| | 03:43 | turning on Range Indicator.
| | 03:46 | This gives us a visual representation
of how far the range actually expands.
| | 03:50 | What we will then do in the Explosion
Parameters part using the Range control,
| | 03:54 | I am going to use my spinner to
take that number now downward.
| | 03:57 | As I do, you can see how it
substantially changes that explosive effect, now
| | 04:02 | only tearing away certain
particles as opposed to the entire object.
| | 04:05 | You can experiment with the Range value,
adjusting the spinner higher and lower
| | 04:09 | to get the effect that you are aiming for.
| | 04:11 | Now once we have got that in a pretty good
range, we will go ahead and play our Timeline.
| | 04:14 | We see the partial
breaking down of our fragments.
| | 04:16 | Let's now on the PBomb adjust the
strength upward. We will take it to 5.
| | 04:20 | So that's pretty cool.
| | 04:21 | Now you could always go back in the
PArray to adjust the spin and thickness
| | 04:24 | of each fragment to finish off the effect,
but I think you get the idea of how things work.
| | 04:29 | So that's the PBomb being used
in combination with the PArray.
| | 04:32 | An effective technique, when you are
trying to have maybe a little more control
| | 04:35 | over your explosion.
| | 04:36 | I will go ahead and save this scene out
as PBomb Space Warp Completed if you'd
| | 04:40 | like to take a look.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Making particles follow a path| 00:00 | With the use of the Path Follow space
warp, particles can be programmed and
| | 00:04 | travel along a spline shape that you
draw in your scene, and it's a great way,
| | 00:08 | for an example, to have a trail of
pixie dust high in the sky spelling out a name
| | 00:11 | or maybe a flow of water
following a defined direction or pattern.
| | 00:15 | Let's take a look at how
you'd set the Path Follow up.
| | 00:18 | I have created a basic file that I
have named Path Follow Space Warp.
| | 00:21 | It consists of a Super Spray particle
system and a bright blue line that we will
| | 00:25 | be using as the path for our
Super Spray particles to follow.
| | 00:28 | Go ahead and scrub the Timeline.
| | 00:30 | Right now as we'd expect to see, we
have got the Super Spray particle emission
| | 00:34 | being determined by the settings that
we configured in the right-hand controls.
| | 00:38 | We'll change that by creating and binding
a Path Follow space warp to our particles.
| | 00:43 | In the right-hand column, let's open
up our space warps, choosing Path Follow.
| | 00:48 | You can now create that space warp
anywhere you'd like within the scene.
| | 00:51 | Now, once in place, we'll activate the
Bind to Space Warp command and we will
| | 00:55 | bind the Path Follow to the
Super Spray particle system.
| | 00:58 | Now we are also going to need to
identify the line that we will be using as the
| | 01:01 | path for our particles to follow.
| | 01:03 | With the space warp selected, let's move
to our controls on the right-hand side.
| | 01:07 | At the top, in the Basic Parameters
Current Path section, let's click on the
| | 01:10 | button that says Pick Shape Object.
| | 01:13 | Now, position your cursor on top
of the blue line and simply click.
| | 01:17 | If you have made good connection, you
will now see that line as being selected
| | 01:20 | as our Path Follow path.
| | 01:22 | Okay, now we can scrub the Timeline again.
| | 01:24 | As we see, the particles on our super
spray have now been programmed to follow
| | 01:28 | the curvature of our spline path.
| | 01:30 | Now, a couple of Path
Follow controls to be aware of.
| | 01:33 | Under Motion Timing, you will see Start Frame.
| | 01:36 | This sets the frame number at
which the Path Follow actually starts
| | 01:39 | affecting the particles.
| | 01:41 | So, if we, for an example, set this to
15, the particles shooting out of the
| | 01:45 | Super Spray would travel in their
original not influenced direction until
| | 01:49 | the clip's 15th frame.
| | 01:50 | Let's see if that's the case.
| | 01:52 | Now, once we have changed the number,
we can then again scrub our Timeline.
| | 01:55 | So when set at 15, you will notice
the Path Follow space warp not affecting
| | 01:59 | the influence or path direction of the
Super Spray until about a half second
| | 02:03 | into our animation.
| | 02:04 | Now let's see what things would look like
if we instead change the Start Frame to 30.
| | 02:08 | Now the particles should carry out on
their own for the first one second of our
| | 02:12 | animation, only then after being
affected by the Path Follow space warp.
| | 02:21 | So, we go a full 30 frames into
our animation before the Path Follow
| | 02:25 | starts grabbing hold.
| | 02:26 | I am going to take the Start Frame back to 0.
| | 02:28 | Now scrubbing closer to the end of our
animation, you will notice the path's
| | 02:32 | influence seems to break loose or cut off.
| | 02:35 | That's because of the frame number
we are currently using for last frame,
| | 02:38 | which controls basically when the
Path Follow releases its effect on the
| | 02:42 | particles bound to it.
| | 02:43 | So with a current value of 100, the
Path Follow will guide or influence the
| | 02:47 | particles for only 100 frames.
| | 02:50 | Then turn the direction of the
particle flow back over to the Super Spray.
| | 02:54 | Watch the difference if we take
the last frame setting to 150.
| | 03:03 | Now, the Path Follow grabs ahold of
our particles, influencing their direction
| | 03:08 | to the last frame of our animation.
| | 03:10 | In the Particle Motion section you
can also determine whether or not the
| | 03:13 | path's actual position in relation of the
particles that are bound to it makes a difference.
| | 03:18 | When set to Along Offset Splines,
moving the line used for the particle's path
| | 03:23 | directly affects the
particles' flow and direction.
| | 03:34 | When the setting is instead set to
Along Parallel Splines, the location of the
| | 03:38 | original path line makes no difference.
| | 03:41 | Its orientation though does
still affect the particles' travel.
| | 03:45 | With Stream Taper and Steam Swirl, we
have got controls for both how far off the
| | 03:49 | path the particles can or will diverge
and whether or not the particles will
| | 03:53 | spin or rotate within the overall effect.
| | 03:57 | So, that's the Path Follow space warp,
a handy little way to make a series of
| | 04:00 | particles follow an actual path.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating wave effects| 00:00 | The Wave space warp can be used on any scene
object to create an adjustable wave like effect.
| | 00:06 | Ocean water or maybe a flag blowing in
the wind would be perfect examples of
| | 00:10 | how it can be used.
| | 00:11 | Now, I will be showing the space warp
controls using a file named Wave Space Warp.
| | 00:16 | Now, the box that's been created has had
quite a few extra segments added in, in
| | 00:20 | order to properly deform with the wave effect.
| | 00:22 | Let's go ahead and add in our Wave space warp.
| | 00:25 | Now the viewport it's made in will
affect its orientation in the scene.
| | 00:28 | So let's drop it directly on top
of our blue box in the Top view.
| | 00:31 | We will go to the Space Warp
tab in the right then go under the
| | 00:35 | Geometric Deformable.
| | 00:36 | Let's click on the button, then
create it in the middle of our Top view.
| | 00:39 | Now once in position, let go of your left
mouse then move your mouse up and down gradually.
| | 00:44 | This second mouse movement controls what
is called the amplitude on the wave icon.
| | 00:48 | Now when you are happy with that
height, go ahead and click again.
| | 00:51 | You can now hit Z to center
things up in all four views.
| | 00:55 | Okay, now before we bind things
together, we are going to want to rotate our
| | 00:58 | wave icon an even 90 degrees.
| | 01:00 | We can do that by using the Angle Snap.
| | 01:02 | I will get to my Rotate command then verify
the Angle Snap indeed hsd been activated.
| | 01:07 | If it hasn't, you can use the
keyboard shortcut, the letter A. Okay, that
| | 01:10 | will get us ready to go.
| | 01:12 | In the Top view, we can now rotate
our Wave space warp at even 90 degrees.
| | 01:16 | Once we have done that, we can move
to our controls on the right-hand side.
| | 01:19 | We will start by
adjusting the height of our waves.
| | 01:21 | Now we can do that with the
Amplitude values, both 1 and 2.
| | 01:24 | We will set each of those to a value of 10.
| | 01:27 | Once those numbers are in place, let's
activate the Bind to Space Warp command
| | 01:31 | and we will bind the box back to the wave icon.
| | 01:33 | Now once we have made that connection,
you can see the change that's made to the
| | 01:36 | overall look of our blue box.
| | 01:38 | Okay, now that we tie the two together,
watch the effect of moving the space
| | 01:42 | warp icon back and forth.
| | 01:46 | A similar deformation will take
place if we rotate that same icon.
| | 01:50 | Let's now animate the effect.
| | 01:52 | We can do that using the Wave's Phase control.
| | 01:55 | Now before we jump into that, let's
use our Hold command so we can return
| | 01:58 | to this point in time.
| | 02:00 | Okay, I think we are ready to go.
| | 02:01 | Let's turn on the Auto key using the
keyboard shortcut command, the letter N.
| | 02:05 | Verifying the red frames here on the
Timeline, we'll now on the right-hand side
| | 02:09 | change the Phase control to an amount of 5.
| | 02:11 | Once we have locked that down, we can scoot
to Frame 100, changing that Phase amount to 7.
| | 02:21 | Okay, we can now turn the Auto
key off and play things back.
| | 02:26 | Now, you know what, this gives me an idea.
| | 02:29 | Let's interactively change the
wave's length using the spinner control.
| | 02:32 | If we now take that wavelength to a
higher number, maybe around 200 or so and
| | 02:36 | play things back, well, now we have
got the good old magic carpet ride.
| | 02:40 | Let's go ahead now and stop our
playback then fetch our scene.
| | 02:48 | Once we have done that, why don't
we now adjust the Amplitude values?
| | 02:51 | Both 1 and 2 will take to a value of 30.
| | 02:53 | What I'd like to do now is show
you what the Decay setting controls.
| | 02:57 | Now with Decay, using a number larger
than 0, the farther away the gizmo is from
| | 03:02 | the actual geometry, the less effect
the space warp will have on that geometry.
| | 03:06 | Now, you don't need a large value
to create the effect. Let's take our
| | 03:09 | Decay down to 0.02.
| | 03:11 | Once we have done that, we will
move our space warp icon to the lower
| | 03:14 | left-hand corner of our view.
| | 03:16 | Now, when you get it down there,
you will want the icon to overlap the
| | 03:19 | geometry just slightly.
| | 03:21 | Once we have done that, we will
rotate the wave icon, let's say 35 degrees.
| | 03:28 | Okay, let's see we can now do.
| | 03:30 | We will turn on the Auto key then
start adjusting the Phase value.
| | 03:33 | At Frame 0, we will take
the Phase to a level of 5.
| | 03:37 | Once we have locked that down, we can
move to Frame 100, taking the phase to 7.
| | 03:42 | Let's now play things back.
| | 03:45 | Now, as you can see, by controlling
the Decay setting, we now no longer
| | 03:48 | influence the entire box object, and we
could also easily change the position of
| | 03:53 | our effect over to the other side of the box.
| | 03:55 | I will go ahead and save my scene out
as Wave Space Warp Completed if you'd
| | 03:58 | like to look it over.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating ripples| 00:00 | With the Ripple space warp, you can
create a variety of rippling effects.
| | 00:04 | Made to be used on objects and not particle
systems, let's take a look at how it works.
| | 00:10 | Now, I am going to be using a file
named Ripple Space Warp to get us going.
| | 00:13 | Let's start things off by creating a
Ripple directly on top of our green
| | 00:16 | object in the Top view.
| | 00:18 | Now the Ripple space warp is
going to be found not into Forces, but
| | 00:22 | Geometric Deformable.
| | 00:23 | So let's change over to that.
| | 00:24 | On the right-hand side, second
one down, let's click on Ripple.
| | 00:27 | Now, in the Top view, starting in
the middle of our green box, let's go
| | 00:31 | ahead and pull one out.
| | 00:32 | Now when you let go over your mouse, you will
be controlling what is called the Amplitude.
| | 00:35 | So just pull up or down
slightly then click again.
| | 00:39 | Okay, let's now take our
Perspective view going full-screen.
| | 00:43 | In order to better see the Ripple
space warp, let's go ahead and move it
| | 00:46 | slightly up above the box.
| | 00:48 | Okay, once we have done that, we can
now use the Bind to space warp command to
| | 00:52 | bind the Ripple back to the green object.
| | 00:55 | Now, as soon as you have made connection,
you will notice a dramatic change to
| | 00:57 | the overall shape of that box.
| | 00:59 | Let's now on the right-hand
side change the Wave Length.
| | 01:02 | We will take it to a value of 60.
| | 01:04 | To control the height or depth of each
ripple, we will change both Amplitudes 1
| | 01:08 | and 2 to a value of 3.
| | 01:10 | Now, at this point, we could animate the
Phase value to produce the rippling effect.
| | 01:14 | Let's do this. At frame 0,
we will set the Phase value to 2.
| | 01:18 | Let's now turn on the Auto Key using
the keyboard shortcut command, the letter N.
| | 01:22 | Let's now move to frame 100,
setting the Phase value to a level of 1.
| | 01:28 | Okay, we could now turn Auto Key off
then move the Ripple space warp down a
| | 01:31 | little so we can more easily see our mesh.
| | 01:34 | Once we have done that,
we can now play things back.
| | 01:39 | Let's now adjust the Decay value of the
Ripple so the effect doesn't influence
| | 01:42 | the box's geometry quite as much on the edges.
| | 01:45 | We will stop our play, going back
to the right-hand side settings.
| | 01:49 | Directly below Phase, you will find Decay.
| | 01:51 | Let's set that number to point 0.015.
| | 01:54 | Now starting back at the beginning,
we will play things back once again.
| | 01:58 | What we get is kind of the effect that
you'd see with a water drop hitting the
| | 02:01 | top surface of a body of water.
| | 02:03 | Now, we could probably
animate this effect even further.
| | 02:06 | Keying both the Phase and Decay
settings on our space warp. Let's do that.
| | 02:10 | We will stop our play returning to frame 0.
| | 02:13 | Looking in the settings on the right, we
will verify the Phase as currently set to 2.
| | 02:17 | Now we can turn on our Auto key.
| | 02:19 | Next step, we will move it to frame 15,
taking the Phase value again to a level of 2.
| | 02:24 | Now, this will lock-in that rippling effect
for the first one second of our animation.
| | 02:28 | We can now move to frame 80,
taking the Phase value to 1.
| | 02:31 | Okay, back to the beginning of our
Timeline we go, playing things back once again.
| | 02:38 | So there's our fit to the water drop,
dropping on top of the water surface.
| | 02:42 | Now we want to take things
further, animating the Decay.
| | 02:44 | We will stop the playback,
returning again to frame 0.
| | 02:48 | Making sure Auto Key is still on,
we will take the Decay to 0.1.
| | 02:51 | Now, after we have done that, we will
go to frame 15 and again, lock in that
| | 02:55 | Decay 0.1 value in place.
| | 02:57 | We can lock that number in place,
creating a key by simply holding the Shift key down,
| | 03:01 | then right-clicking on either
of the Decay spinners. Let's do that.
| | 03:05 | Now, if we have done this correctly,
we should see a series of red brackets
| | 03:08 | around the Decay spinners.
| | 03:09 | From here, we will go to frame 50,
taking the Decay to 0.02, and finally, we will
| | 03:14 | go to frame 80, taking the Decay value to 0.1.
| | 03:17 | We will turn off our Auto Key,
then play things back again.
| | 03:24 | Why don't we make that depth,
| | 03:27 | in other word, the water drops impact on
the water surface, a little more pronounced?
| | 03:31 | To do that, we will stop the play,
then change both Amplitude numbers on
| | 03:35 | our space warp to 5.
| | 03:37 | Once we have done that, we
will play things back again.
| | 03:39 | So that's pretty nice.
| | 03:40 | Now, when you start creating water
flows and their associated effects,
| | 03:44 | consider whether or not the ripple might be
able to add a little extra realism to your effect.
| | 03:48 | I will save the scene up as Ripple
Space Warp Completed if you'd like to look
| | 03:52 | over what we have done.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Deflecting particles off surfaces| 00:00 | A Deflector space warp acts as a kind
of shield that repels and they come in a
| | 00:05 | lot of different shapes and sizes in 3ds
Max with some being designed to be used
| | 00:08 | with particles, while others are
meant to be used with or on objects.
| | 00:13 | With either type you end up using, you
are going to find yourself controlling a
| | 00:16 | similar set of adjustments.
| | 00:18 | Settings like Bounce and Friction
and Chaos, all being used to influence
| | 00:22 | what happens to your object or particle,
should it indeed make contact with a Deflector.
| | 00:27 | Now with this being a title specifically
on particle effects, we are going to be
| | 00:30 | concentrating on the Deflector types
that deal directly with particle systems.
| | 00:34 | As we work though, we will certainly at least
identify the other Deflectors and their usage.
| | 00:39 | For all that, I will be working with
a file named Deflector Space Warps.
| | 00:43 | Now the scene has been set up to
include a particle spray that's shooting
| | 00:46 | particles toward the top of the screen.
| | 00:47 | We have got a box over on the left-hand
side and a Gravity space warp that's yet
| | 00:51 | to be bound to the Super Spray system.
| | 00:53 | With those elements in place,
we can now concentrate on our Deflectors.
| | 00:57 | Now the Deflector space warps are located in
the Command panel under their own category.
| | 01:01 | We will click on the space warp tab
then go under Forces to Deflectors.
| | 01:06 | As you can see, there is quite a
few different ones to choose from.
| | 01:09 | Now that list is broken down to
basically three main types of Deflectors.
| | 01:13 | Two that are used on particle
systems and one being used specifically for
| | 01:17 | dynamic simulations.
| | 01:18 | The three containing the letters
spelling out Dyna are for dynamic simulations.
| | 01:23 | Smashing something into a wall made of
geometry and having that wall break up
| | 01:26 | into many parts would be an example there.
| | 01:29 | The ones that we will be
concentrating on are the series of three that
| | 01:31 | simply read Deflector.
| | 01:33 | SDeflector, UDeflector and
just plain old Deflector.
| | 01:37 | The third class, the Omni Deflectors,
are basically just another set of
| | 01:40 | particle Deflectors that have a few
specialized bells and whistles for their
| | 01:44 | deflecting effects.
| | 01:45 | We will be able to get all the
important points across using simply the regular
| | 01:49 | Deflector types, so here we go.
| | 01:51 | With an SDeflector, the shape of
the deflecting shield is spherical.
| | 01:54 | Now that shield doesn't render, but it
does represent a round shape deflection
| | 01:58 | device all the same.
| | 02:00 | Anything that comes into contact with
the icon on the screen will deflect off it.
| | 02:04 | Now that's just as long as it's
been bound to the particle system it's
| | 02:06 | entended yo affect.
| | 02:08 | Over on the right, you see
its three primary controls.
| | 02:11 | Bounce, which allows you to control the
speed at which a particle ricochets or
| | 02:15 | bounces off the Deflector.
| | 02:16 | Chaos, which controls whether there is any
variation in the angle at which things deflect.
| | 02:21 | and Friction which determines whether
or not the particles slow down or grab a
| | 02:25 | hold of the deflecting
device when contact is made.
| | 02:28 | Now, the space warp simply named
Deflector pretty much has the same controls but
| | 02:31 | its shape is instead flat or planar.
| | 02:34 | Let's drop one of those below the
green box on the left-hand side of our view.
| | 02:37 | And then you have got the UDeflector,
which may very well be the one that you are
| | 02:41 | going to use most often as it allows
you to pick an object from your scene as
| | 02:45 | the deflecting device.
| | 02:46 | Now, with that one, its position and
orientation of the scene is of little importance.
| | 02:50 | What is important is that you identify
the object in your scene that will be
| | 02:54 | using the deflecting mechanism.
| | 02:56 | So over on the right, we will go to the
Modify column, we will click on the Pick
| | 02:59 | Object button, and for this example
we will then select the bright green box.
| | 03:03 | Now, when contact is made, we have
to see the name Box 001 directly above
| | 03:07 | the Pick Object button.
| | 03:08 | Now to see how things work,
let's set a few things up.
| | 03:11 | Let's first the grab the Gravity space warp
and we will bind it back to the Super Spray.
| | 03:15 | Now that's the purple icon on the right-
hand side with its arrow pointing down.
| | 03:19 | Okay, once we have done that, we will
begin scrubbing the timeline to see what
| | 03:22 | effect the Gravity has on
our Super Spray particles.
| | 03:25 | Now, as you can see, with the Gravity
Strength set to 1, the particles are
| | 03:28 | virtually just dropping straight down.
| | 03:30 | What I want to do is adjust the Gravity
Strength so that the particles begin to
| | 03:33 | look like they come in
contact with the green box.
| | 03:35 | We will move to a frame somewhere in the
middle and then adjust the Gravity with our spinner.
| | 03:40 | For my example, I have settled
in with a Strength value of 0.08.
| | 03:44 | Okay, let's now select the UDeflector.
That's the little purple icon to the
| | 03:47 | left-hand side of our green box.
| | 03:49 | We can then bind that
back to the Super Spray also.
| | 03:52 | Now, once we have done that,
let's go ahead and begin our playback.
| | 03:57 | Now, when the particles proceed toward
the green box, they are bouncing off it.
| | 04:00 | The amount of that bounce can be
controlled over on the right with, you guessed it,
| | 04:04 | the Bounce setting.
| | 04:05 | Let's take that bounce to let's say 2.
| | 04:06 | Now we have got more of a super
ball effect coming off the green box.
| | 04:11 | Let's try instead a Bounce value of 0.5.
| | 04:14 | Okay, you can see the difference there.
| | 04:16 | Now under Bounce, you have got Variation.
| | 04:18 | This will simply vary the
way the Bounce actually occurs.
| | 04:21 | Let's try Variation of 50.
| | 04:27 | So, the particles are now bouncing
off the box in a more random fashion.
| | 04:30 | Let's also set Chaos to 50.
| | 04:33 | Now with Friction, we can create an
effect as if the particles are actually
| | 04:36 | grabbing or sticking to
the box. Let's try that.
| | 04:39 | We will set our Friction to a value of
50 and for more of a true reflection of
| | 04:43 | the effect, why don't we also try 100?
| | 04:45 | Now to see the Friction's effect a
little better, why don't we stop our playback
| | 04:49 | and slightly rotate upward our green box?
| | 04:52 | Playing things through again
reveals an entirely different result.
| | 04:56 | Let's see what would happen if we remove
the Friction, taking the value back down to 0.
| | 05:01 | You can certainly see a big difference there.
| | 05:03 | Now what's cool about these
deflecting effects, they can also be used
| | 05:06 | on animated objects.
| | 05:08 | Let's do this. So we can
return back to this point in time.
| | 05:10 | Let's hold our file.
| | 05:11 | We will now select the green box and animate
it going up and down over a period of time.
| | 05:19 | Around frame 70, I will tilt it down slightly.
| | 05:22 | Go to around frame 130, taking it
down a little more, then around 175,
| | 05:27 | I'll reverse that
direction, rotating it back up.
| | 05:31 | Okay, once we have done that,
we will again play things back.
| | 05:34 | So that's pretty neat the way things work.
| | 05:36 | Let's go and stop our play, fetching our file.
| | 05:38 | Now at this point, I'd like to
also get the SDeflector into play.
| | 05:42 | Now to do that we either going to have
to move our Deflector or simply rotate
| | 05:45 | our box so the particles fall downward
as opposed to skidding off the way they
| | 05:48 | are now. Let's rotate the box.
| | 05:51 | All I do is rotate the box enough so the
particles now fall in the direction of the SDeflector.
| | 05:55 | Okay, now, if we do indeed want that
SDeflector to affect our Super Spray
| | 05:59 | particles, we are going to have to bind
the Deflector back to the particle system.
| | 06:03 | Let's go ahead and do that.
| | 06:04 | This time around, I will
activate the Bind to Space Warp command,
| | 06:07 | I will select my Super Spray, then simply
type H to open up the Select Space Warp list.
| | 06:11 | Okay, from the names,
I will select SDeflector001.
| | 06:15 | Now once we have bound those two things
together, let's go ahead and scrub our timeline.
| | 06:18 | With the SDeflector now in play, why
don't we add a sphere into our scene
| | 06:22 | directly on top of the SDeflector icon?
| | 06:24 | That will make things look more
realistic as if they are actually bouncing off
| | 06:27 | an object in our scene.
| | 06:34 | Let's go ahead and play things
back and see how things look.
| | 06:36 | Why don't we now reduce the
Bounce effect on the SDeflector?
| | 06:39 | We will go to the Modify column, changing the
Bounce on the SDeflector to a value of 0.1.
| | 06:45 | Now just a quick note. If you ever
want to turn off the effect at any
| | 06:48 | given Deflector, you want to select
in your scene the particle system that
| | 06:52 | that Deflector affects.
| | 06:53 | In our case here, that would be the Super Spray.
| | 06:55 | Once you have done that, looking
in the stack, you can see all the
| | 06:59 | different bindings.
| | 07:00 | To turn off or to disable any of the
effects, you could simply click directly on
| | 07:04 | top of the light bulb to the
left of that entry in the stack.
| | 07:06 | Why don't we also get the Deflector
icon, the one in the lower left-hand
| | 07:10 | corner, also in play?
| | 07:12 | To do that, I will move to a
later frame in my animation.
| | 07:14 | That will simply give me a better
idea of where the particles are falling.
| | 07:16 | Then I will zoom out and
reposition the Deflector icon down below.
| | 07:21 | Now at this point, the
Deflector is pretty small in size.
| | 07:24 | So on the right, we will change
both the width and length of its icon.
| | 07:28 | Let's now get it into play by
binding it back to the Super Spray.
| | 07:42 | Playing things back from
there, you can see the results.
| | 07:45 | Let's now take the Bounce value on the
Deflector down to, why don't we say 0.3?
| | 07:51 | So that will give us an idea of some of
the possibilities when using Deflectors.
| | 07:54 | They will definitely be coming in handy when
we get to the project portion of our title.
| | 07:59 | For this one, I will save it up as
Deflector Space Warps Completed if you'd
| | 08:02 | like to look it over.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Spawning particles| 00:00 | Through a process called spawning,
particles can be made to do different things,
| | 00:04 | when they come into contact
with the Deflector space warp.
| | 00:07 | By different, I mean being able to
either die off or birth other particles when
| | 00:12 | contact with that space warp is made.
| | 00:14 | The file I'll be using for my
example is named Spawning Particles.
| | 00:18 | Now the Spawning effect comes
through a series of settings not on the
| | 00:21 | Deflector, but instead on the particle
system, which in our case here is the
| | 00:25 | Super Spray that's been positioned in
the lower right-hand side of our screen.
| | 00:29 | To get to the Spawn Settings, we'll right
-click in any empty area of our Command
| | 00:32 | panel and from the menu choose Particle Spawn.
| | 00:35 | Now as you can see out of the spawning
effects, we've got quite a few different options.
| | 00:39 | Choosing Die After Collision would
do just that, having any particle that
| | 00:43 | collided with a bound space warp
disappears or what Max refers to as die off.
| | 00:49 | So that would work in a situation
where maybe you wanted your particles to be
| | 00:52 | absorbed by the bound Deflector.
| | 00:54 | Choosing instead Spawn on Collision
would have each particle that made contact
| | 00:58 | with the Deflector basically
duplicate, creating new particles from the
| | 01:02 | original particles.
| | 01:03 | Maybe a glass full of water being poured
on the floor would be a good example of
| | 01:07 | using Spawn on Collision.
| | 01:08 | When the liquid collided with the
harder surface of the floor, its particles,
| | 01:12 | the water, would break into many
more smaller drops or puddles.
| | 01:16 | The Spawns setting controls the number
of spawns, after or beyond the original
| | 01:20 | particles that have been generated.
| | 01:21 | So if you wanted, you could have
continual multiple birthing events being driven
| | 01:25 | of a single series of original particles.
| | 01:27 | Now, with all the Spawn settings, you
need to be very conscientious of what
| | 01:31 | these additional particles are going to do
to your computer once they hit the screen.
| | 01:34 | Single particle emissions can be taxing
on the rolling. You start adding more and
| | 01:38 | more particles to a scene and you
really do start playing with fire.
| | 01:42 | Now that doesn't mean don't use the
spawning effects. Just be real careful and
| | 01:46 | really aware of how debilitating
they can be, on even the fastest computer.
| | 01:50 | For our example, we will
leave the Spawns value set to 1.
| | 01:53 | Now, the Effects setting gives you
the opportunity to determine just what
| | 01:57 | percentage of original particles actually spawn.
| | 02:00 | So if you set the value to 50 and you
had for example a thousand particles in
| | 02:04 | your scene, only 500 of those
most particles would create others.
| | 02:08 | Let's go ahead and change that value to 50.
| | 02:10 | Now, the big control is Multiplier.
| | 02:12 | This determines the number of additional
particles that will be created off each
| | 02:16 | of the original set to spawn particles.
| | 02:18 | Let's take that value to 3.
| | 02:20 | This one's again one of the controls
that will flat out, flatten your computer
| | 02:23 | during both screen redraws
and especially at render time.
| | 02:27 | So you always want to take that
number only as high as it needs to be.
| | 02:30 | Now, I only have a certain percentage
of my particles being displayed, but you
| | 02:34 | can get the idea of just how
the multiplier does business.
| | 02:38 | Variation simply varies the number of
particles being spawned from one spawning
| | 02:42 | particle to the next.
| | 02:44 | And you've got Chaos controls
for both Direction and Speed.
| | 02:47 | Now those, as the names imply merely add
a little randomness to what they control.
| | 02:52 | I've got both my Direction
and Speed Chaos set to 30.
| | 02:55 | Let's take those down to zero and see
the difference it makes in our scene.
| | 02:58 | Now, the effect isn't quite so chaotic.
| | 03:01 | For comparison, let's take both the
Direction Chaos and Speed Chaos back to 30.
| | 03:06 | Now, the other two spawning options
that we haven't talked about yet are Spawn
| | 03:09 | on Death and Spawn Trails.
| | 03:11 | With Spawn Trails, the spawning of new
particles takes place at each frame of
| | 03:16 | that particle's life, thereby
creating a trailing type particle flow.
| | 03:20 | Now, you can just imagine how
crushing that would be to your hardware.
| | 03:23 | New particles being created at each
frame that original particle's in plain.
| | 03:27 | Now of the options, I think you'll be using
the Spawn on Collision setting most often.
| | 03:32 | Do experiment though as the options are
capable of creating many different style of effects.
| | 03:36 | So that will set you up, with some of
your options when choosing to create a spawning effect.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
6. Project: Creating Smoldering Cigarette SmokeCreating a Super Spray particle system for the smoke| 00:00 | Creating smoke as a special
effect comes up quite often.
| | 00:04 | In this project, we'll create, then
animate the smoke that you might see coming
| | 00:08 | from a lit cigarette.
| | 00:09 | We'll also be adding a little wind to the
effect as if coming from an open room window.
| | 00:13 | We'll get things started
using a file named Project Smoke.
| | 00:17 | All of the geometry and
scene animation is in place.
| | 00:20 | So we'll have an opportunity to
concentrate on creating the particle effect that
| | 00:24 | needs space warps to make things come together.
| | 00:26 | If we scrub our Timeline, we'll see
that our window is being animated to open
| | 00:30 | over approximately three-second time frame.
| | 00:33 | That will give us the opportunity to
make our smoke dance around a bit because
| | 00:36 | of the incoming breeze.
| | 00:38 | Now our smoke will be created
using a Super Spray particle system.
| | 00:42 | Let's drop one in, using the Top view
and placing it directly in line with the
| | 00:46 | end of our cigarette.
| | 00:48 | To return to a four-view
configuration, I'll simply use the keyboard
| | 00:51 | shortcut Alt+W. We'll activate the Top
view, then on the right hand side, go
| | 00:55 | to our Particle Systems.
| | 00:56 | Then on the left-hand side,
furthest down, we'll click on Super Spray.
| | 01:02 | Okay, I'll now zoom into the cigarette
and I'll drop my Super Spray in place.
| | 01:06 | Now our particles will be emitted from the
center of the crosshairs on the Super Spray icon.
| | 01:11 | So we'll need to check all three
orthographic views for the position of our Super Spray.
| | 01:15 | We're going to want a position that directly
right on top of the tip of our pink cigarette.
| | 01:19 | Now once we've done that, we can take the
Perspective view back to being full screen.
| | 01:23 | Now, for the best possible view of our
particles in Wireframe mode, let's change
| | 01:27 | the color of our Super
Spray icon to a bright white.
| | 01:30 | We should also change the Particle
Display inside our windows on the Super
| | 01:34 | Spray from Ticks to Dots.
| | 01:36 | I'll go to the Modify column, then under
Viewport Display, we'll change to Dots.
| | 01:40 | That will simply give us a better
looking preview for our particles.
| | 01:44 | Now if you scrub the Timeline, you'll
notice only a certain percentage of our
| | 01:47 | particles are being viewed inside our display.
| | 01:50 | On the right, you'll notice the current
Percentage of Particles being only 10%.
| | 01:54 | Let's change that to 50.
| | 01:56 | Now we can go ahead and scrub our Timeline.
| | 01:58 | In doing so, you'll notice the Super
Spray is set to currently only emit over
| | 02:02 | the first 30 frames of our animation.
We're going to need to adjust that too.
| | 02:05 | Under the Particle Generation tab,
let's change the Emit Stop time to 300.
| | 02:09 | That will sync up to the
length of our animation.
| | 02:12 | Let's also change Display to 300
and we'll take the Life to 180.
| | 02:16 | We can now go ahead and play things back. Okay.
| | 02:20 | To give a little spread to our particles,
let's go further up to the top of the
| | 02:23 | settings and change the Off Axis Spread to 2.
| | 02:26 | Then to slow things down a bit,
we'll take our Speed to 1.5.
| | 02:29 | Now as far as the total number of
particles, let's use a Use Rate of 30.
| | 02:34 | That will give us 30 particles being
generated at each frame of our animation.
| | 02:40 | That will do it for the
initial settings on our Super Spray.
| | 02:43 | In the next video, we'll
set our Wind space warp.
| | 02:46 | Let's save our scene out as Project
Smoke01 so we can carry the file forward.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding wind| 00:00 | Our scene will need two space warps.
| | 00:03 | In this video we'll add a Wind space
warp outside our window to provide the
| | 00:07 | effect of an outdoor breeze.
| | 00:09 | The breeze that'll enter the room once
the window opens will alter the speed of
| | 00:13 | the smoke and create a little swirling effect.
| | 00:16 | Now we'll be working with a file named
Project Smoke01, which is a carryover
| | 00:20 | from the last video.
| | 00:21 | Let's start by first creating
our wind in the scene's Front view.
| | 00:25 | Taking things back to four views, I've
to zoom out a bit in my front window.
| | 00:29 | Once doing so, on the right-hand
side, I'll get to my space warps,
| | 00:32 | then drop that in my Front view
directly in line with my particles.
| | 00:37 | Once I've done that, I will have to
change my attention to the Top view, moving
| | 00:40 | the Wind space warp outside the window geometry.
| | 00:43 | This is not absolutely necessary to
create the effect, but it will give me a
| | 00:46 | better visual in my views. Okay!
| | 00:49 | At this point, we're now going to want
to choose the Bind to Space Warp command,
| | 00:52 | binding the Super Spray to the Wind space warp.
| | 00:55 | I'll start by first selecting
the Super Spray in my Left view.
| | 00:58 | Then on the left-hand side of the
toolbar, choose Bind to Space Warp.
| | 01:02 | Now from here, I'll simply open up my
Select list using the H key shortcut, then
| | 01:07 | from the dialog simply double-
click on the Wind space warp.
| | 01:10 | Once that's done, I'll reselect my Wind
taking my Perspective view back to full-screen.
| | 01:15 | Now in playing with the Camera view, you'll
notice the Wind Strength being far too strong.
| | 01:23 | I'm going to go ahead and take that
Strength back to zero, then click with my
| | 01:26 | spinner a couple times to
readjust to a better Strength.
| | 01:30 | So here's how things would
look using a Strength of 0.03.
| | 01:34 | Now with the window opening up
approximately two seconds into our clip, we're
| | 01:38 | going to need to animate the timing of
our Wind Strength, so it sinks up with
| | 01:41 | the anticipated breeze coming into the room.
| | 01:46 | Scrubbing the Timeline, the window looks
like it actually begins opening in frame 70.
| | 01:51 | So we'll set the Strength of our Wind
to zero until just after that time.
| | 01:55 | Let's zero out our Strength value by
right clicking on the spinner, then we'll
| | 01:59 | turn on the auto key.
| | 02:00 | Now for that you can always click the
button below 260 in our current Timeline
| | 02:04 | or simply use the keyboard
shortcut, the letter N. Okay!
| | 02:07 | Let's do this. For the first, let's say
90 frames of our animation, we're going
| | 02:11 | to want our Wind Strength set to zero.
| | 02:13 | To make that happen, we'll go to frame 90
and simply right click on the Strength spinner.
| | 02:18 | You can click on either one.
| | 02:20 | To do that we'll move to frame 90, then
with holding down the Shift key, we'll
| | 02:24 | right-click on either of two Strength spinners.
| | 02:27 | That'll simply lock down the strength of our
Wind between frame 0 and 90 to that zero value.
| | 02:32 | Now we'll go to frame 100 and
we'll change the Wind Strength to 0.03.
| | 02:36 | Let's now scrub the Timeline to verify
the fact that no wind is blowing over the
| | 02:40 | first three seconds or
90 frames of our animation.
| | 02:44 | After frame 90 when the
window opens, the wind kicks in.
| | 02:47 | Let's play that back from the
beginning and we'll see how things look.
| | 02:52 | So three seconds in, the window opens
and the wind starts affecting our particle
| | 02:56 | emission. Now that will do it for
the preliminary settings for our Wind.
| | 03:00 | Next, we'll be adding a Drag space
warp, which we'll do in the next video.
| | 03:04 | Let's save our file up as Project
Smoke02, so we can take it with us.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Dampening the particle movement| 00:00 | In this video we'll be adding a Drag
space warp on top of our particles to slow
| | 00:05 | or drag things down just a bit.
| | 00:07 | Now, if you're unfamiliar with the drag,
it can be used in a scene to reduce a
| | 00:11 | particle's velocity by a specified
amount over a specified time frame.
| | 00:15 | It will come in handy for us here as
we try to dampen the speed and direction
| | 00:19 | of our smoke's travel.
| | 00:20 | I'll be using a file named
Project Smoke02 to get us going.
| | 00:24 | Let's change back to four-views and
we'll drop a Drag space warp directly on
| | 00:28 | top of our Super Spray.
| | 00:29 | Now because the orientation of the drag
warp does indeed make a difference, I'll
| | 00:33 | be creating mine in the top view.
| | 00:35 | Once I've got myself into position
back over on the right in the Space Warps,
| | 00:39 | I'll click on Drag.
| | 00:41 | Now, back in the Top view, we can
easily see the Super Spray icon, which
| | 00:44 | is dressed in orange.
| | 00:46 | Let's create the Drag directly on top of that.
| | 00:48 | Once I've placed it in my scene
I'll change its Icon Size to 25.
| | 00:52 | You'll find that down at the
bottom of the Drag settings.
| | 00:57 | I can then hit Z for Zoom Extents
selected to make sure I've got good placement
| | 01:01 | of the Drag Warp inside
all three orthographic views.
| | 01:04 | Now, once we've done that, we're going
to want to activate the Bind To space
| | 01:07 | warp command, then bind the
Super Spray to the Drag space warp.
| | 01:11 | You can also go the other direction,
the Drag to the Super Spray, if you'd like
| | 01:14 | to do that instead.
| | 01:15 | I'm going to make my connection in the top
view where I think it's most easily done.
| | 01:19 | Once we have that in place, let's return to
the Select mode by typing Q on the keyboard.
| | 01:23 | Then we'll go back and select the Drag icon,
and return to the Perspective view full-screen.
| | 01:29 | Now, once we are there, we'll
go ahead and play things back.
| | 01:32 | Now, during play, you'll notice the
drag is currently being set to only affect
| | 01:36 | our particles for the first 100 frames.
| | 01:39 | That's its default Time Off value.
| | 01:41 | We'll go to the right,
changing the Off Time to 300.
| | 01:46 | Okay, under the dampening
characteristics we can now control the amount and
| | 01:49 | direction of the dragging down effect.
| | 01:51 | Why don't we do this?
| | 01:53 | Before making our adjustments, we'll
stop our playback, then scale our Timeline
| | 01:56 | back to reading only 70 frames.
| | 01:59 | Now, you can do that by holding down the
Ctrl and Alt keys and then dragging to
| | 02:03 | the right with your right-mouse button.
| | 02:05 | You'll do that dragging directly on top of
the frames you read down on the Timeline.
| | 02:09 | When you're done, you're going to want to
end up with a total of right around 70 frames.
| | 02:13 | Okay, we can now resume our
playback and go in for the controls.
| | 02:17 | Let's change both the X and
Y Linear Damping axes to 1%.
| | 02:21 | Then we'll change the Z Axis to 2%.
| | 02:27 | So what this does is it creates a
dampening effect a little less than the
| | 02:30 | default values in all three directions.
| | 02:33 | Now, let's experiment with that Z Axis value.
| | 02:36 | Let's try a setting of 5.
| | 02:37 | So you can see that knocks it down even
more going in the Z direction. Let's try 10.
| | 02:42 | Here the particles are
being beaten down even more.
| | 02:45 | Then let's go back to value of 2.
| | 02:47 | With all three values now set in
place, we'll stop our Timeline.
| | 02:50 | We'll then open up the Time
Configuration dialog, changing our total number
| | 02:54 | of frames back to 300.
| | 02:55 | Now, that option box can be opened by
simply right-clicking on any of the arrows
| | 03:00 | directly to the right of the Timeline.
| | 03:02 | In the settings we'll go about halfway
down in the left, changing End Time to 300.
| | 03:06 | After pressing Enter, we can go
ahead and click OK. All right!
| | 03:10 | Let's now go back and play the
full 300 frames in our animation.
| | 03:15 | Okay, so that will knock down our smoke a bit.
| | 03:18 | We can now make a few
further adjustments to our wind.
| | 03:21 | Let's save our file as Project
Smoke03 and we'll do that in our next video.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adjusting the wind settings for realistic smoke movement| 00:00 | Now that we have both the Wind and Drag
space warps affecting our particles,
| | 00:04 | we can now go back to our Wind controls
and make a few additional adjustments to
| | 00:08 | bring out a little more realism in
the movement of our Smoke particles.
| | 00:12 | I'll do that using a file named Project
Smoke03, which is a carryover from our last video.
| | 00:17 | Now, to see the effect of each space
warp that's been bound to our Super Spray,
| | 00:21 | let's turn off the light bulbs one at a
time that are to the left of each entry
| | 00:25 | in the Super Spray's Modifier stack.
| | 00:27 | Again, the particles are simply shooting
straight up with no resistance whatsoever
| | 00:31 | until the Wind opens, then blows them to the left.
| | 00:33 | Let's turn that back on and
instead turn off the Wind.
| | 00:37 | This time around we'll see the
particles again being dragged down but not being
| | 00:42 | affected by any wind force.
| | 00:43 | So you can see both space warps are
indeed vital to the overall look of our effect.
| | 00:49 | Okay, why don't we stop that then change a
few things around on our Wind space warp?
| | 00:53 | We're going to have to
select that icon inside our view.
| | 00:56 | Over in the Wind settings in the Modify
column, let's work with the Turbulence.
| | 01:00 | This setting causes the particles
to be a little more random in the way
| | 01:03 | they change course.
| | 01:04 | Now, you don't need much here for this to work.
| | 01:07 | Let's start our playback.
| | 01:07 | And typing-in, we'll change the Turbulence to 0.5.
| | 01:18 | Now, you can see what that does,
blowing them all over the place.
| | 01:22 | Let's stop the play, return to
the first frame, then change the
| | 01:25 | Turbulence setting to 0.1.
| | 01:27 | If we play things back, you'll see we
now get more of a random movement but
| | 01:30 | maybe not quite so radical as the time before.
| | 01:33 | Let's try instead a Turbulence value of 0.05.
| | 01:42 | We'll play things again.
| | 01:46 | Now, I think we're getting a little closer.
| | 01:47 | Why don't we tweak that down to let's say 0.03?
| | 01:57 | With that, I think we've one-upped the
realism or believability in the effect.
| | 02:01 | Now, directly below
Turbulence, you've got Frequency.
| | 02:04 | This is going to vary the
amount of Turbulence over time.
| | 02:07 | I'll again stop my play,
then take the Frequency to 0.1.
| | 02:16 | Playing things back, I think again we've
improved the overall look of the effect.
| | 02:19 | Why don't we also adjust the Scale value?
| | 02:24 | This will scale the Turbulence effect.
| | 02:26 | Now when using a smaller value,
the Turbulence effect will appear more
| | 02:30 | smooth and regular.
| | 02:31 | That's certainly something I think we want here.
| | 02:33 | So we'll take the Scale from 1.0 down to 0.1
and we'll play things through one more time.
| | 02:39 | So looking pretty good.
| | 02:40 | Why don't we now go to around
frame 100 and give it a quick render?
| | 02:44 | Okay, next thing we'll do is start
working with the actual look of our particles.
| | 02:49 | We'll get to all that in our next video.
| | 02:51 | Let's save our scene out as Project
Smoke04, so we can take it with us.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating more realistic-looking smoke| 00:00 | With the movement of our particles now
looking pretty good, we can now start
| | 00:04 | concentrating on creating a more
realistic look to the actual smoke.
| | 00:08 | To do that, I'll be using a carryover file
from our last video named Project Smoke04.
| | 00:13 | Being that it will be a material that
on large part be creating our effect.
| | 00:17 | I think we'll best be served by
changing our Particle Type to Facing.
| | 00:21 | Let's go ahead and do that.
| | 00:22 | We'll select our Super Spray particle system,
then head over to the controls on the right.
| | 00:27 | We'll then go into the Particle Type
tab, then changing our Standard Type Particle to Facing.
| | 00:32 | Let's go ahead and render frame 100
and we'll see the difference that's made.
| | 00:36 | We can now focus on
building a believable material.
| | 00:39 | Let's close the render, then
open up the Material Editor.
| | 00:42 | With the Super Spray in our scene
selected, let's go ahead and assign one of the
| | 00:45 | clean sample spheres.
| | 00:47 | Now, once we've done that, let's go
ahead and name our material Smoke.
| | 00:50 | For the Diffuse Color, we'll open up the
color swatch, changing it to bright white.
| | 00:54 | Now, we're not going to want any
shine on this, so we'll leave the
| | 00:57 | Specular Level setting at 0.
| | 00:59 | We're going to want each particle to display
the same pattern, so we'll turn on Face Map.
| | 01:04 | You can find that above and directly
to the right of the color swatches.
| | 01:07 | Now to ensure that we effectively
feather the edges of our particles so we get a
| | 01:10 | nice blending of the smoke into its
background, we'll add a Gradient map into
| | 01:14 | the material's Opacity channel.
| | 01:16 | We can get up on that branch by
simply clicking on the map shortcut button
| | 01:19 | directly on the right of the name Opacity.
| | 01:21 | From the Browser we'll then choose Gradient.
| | 01:24 | Now with like most times when using the
Gradient for a feathering effect, we'll
| | 01:27 | change the type of Gradient to Radial.
| | 01:29 | We can find that setting under
the three color swatches down below.
| | 01:32 | Let's now change our
sample sphere over to a cube.
| | 01:38 | Let's give it a quick render,
so we can see how we're coming.
| | 01:41 | Now just that alone is created a better
looking effect, but we're still going to
| | 01:44 | want to lighten or soften the look of our smoke.
| | 01:46 | To do that, we'll close the render, then in
the Material Editor click Go To Parent once.
| | 01:51 | Under the Basic Parameter setting,
we'll take the overall Opacity down to 0.
| | 01:55 | Now, you can do that by simply right-
clicking on either of the Opacity spinners.
| | 01:59 | We'll then open up the map section down below
and change the Gradient Opacity to a value of 5.
| | 02:05 | Let's go ahead and render frame 100 again.
| | 02:07 | So that indeed did a nice job of
softening the look of our smoke.
| | 02:11 | Let's render frame 130 and
we'll see how things look there.
| | 02:14 | Now with the window being open and the
wind grabbing our particles you can see
| | 02:17 | how the emission is now being
kicked a little more toward the left.
| | 02:20 | Let's take a look at rendering frame 150.
| | 02:24 | With the wind continuing to affect our
particles, you can see how now things
| | 02:27 | continue to drift toward the left.
| | 02:29 | Now, if needed, we could continue to
experiment with the Opacity settings if our
| | 02:32 | smoke looks either too
dense or not dense enough.
| | 02:35 | Let's move the Gradients Opacity up to 20,
and we'll see the difference that makes.
| | 02:41 | Now with that, things look
probably a little bit too dense.
| | 02:43 | Why don't we try a Gradient
Opacity with a value of 2?
| | 02:47 | Setting that number in place we'll render again.
| | 02:49 | Here, the density of the
smoke maybe just a tad too thin.
| | 02:52 | So I think our Gradient Opacity
set to 5 does a pretty good job.
| | 02:56 | Let's take that back, then render one last time.
| | 02:59 | So that's pretty much it.
| | 03:00 | Now for the full-length movie, you've
got a little render time ahead of you.
| | 03:03 | But once you let things cook, you'll end
up with something that looks like this.
| | 03:07 | You can find the video clip in the
chapter folder under the name Project Smoke.
| | 03:10 | I will save the completed scene file
out as Project Smoke Completed if you'd
| | 03:14 | like to go in and look it over.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
7. Project: Creating Ocean WaterCreating the geometry and camera | 00:00 | Sooner or later you'll run across
the call for creating ocean water.
| | 00:04 | This project will show you one of the
many different ways that you can do that.
| | 00:09 | Let's start by saving our scene.
| | 00:10 | We'll use the name Ocean Water.
| | 00:23 | Okay. We're ready to go.
| | 00:25 | Let's first create the geometry that
we'll be using for the surface of our ocean.
| | 00:29 | When being viewed from a distance and
using a still camera, as we'll be doing here,
| | 00:33 | the mesh used for an Open Ocean
view will typically be either a plane,
| | 00:38 | a box, or a cylinder.
| | 00:40 | What you decide to use in
large part is personal preference.
| | 00:44 | For this example, I'm going to
be using a large thin cylinder.
| | 00:48 | We want it to lay flat with our scene's
ground plane, so we'll make it in the Top view.
| | 00:52 | Don't worry about the size, as I
will be plugging-in the numbers.
| | 00:55 | Just draw it out of the
crosshairs again using the Top view.
| | 01:06 | Now, for our numbers, we'll use these.
| | 01:08 | The Radius will be 2000, the Height 5, the
number of Height Segments, we'll take down to 1,
| | 01:15 | for the Cap Segments, we'll set that to 50,
| | 01:17 | and for Sides we'll use 100.
| | 01:19 | Now, once you've got your numbers in
place, we'll right-click in any of the
| | 01:22 | views, then hit Z for Zoom Extents Selected.
| | 01:24 | Why don't we name our object Water?
| | 01:33 | So we can start out with our objects
smack-dab in the middle of our 3D world,
| | 01:37 | we'll select the Move command,
then right-click on its toolbar icon.
| | 01:42 | Using the values in the left,
Absolute:World, we will take all three
| | 01:46 | directions X, Y, and Z to 0.
| | 01:48 | You can easily do that by simply
right-clicking underneath its spinner.
| | 01:51 | Why don't we also hide the grid and
each of our three orthographic views?
| | 01:59 | For that, you can simply use the
keyboard shortcut, the letter G.
| | 02:02 | We're now going to want to reposition
things in the Perspective view, so it
| | 02:08 | looks like we're looking out to sea.
| | 02:10 | Let's first activate that view, then
take it full screen with the Alt+W shortcut.
| | 02:14 | If you want, you can also hide the
selection brackets around the cylinder by
| | 02:18 | simply typing J. Positioning here is important.
| | 02:21 | Let's first activate our safe frames.
| | 02:23 | For that in the upper left-hand
corner we'll click on Perspective, then
| | 02:27 | choose Show Safe Frames.
| | 02:30 | This will give us a definitive cutoff
in each of the four sides of our view.
| | 02:34 | Let's now orbit around and
flatten out our cylinder.
| | 02:37 | You can use the Alt+middle-mouse
wheel combo for the Orbit command.
| | 02:45 | We can now zoom in, then position the
geometry more to the bottom of our screen.
| | 02:49 | Once you think you have things in
pretty good position, go ahead and render.
| | 02:57 | Because of using a cylinder for our
geometry, we're getting a very slight
| | 03:00 | curvature that you'll many times see when
looking from a long distance over a round surface.
| | 03:05 | That surface in this
case being our planet Earth.
| | 03:08 | Now, if your curvature looks a little
bit too bold, all you simply have to do is
| | 03:12 | orbit to a flatter position.
| | 03:14 | In fact, I might want to
do that in my scene here.
| | 03:22 | Now, if you're happy with the layout of
your view, we can now close the render
| | 03:25 | and go ahead and create a camera for our scene.
| | 03:30 | A couple of different ways we
could do that. Let's first go to the
| | 03:32 | Views pull-down menu.
| | 03:35 | From here, we could
choose Create Camera From View.
| | 03:38 | The shortcut command, which we'll use
instead, is Ctrl+C. Go ahead and type that.
| | 03:43 | Now, if you look in the upper left-
hand corner, you'll notice the Perspective view
| | 03:45 | has automatically
been changed to a camera view.
| | 03:49 | Let's take things back to working in
four views, and we'll see the camera's
| | 03:52 | placement within our scene.
| | 03:55 | Because the camera at this point is
simply in the way, let's go to the Command
| | 03:58 | pane,l clicking on Display.
| | 04:00 | About a quarter of the way down in the Hide
by Category, go ahead and activate Cameras.
| | 04:06 | We're off to a good start.
| | 04:07 | Now the next thing we probably need is
a background, some sky or cloud image
| | 04:11 | that we could place behind our ocean water.
| | 04:14 | We'll add that to our scene in the next video.
| | 04:16 | Now, because we've already saved our
project, we can go ahead and just click
| | 04:20 | Ctrl+S to lock in the work we've done,
or if you like instead, you can click on
| | 04:23 | the Save File button on the Quick
Access toolbar directly to the right of the
| | 04:27 | application menu in the top left
-hand corner of our interface.
| | 04:31 | Either way you want to go, let's save our scene.
| | 04:33 | So that will do it for our
scene geometry and camera.
| | 04:36 | I'll see you and this file in our next video.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding the background | 00:00 | With our geometry and scene camera in
place, we'll now add a background image.
| | 00:04 | I'm using a file named Ocean Water, which
has been carried over from our last video.
| | 00:09 | Because of the need to possibly have
to reposition our background image once
| | 00:12 | it's been loaded in, we're going to want
to be able to see our sky image in both
| | 00:16 | the render and in our Camera view.
| | 00:18 | We'll set things up for the render first.
| | 00:20 | For that, we'll need to get into
the Environment dialog controls.
| | 00:24 | Now you can do that either using the
Rendering pull-down menu, from there
| | 00:28 | choosing Environment, or simply
on your keyboard type the number 8.
| | 00:34 | Up at the top in the Background
category, click on the None button directly
| | 00:37 | below Environment map.
| | 00:39 | The map we're looking for is in the
Chapter 7 folder in the Exercise Files.
| | 00:43 | Go ahead and navigate over to there.
| | 00:45 | From that location, you'll
want to choose Background Sky.
| | 00:49 | That should have now loaded it into our render.
| | 00:52 | Let's take a picture and
see if that's indeed the case.
| | 00:57 | We still have our viewport to contend with.
| | 00:59 | For that, we'll first want
to close the render window.
| | 01:02 | There are a couple of different
techniques that we could now use to load our sky
| | 01:07 | background into our view.
| | 01:09 | We could always go to the Views
pull-down menu, choose Viewport Background, then
| | 01:14 | off to the right Viewport Background again.
| | 01:17 | As an alternative method, you can
activate the viewport you want the image to
| | 01:21 | be in, then click on Smooth and Highlights
in the upper left-hand corner of that window.
| | 01:26 | Here again down at the bottom we
have a Viewport Background menu.
| | 01:28 | We'll go there and we can
choose Viewport Background again.
| | 01:32 | Now, a third method to open the dialog,
you can see a keyboard shortcut command
| | 01:35 | over on the right-hand side.
| | 01:37 | That being Alt+B. Either way you want to go,
let's go ahead and open up the controls.
| | 01:42 | Now, in the new window, there is a
couple of different things we're going
| | 01:45 | to want to activate.
| | 01:47 | Up at the top under Background Source,
turn on Use Environment Background,
| | 01:52 | then staying on the right-hand side
about three-quarters the way down, activate
| | 01:56 | also Display Background.
| | 01:57 | Now, once you've done that, you can go
ahead and click the OK button down in
| | 02:01 | the lower-right corner.
| | 02:03 | This now gives us the very same display
in our viewport as we had in our render.
| | 02:08 | Now if we needed to adjust the
position of our new background, we could do
| | 02:11 | that by instancing a copy back to the
Material Editor and tweaking a few of
| | 02:15 | the numbers as needed. Let's do that.
| | 02:17 | We'll start by pushing the
Environment and Effects dialog over to the
| | 02:20 | right-hand side of our view.
| | 02:23 | Then typing M will open up the
Material Editor, positioning on the left-hand
| | 02:27 | side of our screen.
| | 02:31 | Now it's simply a matter of dragging
our Environment map background sky over to
| | 02:34 | one of the empty slots in the Material Editor.
| | 02:38 | When you get it there,
you'll leave it set on Instance.
| | 02:44 | To now control the position of our
image, we can now use the Offset controls
| | 02:47 | on the left-hand side.
| | 02:48 | The U setting would move the map left to right.
| | 02:51 | We're going to be running into the seam of
the map, so we'll take that value back to 0.
| | 03:02 | If we instead control the Offset V,
that will take the map up and down.
| | 03:06 | My idea is to raise the clouds
a little bit higher up in the sky.
| | 03:10 | Let's simply click on the Offset V
spinner few times to see if we can't do that.
| | 03:25 | Now with the position of my cylinder,
I'm going to take my V offset to 0.18.
| | 03:30 | When I've got that locked in, I'll go
ahead and render my camera view again.
| | 03:37 | So that will give me a little more
accurate positioning of my sky in relation
| | 03:40 | to the ocean water.
| | 03:41 | So that gives us our background.
| | 03:43 | Now in the next video we'll see what we
can do about beginning to move the water.
| | 03:46 | I'll save the scene out as Ocean
Water 01 so we can take it along with us.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating water movement| 00:00 | In this video, we'll create the effect
of subtle rolling waves our ocean water
| | 00:04 | using a space warp. The file will be
using is named Ocean Water01 which we
| | 00:09 | brought with us from the last video.
| | 00:11 | The effect of rolling ocean water
could be accomplished by means of a couple
| | 00:14 | different Max space warps.
| | 00:16 | For our example we'll be using the
Ripple. Let's drop one of the side of our
| | 00:20 | cylinder in the top view.
| | 00:21 | Now we're going to find the ripple in the
Geometric/Deformable category of Space Warps.
| | 00:30 | There it is, second one down on the
right. Now after clicking push away just
| | 00:36 | slightly. You're now in control of what
they call the Ripple Amplitude. Set that
| | 00:41 | so the icon doesn't go too far
up and down then click again.
| | 00:44 | The only thing I was really worried
about is you getting it on the screen.
| | 00:47 | Let's now go to Modify column
and we could change the numbers.
| | 00:51 | For the Ripple Amplitude, we'll
change both Amplitude 1 and 2 to 25.
| | 00:59 | We'll then take the
Wavelength of the ripple to 150.
| | 01:04 | Now let's work with the all-important
Decay. What Decay does is causes the
| | 01:08 | amplitude to diminish as the distance
increases away from the Ripple icon.
| | 01:13 | You almost always want to
take this number real low.
| | 01:15 | Let's type in 0.001.
| | 01:20 | What happens is that number is
actually too low to grab hold.
| | 01:23 | So what we'll do instead is type in
0.002 then we'll click the spinner once,
| | 01:28 | going down to take it down
to 0.001. Let's try that.
| | 01:36 | It's kind of a down and dirty
workaround to give what we were going but in the
| | 01:39 | long run, we get what we need.
| | 01:41 | Once we've done that checkout the
position of your Ripple in the top view.
| | 01:44 | You are going to want the Ripple icon to
barely kiss the side of the ocean geometry
| | 01:48 | on the lower right hand side.
| | 01:50 | If you need to move things in
position, go ahead and do so.
| | 01:52 | Now remember, the position of the icon
is going to control how the Decay works.
| | 01:57 | As we get a little further in the
project, we may end up needing to move
| | 02:00 | that icon once again.
| | 02:03 | Once we have things in position let's
activate the Bind To Space Warp command.
| | 02:08 | With the Ripple icon still selected
let's drag that back to our ocean object.
| | 02:15 | Now if we make good contact, we'll see the
ocean geometry light up white just for a moment.
| | 02:20 | Let's now animate the Ripple effect.
Now we going to want to extend our timeline
| | 02:23 | to a total of 300 frames.
| | 02:25 | To open the Time Configuration dialog,
simply right click on any of the arrows
| | 02:29 | to the right of timeline.
| | 02:31 | About halfway down on the left-hand
side change End Time 300. You'll want to press
| | 02:37 | Enter and then click OK.
| | 02:40 | Now that we've done that we're
ready to do a little keyframing.
| | 02:42 | Let's turn on our Auto Key. If you
want to use the keyboard shortcut N,
| | 02:45 | certainly feel free to do so.
| | 02:47 | Now with the timeline set at the
beginning over on the right verify that Phase
| | 02:51 | on the Ripple is set to zero, once
that's been verified, we'll move to frame 300
| | 02:55 | changing the Phase to three.
| | 03:01 | Now once you've locked that in, you
want to see red brackets around the Phase
| | 03:04 | spinner. You can then turn off the Auto Key.
| | 03:07 | Let's again take our
Perspective view full screen.
| | 03:12 | Let's now select the ocean
water then hit F4 for shaded edges.
| | 03:18 | If we now scrub the timeline we should be
able see the effect of our animated ripple.
| | 03:31 | Now, if you're not happy with the way
the geometry is moving, again remember it's
| | 03:35 | the position of the ripple
icon that's making the effect.
| | 03:38 | So if need be, go back to for views and
change the position of the ripple in the top window.
| | 03:57 | Continue scrubbing the timeline until
you're happy with the results in your shaded Perspective view.
| | 04:03 | When satisfied reactivate the
Perspective view, typing F4 to turnoff shaded edges.
| | 04:10 | Due to the automatic ease in and ease
out that Max puts on start and stop keys,
| | 04:14 | we're going to need to tighten things
up so the movement created by ripple
| | 04:17 | effect appears even or constant
over the course our animation.
| | 04:21 | To do that we'll need the
ripple icon selected on our scene.
| | 04:25 | Then down on the timeline, we'll
click on the black key at frame zero.
| | 04:29 | It should turn white.
| | 04:31 | Once it does, right click. From the
menu we'll go to the top choosing Ripple Phase.
| | 04:36 | This gives us the tangency
controls for the ripple keyframes, built at
| | 04:44 | frame one and at the end of
our animation at frame 300.
| | 04:47 | What we'll do to tighten things up
using the first key and you'll see that at
| | 04:50 | time zero with the value of zero, go
to the outside changing it to Linear.
| | 04:55 | That's going to be the second icon from the top.
| | 04:59 | We'll then go to the upper right-hand
corner, clicking on the right-hand arrow
| | 05:04 | when you do, you'll now be adjusting
the second key that being at frame 300.
| | 05:09 | Notice the value for that key is
the Phase that we set at three.
| | 05:12 | For this one we got want to choose the
In side, so on the left we'll click on
| | 05:17 | the button below In changing that
again to Linear, second button from the top.
| | 05:22 | Now if you wanted as an
alternative you could have transferred that
| | 05:25 | tangency information, clicking on the arrows
on either one side of the other of the button.
| | 05:34 | Bottom line, no matter how you do it,
you want to make sure that the Out key on
| | 05:37 | frame one is set to linear
as is the In key on frame 300.
| | 05:41 | If you close that up then rescrub
the timeline, you'll see how that's
| | 05:44 | tightened things up.
| | 05:55 | That will give us some general
overall movement to our water.
| | 05:58 | In our next video, we're going to
start working on the material that will be
| | 06:01 | applying to the ocean geometry. I'm
going to save the file out as Ocean Water02
| | 06:05 | so I take it with me.
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| Creating the animated material for the water| 00:00 | With our Ocean Geometry now animated
ready to go, let's concentrate on building
| | 00:04 | a material that will add
some realism to our effect.
| | 00:07 | Using the Ocean Water 02 scene file
we carried over from the last video,
| | 00:11 | let's see what we can do.
| | 00:12 | We'll open up the Material Editor
then drop one of the blank sample slots
| | 00:16 | onto our water object.
| | 00:21 | Once that's done, we'll
name the material Water.
| | 00:28 | Let's now jump up on the Diffuse Color swatch.
| | 00:32 | We'll change the Red, Green, and Blue
values to zero, zero and 15 respectively.
| | 00:41 | Once we've done that back in the editor
we'll unlock the Diffuse and Ambient channels.
| | 00:47 | Now for the Ambient color swatch
we'll take that to pure black. The easiest
| | 00:51 | way to do that is probably just a
right-click on the Value spinner on the
| | 00:54 | lower right hand side.
| | 00:57 | Our water is going to want some shine.
| | 00:58 | We'll take the Specular
level, the strength, to 30.
| | 01:01 | Then adjust the Glossiness,
the Size of the shine to 40.
| | 01:11 | We could now add some texture to our scan
by adding a noise map to the Bump channel.
| | 01:16 | We'll open up the map section then click
on the None button to the right of Bump.
| | 01:21 | From the browser, we'll choose Noise.
| | 01:25 | Let's get a better look at the Noise.
| | 01:26 | To do that we'll first of all turn off
Show End Result. Then let's double-click
| | 01:32 | on the slot to open up a larger viewing window.
| | 01:39 | Now here is our Noise. Let's
change the type of Noise to Turbulence.
| | 01:44 | We'll then take the size from the
original setting of 25 up to 45. So that'll be
| | 01:51 | the pattern that will create bump
effect on our water. We can now close the big
| | 01:55 | window, then turn Show End Result back On.
| | 01:59 | We can now add a little extra
rippling effect into the Mix by animating the
| | 02:03 | offset values on our Noise map.
| | 02:04 | That will create movement in the water
through not just our Bind to the Ripple
| | 02:08 | space warp but also
through our animated material.
| | 02:11 | Next step turn on Auto Key. Verify the
timeline has been set to first frame.
| | 02:16 | Then back in the Material Editor on the
left-hand side for offset, verify that
| | 02:20 | X, Y and Z are all set to zero.
Once you've done that you can move your
| | 02:24 | timeline to frame 300.
| | 02:25 | If you want, you can simply
hit the N key on your keyboard.
| | 02:28 | We're back in the offset settings, we'll
take X to 50, Y to 50, and Z we will set to 150.
| | 02:42 | That'll make the Bump movement go
by side to side, and up and down.
| | 02:45 | Once we've done that we can go ahead
and turn off Auto Key. Like we did with
| | 02:50 | tightening the Ripple space warp keys
on the front and back ends, we'll have to
| | 02:54 | do the same with our material offset
keys. To do that we'll select our water
| | 02:58 | object in the Camera view then right-click.
| | 03:03 | From the menu down at the bottom
you'll choose Dope Sheet. Things can get a
| | 03:07 | little hairy sometimes at this point
because we got a lot of things to have to
| | 03:10 | sift through to find out offset keys.
| | 03:12 | Let's see if we can't simplify that.
| | 03:14 | Now on the Dope Sheet toolbar, left-hand
side third one in, locate the Filters command.
| | 03:21 | When you find it right-click, from
the menu that pops open, up at the top
| | 03:25 | activate Animated Tracks Only. This
will make it much easier for us the offset
| | 03:30 | key that we animated on ocean material. On
the left hand side of Dope Sheet open up Water.
| | 03:36 | Then at the bottom open up Bump.
You'll then click on the plus sign for
| | 03:41 | Coordinates and there they are, the two Offset
keys at frame zero and 300 for animated bump.
| | 03:47 | These are the ones we are
going to have to tighten up.
| | 03:49 | So let's select the Offset key
at the first frame. When it turns
| | 03:53 | white right-click on it.
| | 03:56 | Here is the same tangency controls that we
found on our Ripple space warp in a previous video.
| | 04:01 | For this one, using the first key at
frame zero will take Out tangent to linear,
| | 04:06 | Clicking on the button, we will
choose the second one from the top.
| | 04:10 | We'll now transfer that linear tangency
over to the In part of the second key by
| | 04:14 | clicking on the black arrow to
the right of the Out tangent.
| | 04:18 | Once you've done that to verify the
results that taken hold, we'll go to the
| | 04:21 | upper left-hand corner,
clicking on the right-hand arrow.
| | 04:25 | What we should now find is key for frame two
at frame 30 with its In tangent set to linear.
| | 04:31 | Now if it's not you can always click
back on the button changing it to the
| | 04:33 | linear picture. We can now close
the tangency box and the Dope sheet.
| | 04:39 | Let's now scrub the timeline and
specifically focus on our material up on the
| | 04:42 | sample sphere on the Editor.
| | 04:53 | That will now at least give us a
general idea of the results of our offset keying.
| | 04:57 | Let's now with the Camera
view active render our scene.
| | 05:03 | The water is still extremely dark.
We can lighten that up by appearing the pick
| | 05:07 | up the reflection of the sky above.
To do that we'll add a ray trace map into
| | 05:11 | our reflection branch then
make a further adjustment.
| | 05:14 | Let's close the render heading back in
the Material Editor. Going to parent once,
| | 05:19 | we'll then drop down on the map
section located in the Reflection branch.
| | 05:24 | When you're there you can jump up on
Reflection, choosing a ray trace map.
| | 05:30 | About halfway down in the Background
section, click on None button so we can add
| | 05:34 | our sky background map.
| | 05:36 | From the browser, we'll choose Bitmap
then navigate to the Chapter 7 folder,
| | 05:41 | choosing once again a Background sky.
| | 05:44 | What we've done is basically force
only a Background map to be used when
| | 05:48 | creating a ray trace reflection.
| | 05:51 | Now if we didn't override things in
this manner, we'd end up picking up all the
| | 05:54 | other elements within our same
when calculating our reflection.
| | 05:57 | Loading the map will simply provide for
a more accurate result. Let's go ahead
| | 06:01 | and render our Camera
view and see how things look.
| | 06:08 | The sky reflection on the water is a
little bit strong so let's go back to the
| | 06:12 | Material Editor and take the
reflection amount down to let's say 55.
| | 06:23 | Once you've made that adjustment you can
render again. Before rendering if again
| | 06:32 | you don't like the ripple effect that
you're getting from your space warp,
| | 06:35 | you can always go back in the Top view,
moving back to a better position.
| | 06:38 | Watch what happens if I do
just that and render again.
| | 06:54 | So, lot of the effect relies not just
on the bump mapping that you put on your
| | 06:58 | material but certainly the amplitude
and phase controls that you've set for
| | 07:01 | your Ripple space warp.
| | 07:03 | So that pretty much does it
for the look of our water.
| | 07:05 | A real effect comes when rendering out.
The finished clip would end up looking like this.
| | 07:10 | I'll throw it into this chapter's
folder into the exercise files if you'd like
| | 07:13 | to take another look.
| | 07:15 | It's an avi file called Ocean Water.
| | 07:17 | I will also save our wireframes scene
out as oceanwatercompleted, if you'd like
| | 07:22 | to go in and play around a little more
with some of the settings. But that's it,
| | 07:26 | ocean water from start to finish.
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8. Project: Creating Fountain WaterCreating Super Spray water particles| 00:00 | In this chapter, we're going to be
creating the effect of flowing water coming
| | 00:03 | out of the park water fountain.
| | 00:05 | The project will give us the
opportunity to not just build a custom material
| | 00:09 | for our particles, but also a chance to
incorporate both space warps and Motion
| | 00:13 | Blur into our effect.
| | 00:15 | Now the geometry we'll be
working with has already been created.
| | 00:18 | Everything we need to get us going
is in a file named Water Fountain.
| | 00:22 | Let's go ahead and get started.
| | 00:23 | The scene consists of a round concrete water
fountain located in the middle of a local park.
| | 00:28 | The first thing we'll do is to
create the particle systems that we'll be
| | 00:31 | using to generate our fountain water.
Because the water flow will originate
| | 00:35 | from a single location, then spread as
it shoots out, we'll be using a Super
| | 00:39 | Spray to do the job.
| | 00:41 | All of our scene elements have been
frozen, so it should make it easy for us to
| | 00:44 | work without inadvertently selecting
something else in our scene by mistake.
| | 00:48 | Because we're going to want our
particles to shoot upward from the fountain,
| | 00:51 | we'll create our Super Spray in the Top view.
| | 00:54 | Let's do that right in the middle
of the light green fountain geometry.
| | 01:05 | Once we have the Super Spray in our
scene, let's rename it Water Spray.
| | 01:14 | The particles will emit directly from the
cross-hair intersection on the Super Spray icon.
| | 01:19 | So that's what we're going to want to
make sure that we have properly placed.
| | 01:22 | With the Super Spray selected, let's
tap Z on our keyboard for a closer look.
| | 01:27 | You'll want to check all three of your
orthographic views for the proper position.
| | 01:43 | Once we've done that we'll deselect
the Super Spray, then hit Z again.
| | 01:47 | Let's now in our Timeline move to
around frame 20, so we can see better see
| | 01:50 | the particle emission.
| | 01:55 | Let's now take our Camera view full-
screen, and we'll start to adjust some of
| | 01:58 | the Super Spray settings.
| | 02:02 | You can make that switch over to one view
by simply using the Alt+W keyboard shortcut.
| | 02:07 | On the Command panel, let's start by
changing the Icon Size for our Super Spray.
| | 02:11 | We'll take that down to 10.
| | 02:16 | To achieve a more spraying effect
with our particles, let's do this.
| | 02:19 | We'll take our Off Axis to 6.0,
our Off Axis Spread also to 6.0.
| | 02:24 | Then we'll take the Off Plane Spread to 180.
| | 02:27 | If you scrub around the first-third of
our Timeline, you'll see the difference
| | 02:30 | that's made in our particle emission.
| | 02:36 | Let's now get more particles actually
showing up in our view. Directly below
| | 02:40 | where we changed the size
of our Super Spray Icon,
| | 02:43 | we can change the Viewport
Display of our particles.
| | 02:46 | Let's change that Percentage from 10 up to 100.
| | 02:57 | Now as far as the actual number of
particles we'll use, let's change our Use
| | 03:01 | Rate under Particle Generation to 6.
| | 03:03 | That will have our emitter
shooting out six particles per frame.
| | 03:12 | Once we've locked that in place, let's
go ahead and playback our Camera view.
| | 03:28 | The speed of the particles seems awfully quick.
| | 03:30 | It looks like the particles are only shooting
out for the first 30 frames of our animation.
| | 03:35 | Let's change a few things there.
| | 03:36 | We'll start by changing our Speed to 2.0.
| | 03:48 | Now that seems a little bit on the slow side.
Let's bump that up instead to around 5.0.
| | 03:57 | Once we've got those numbers in place,
let's again play the front part of our Timeline.
| | 04:02 | For our Particle Timing, let's do this.
| | 04:04 | We'll take our Emit Stop to
150, our Display Until to 150,
| | 04:09 | we'll change the Life of
each particle to 95 frames.
| | 04:13 | and we'll vary that by 10 frames.
| | 04:18 | That looks much better.
| | 04:19 | Now we're also going to want our fountain
to be flowing when the animation starts.
| | 04:23 | So let's set our Emit Start time
to somewhere before our first frame.
| | 04:27 | I'll take that to -50.
| | 04:44 | Now it looks like we have a full
flow for our particles right at the
| | 04:47 | beginning of our animation.
| | 04:48 | As far as the shape of our particles,
we could certainly spend the time to model
| | 04:52 | something that would look like a
water drop, then use Instanced Geometry.
| | 04:56 | But because our particles will have a
layer of blur applied to them, we can
| | 05:00 | actually get away with just using one
of Max's standard particle shapes, in
| | 05:04 | particular the Tetra.
| | 05:05 | Let's make that change over
in the Particle Type category.
| | 05:11 | In the Standard Particles category,
we'll change from Triangle over to Tetra.
| | 05:16 | With now having chosen a shape for
our particles, let's turn our view into
| | 05:19 | seeing the actual mesh that we're using.
| | 05:21 | We'll go back to the top of the settings.
| | 05:23 | Then for our Display type,
we'll change it to Mesh.
| | 05:29 | By changing to a Wireframe view
using the F3 shortcut, then scrubbing the
| | 05:33 | Timeline, you'll see that our
particles are just way too small.
| | 05:37 | Back on the right, we'll
change the Particle Size to 5.0.
| | 05:40 | Then vary that Size by a number of 20.0.
| | 05:56 | Let's also change the
Grow For and Fade For values.
| | 05:59 | For the Grow For setting, we'll set that to 0,
so all of our particles start out at full size.
| | 06:05 | For the Fade For control,
we'll change that to 75.
| | 06:08 | So for each particle, it'll take 75
frames over which to reduce down to
| | 06:12 | pretty much nothing.
| | 06:24 | Now as far as the direction the
particles travel, this is a big one, as we want
| | 06:28 | the particles to appear to be
shooting straight out of our spray emitter.
| | 06:31 | We can do that by making a quick
change down in the Rotation and
| | 06:34 | Collision category.
| | 06:36 | Back on the right, we'll right-
click, and then from the menu, choose
| | 06:38 | Rotation and Collision.
| | 06:43 | Under the Spin Axis Controls, let's change
that from Random to Direction of Travel/Mblur.
| | 06:52 | Let's also change the Stretch value to 2,
which will give us a little additional
| | 06:56 | blurring to our water flow.
| | 07:06 | Once we've done that and scrubbed to the
Timeline a few times to see the effect,
| | 07:10 | we can go back to a shaded view by typing F3.
| | 07:17 | If you need to change your particles
to a brighter color for an easier read,
| | 07:20 | go ahead and do so.
| | 07:22 | After that, you can render the scene.
| | 07:25 | For an added level of blur, let's now
right-click on our Super Spray emitter,
| | 07:29 | and make a quick adjustment.
| | 07:30 | We'll close the render.
| | 07:31 | Then make sure the Super Spray is selected.
| | 07:35 | Once you've right-clicked, from
the menu choose Object Properties.
| | 07:40 | Down in the right corner in the Motion Blur
category, let's activate Image Motion Blur.
| | 07:44 | Once you've done that, you can
close the dialog, then render again.
| | 07:51 | The image title blurring is a post effect.
| | 07:53 | So it might take a moment to kick in.
| | 07:55 | Why don't we see if we can
crank that amount of blur up a bit?
| | 07:59 | Closing the render will
reopen the Object Properties page.
| | 08:04 | In the Motion Blur category,
we'll change the Multiplier to 5.0.
| | 08:13 | Once we've done that, we
can go ahead and render again.
| | 08:16 | Let's experiment with one more number.
| | 08:17 | We'll change this time
to using a Multiplier 3.0.
| | 08:27 | We'll render again.
| | 08:28 | That looks pretty good.
| | 08:30 | We have a light on the right-hand side
of our scene that's casting a shadow that
| | 08:33 | our particles are picking up.
| | 08:35 | you can see that over in the left-hand
side of the concrete fountain structure.
| | 08:39 | If when rendering your particles,
you're feeling a little drag on your system,
| | 08:42 | you might consider turning off the
shadow casting attribute on the Super Spray.
| | 08:46 | Here is how you could do that.
| | 08:48 | We'll again close the render, then
go back to our Object Properties.
| | 08:58 | About halfway down on the right-hand
side in the Rendering Control section,
| | 09:02 | turn off Cast Shadows.
| | 09:03 | We'll render again and you'll notice the
particles are no longer casting a shadow.
| | 09:09 | That will do it for the particle creation.
| | 09:12 | Next, we're going to need to somehow
get these particles to come back down.
| | 09:16 | We'll do that using a Gravity space
warp that we'll set up in the next video.
| | 09:20 | Let's go ahead and save our file out
as Water Fountain01, so we can take things with us.
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| Adding gravity| 00:00 | In order to pull our particles back down
in the direction of our fountain, we'll
| | 00:04 | need to add a Gravity space warp into the mix.
| | 00:06 | We'll do that using a file named
Water Fountain01, which we brought with us
| | 00:10 | from the last video.
| | 00:14 | For the gravity to be facing downward
once it's been created, we'll want to be
| | 00:17 | using the Top view when we drop it in.
| | 00:19 | To return to four views, we'll
simply use the Alt+W keyboard shortcut.
| | 00:24 | Let's now grab a Gravity space warp
and we'll drop it just to the right-hand
| | 00:27 | side of our fountain again on the Top view.
| | 00:36 | Once we've done that, we'll reselect
the Super Spray, then activate the Bind
| | 00:40 | to Space Warp command.
| | 00:44 | Once that's active, we can easily select our
Gravity space warp by simply typing the H key.
| | 00:50 | From the list, go ahead and
double-click on the Gravity.
| | 00:55 | Let's now make some adjustments to
the pulling effect on our gravity.
| | 00:59 | For that we're going to have to reselect
the Gravity space warp inside our view.
| | 01:02 | We'll then activate the Modify column
on the right-hand side and get to work.
| | 01:09 | Let's take our Camera view full
screen and begin our playback.
| | 01:21 | As you can see with the gravity set
so strong, the particles are merely
| | 01:24 | dropping straight downward.
| | 01:26 | Let's change the Strength of our gravity to 0.5.
| | 01:38 | Lets then try 0.2 and why don't we
also experiment with let's say 0.1.
| | 01:53 | That's more in line with the way that I
wanted the gravity to pull things down.
| | 01:56 | Let's go ahead, and stop our
playback, and render our scene.
| | 01:58 | So that's pretty good.
| | 02:03 | We've now got a nice little drop bringing
our particles back down into our fountain.
| | 02:07 | Next up we'll start building the materials
that we're going to be needing for our water.
| | 02:11 | We'll be creating two different skins:
one for our particles and one for the
| | 02:15 | water that will be at
the bottom of our fountain.
| | 02:17 | We'll get to the fountain
water in our next video.
| | 02:20 | First thought, let's save our
scene up as Water Fountain02.
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| Creating the fountain water material| 00:00 | With our particles now created and
being pulled into our water fountain
| | 00:04 | by means of a Gravity space warp, let's
switch our attention to making a few materials.
| | 00:08 | We'll begin with the water material that
we'll have at the bottom of our fountain.
| | 00:12 | Using a file named Water Fountain02 that
we've carried over from the last video,
| | 00:16 | let's see if we can do.
| | 00:18 | Now our material will be applied to an
object that we currently have hidden from view.
| | 00:23 | Let's first get that geometry back
into play by simply right-clicking and
| | 00:27 | choosing Unhide All.
| | 00:32 | You'll now see the geometry being
displayed in a dark blue wireframe color.
| | 00:36 | Let's go and select that from one of our views.
| | 00:38 | It's named Water Surface.
| | 00:41 | Once we've done that, we'll go
ahead and open the Material Editor.
| | 00:45 | Let's go ahead and assign one of the
clean gray sample spheres to our object,
| | 00:49 | and then name the material Bottom Water.
| | 01:00 | We're going to be aiming to give
the water a dark grayish blue color.
| | 01:03 | For that, we'll jump up on the Diffuse
Color swatch and type in a few numbers.
| | 01:09 | Up in the top three color
ramps in the right, we'll do this.
| | 01:11 | We'll take our Red to 45, our
Green to 55, and our Blue to 65.
| | 01:18 | Once we've done that, we'll copy the
Diffuse swatch over to the Ambient, then
| | 01:21 | darken that slightly.
| | 01:30 | You can do that by merely
pulling out some of the colors value.
| | 01:33 | For our Specular Color swatch,
let's make sure that's pure white.
| | 01:37 | We'll again simply take the sixth ramp down
on the right value and rip it to the right.
| | 01:44 | As far as the actual
Specular Highlight, let's do this.
| | 01:47 | We'll take the Specular Level
to 100 and the Glossiness to 60.
| | 01:52 | Then in the Opacity setting, directly to
the right of that, we'll change that to 30.
| | 01:56 | That will give us a 70% transparency.
| | 01:59 | Let's also open up the Extended
Parameters tab and adjust the Filter color.
| | 02:03 | That will give us a little
extra tint to our transparency.
| | 02:07 | Let's steal the color of our Diffuse Color
Swatch, using it also for our Filter color.
| | 02:11 | To make that grab, we'll simple right-click
on the Diffuse Color swatch and choose Copy.
| | 02:18 | We'll then put our mouse on the
Filter Color swatch, right-clicking,
| | 02:21 | and choosing Paste. There we go.
| | 02:24 | Now with those in place,
let's go ahead and render.
| | 02:30 | Now we are going to want there to
be a little texture on our water.
| | 02:32 | So let's go ahead and add a
Noise map in our Bump channel.
| | 02:46 | On our Noise settings, we'll take the
Type of Noise to Turbulence and the Size
| | 02:50 | down to 10.0. Let's also throw a little
refraction into the look of the water.
| | 02:54 | We'll go to our parent, then on the
Refraction branch we'll go to Raytrace.
| | 03:03 | With that in place, let's render again.
| | 03:10 | So heading back to the Material
Editor, we'll change the Amount of
| | 03:13 | Refraction down to 40.
| | 03:25 | We've got a subtle
difference, but a better look.
| | 03:28 | With our Super Spray coming back down,
and making contact with our Bottom Water,
| | 03:32 | our fountain effect will turn out a
little more realistic if we apply a little
| | 03:36 | movement to that Bottom Water material.
| | 03:38 | We'll do that by animating a couple
of different settings on our Noise,
| | 03:41 | the Coordinate Offset and the Phase.
| | 03:43 | Let's go ahead and close our
render and turn on Auto Key.
| | 03:48 | Okay, let's start with the Noise Offset.
| | 03:50 | We'll jump back up on the
Bump branch and get to work.
| | 03:53 | You'll find the Offset settings about
halfway down over in the left-hand side.
| | 03:57 | We're going to be working
specifically with the Z Offset.
| | 04:00 | At our first frame, we're going to
want to make sure that Offset in the Z
| | 04:03 | direction is set to 0.0.
| | 04:05 | We'll then go to the end of our animation
at frame 150, changing the Z Offset to 15.0.
| | 04:10 | Now once you've locked that in, you
should see red brackets around each of the
| | 04:13 | three Offset spinners.
| | 04:15 | For the Phase value directly above the
color swatches and over to the right,
| | 04:18 | we'll leave it set to 0.0 until we
get to the last frame of our animation.
| | 04:22 | Now at the end, at frame 150,
we'll change the Phase to 1.0.
| | 04:26 | Again, look for the red spinner
brackets indicating a key at that frame.
| | 04:31 | Scrub the Timeline back-and-forth
and you'll see the change in the
| | 04:33 | material taking place.
| | 04:41 | We're looking pretty good.
| | 04:42 | Let's turn off the Auto
Key, then render our scene.
| | 04:48 | We've got the bottom
fountain water now taking shape.
| | 04:51 | Let's also lighten the Bump effect just a tad.
| | 04:54 | Back in the Material Editor, we'll
take that Bump amount down to 20.
| | 05:03 | Let's see how that looks once rendered.
| | 05:04 | So, that gives us a little less texture,
why don't we also try the Bump Amount at 15?
| | 05:19 | That's going to do it for the
water in the bottom of our fountain.
| | 05:22 | Let's save our file up as Fountain
Water03, and we'll move to the next video
| | 05:26 | where we'll then build the
material for our Super Spray particles.
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| Constructing the particle water material| 00:00 | In this video, we'll be creating the
water that'll be applied to our fountain
| | 00:04 | water Super Spray particles.
| | 00:06 | The skin for our shooting water
will be constructed a little bit
| | 00:09 | differently than the water
material that we have on the object at the
| | 00:11 | bottom of our fountain.
| | 00:12 | We'll be working in a file named
Water Fountain03, which we brought with us
| | 00:17 | from the last video.
| | 00:18 | Let's select the Super Spray in our scene
and we'll head back into the Material Editor.
| | 00:24 | From there, we can now apply one of the
clean material balls to our Spray icon.
| | 00:28 | With that in place, let's now
name our material Spray Water.
| | 00:35 | Let's now take the Diffuse
Color swatch changing it to white.
| | 00:39 | In the Color Selector, in the last ramp
down in the right, the Value will start
| | 00:42 | by ripping that hard to the right.
| | 00:47 | Then for the actual value
number, we'll type in 200.
| | 00:51 | For our Ambient Color Swatch,
we'll take that value to 150.
| | 00:58 | On the Specular Highlights, we'll
take the Specular Level to 100 and
| | 01:01 | the Glossiness to 85.
| | 01:02 | That will give us a strong tight shine.
| | 01:07 | Once we've got those numbers in place,
let's go ahead and render our Camera view.
| | 01:16 | We've got some work to do.
| | 01:17 | Back to the Material Editor,
let's open a large viewing window.
| | 01:22 | I'd like to also change the
background from gray to a checkerboard.
| | 01:26 | We can do that by clicking on the
vertical icon, third one from the top.
| | 01:31 | Let's change our Opacity to 55.
| | 01:32 | We'll then open the Extended
Parameters, then on the right-hand side for
| | 01:38 | Advanced Transparency, we'll take
the Falloff to Out and the Amount to 100.
| | 01:43 | Once that's typed in, just to the
right of that for the Filter color we'll
| | 01:46 | change that to white.
| | 01:49 | Let's go and render our particles again.
| | 01:55 | With those changes, things
are now looking much better.
| | 02:00 | We could also experiment a little more
with either changing the color of the
| | 02:03 | Filter swatch, or trying the
Additive or Subtractive controls down below.
| | 02:08 | In plain English, Subtractive Opacity
would darken the water effect, while
| | 02:12 | Additive Opacity would brighten our results.
| | 02:23 | For our example with the background
we're using, we'll probably get the best
| | 02:27 | results by just maybe adding a
tinge of blue to our Filter color.
| | 02:31 | Let's open that color swatch, in the
hue ramp click on Blue, then down below
| | 02:35 | after Saturation, we'll hold on the
spinner, taking that to around 30.
| | 02:44 | Once we've done that, let's go ahead
and render again. We're closing in.
| | 02:53 | Let's save our file up as Water Fountain04.
| | 02:56 | We'll take it into our next video
where we'll start making a few minor
| | 02:59 | adjustments to our settings.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Making final adjustments | 00:00 | With our fountain spray
now really coming around,
| | 00:03 | we can start focusing on a few final
adjustments to polish up the look of our effect.
| | 00:07 | Using the Water Fountain04 file we finished
up in the last video, let's see what we can do.
| | 00:12 | The first thing I like to try is
experimenting with the particle count we're
| | 00:15 | using during our render.
| | 00:17 | I am curious as to how things would look if we
added a few more particles to our Super Spray.
| | 00:22 | With out Spray icon selected, we'll move into
our settings and change the Use Rate to 10.
| | 00:33 | Once we've made that change,
let's render our Camera view.
| | 00:40 | So that gives us a little more
robust look to our water flow.
| | 00:43 | Why don't we also try Use Rate of let's say 25?
| | 00:55 | All depending on the speed of your
equipment, you probably right now are feeling
| | 00:58 | a little pull on your resources.
| | 01:01 | That pull coming in the form of
a noticeably longer render time.
| | 01:04 | So there is a little trade-off with what
you get and how long it takes to get it.
| | 01:09 | This is probably a few more
particles than we actually need.
| | 01:11 | Let's back off our number to
let's say 12 and see how that looks.
| | 01:22 | Our render time improves and we have an
adequate number of particles for our effect.
| | 01:26 | Let's also try a few
different Opacity percentages.
| | 01:31 | In the Material Editor, let's
change our overall Opacity to 70%.
| | 01:44 | Once we've done that, we'll render again.
| | 01:46 | With this, our particles are
probably a little too opaque.
| | 01:49 | Let's back that Opacity down in the
opposite direction. We'll try 40.
| | 02:02 | Now here our particles might
be just a tad too transparent.
| | 02:06 | So I think the 55 level on our Opacity
that we started with looks the best.
| | 02:10 | Let's change that back and render again.
| | 02:19 | As far as the water sitting in the
fountain, how is the overall look there?
| | 02:23 | Should we see more of the concrete
bottom of the fountain, or maybe we should
| | 02:26 | have a stronger reflection
coming from the surrounding sky?
| | 02:29 | Both elements certainly
affect the realism of our results.
| | 02:33 | We created a reflective
effect using a Refraction map.
| | 02:36 | I wonder how things would look if
we also added a ray trace map into
| | 02:40 | our Reflection branch.
| | 02:41 | So we can see the difference before we
make our changes, let's clone our render.
| | 02:46 | We can do that in the upper left-hand
corner of our rendered window, choosing
| | 02:49 | Clone Rendered Frame Window.
| | 02:51 | Here is a copy of our render.
| | 02:53 | We'll minimize this then
close the actual render window.
| | 02:59 | Back in the Materials Editor, we're
going to want to make sure we're working
| | 03:01 | on the Bottom Water.
| | 03:03 | On my screen, that's going to be the material
in the upper left-hand corner of our Editor.
| | 03:08 | We can also verify the name
that we gave our material.
| | 03:11 | Down in the maps, we'll leave the
Refraction on, then jump up on the Reflection
| | 03:15 | branch, choosing a ray trace.
| | 03:20 | With the Reflection amount set to 100,
we'll get way too much reflection.
| | 03:24 | Let's go to our parent, then back
that Reflection amount value down to 15.
| | 03:34 | Once we've done that, let's go
ahead and render with our new settings.
| | 03:41 | For comparison purposes, let's do this.
| | 03:44 | We'll move the current render over
to the right-hand side of our screen.
| | 03:46 | We'll then reopen our Clone render
that you see positioned down at the
| | 03:53 | lower left-hand side.
| | 03:56 | Once we have that on the screen,
we'll prop that over on the left.
| | 04:07 | So there are the differences in the water.
| | 04:09 | Now what do you think?
| | 04:10 | On the left, we're using just Refraction;
on the right, the Refraction with the
| | 04:14 | little extra Reflection.
| | 04:15 | I got to be honest.
| | 04:16 | I think we'll do just fine leaving
out the added retrace reflection.
| | 04:20 | It will be one last thing that
our render has to plow through.
| | 04:29 | We could possibly also consider adding a
deflector for our particles down at our waterline.
| | 04:34 | But I think with the movement that
we've created in our Bottom Water by
| | 04:37 | animating the Noise, Offset, and Phase
values on its material, should give us a
| | 04:41 | reasonable amount of action as the
spray from above makes contact with the
| | 04:45 | lower water surface.
| | 04:52 | I think that's about it.
| | 04:53 | If we set this baby out to render,
our results would end up looking like this.
| | 04:58 | If you'd like to check out the file
for yourself, you can find it in this
| | 05:01 | chapter's folder in the Exercise Files.
| | 05:03 | It's a file named Water Fountain.
| | 05:05 | Let's also save our wireframe file out
as Water Fountain Completed, if you'd
| | 05:10 | like to go in and check
it out. So there you go.
| | 05:12 | A realistic water effect coming
by way of a park side fountain.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
9. Project: Creating a Mudslide Using MetaParticlesCreating the geometry| 00:00 | Flowing type particles, though
typically very render intensive, can be used to
| | 00:05 | create a wide variety of visual effects,
from water to lava to something like
| | 00:10 | a mudslide that you might see as a result of
a heavy rain or shift in the earth's surface.
| | 00:15 | That's what we're going to
be doing in this project.
| | 00:17 | A particle effect mudslide that we
will have rolling down the side of a hill.
| | 00:21 | The project is going to give us an
opportunity to do several things, to build
| | 00:25 | some geometry, to create and adjust
a metaparticle type particle system.
| | 00:29 | We'll be using gravity,
deflectors, all kinds of stuff.
| | 00:33 | By the time we're done, we'll up
with an effect that looks like this.
| | 00:37 | Let's get started by first saving our
file, then we'll create our scene geometry.
| | 00:41 | We'll save things out as Mudslide.
| | 00:56 | Let's begin by creating a Plane
object in the middle of our Top view.
| | 01:06 | Now the size isn't important. Just
try to position it somewhere towards the
| | 01:09 | middle of the screen.
| | 01:10 | Once we've got that in play, let's move to
Modify column so we can make some adjustments.
| | 01:14 | We'll give the object the name Ground.
| | 01:21 | Let's then give it a Length of 350, a
Width of 400, and then we'll take the
| | 01:25 | segments in both directions to 50.
| | 01:30 | That'll give us our needed
detail as we deform the surface.
| | 01:33 | Once we've done that, let's activate the Move
command then right-click on that toolbar icon.
| | 01:41 | So we can position our plane smack-
dab in the middle of our 3D space.
| | 01:44 | We'll use the Absolute:World coordinates,
changing all three, X, Y, and Z, to 0.
| | 01:49 | You can easily do that by right-clicking on
either of the two spinners for each setting.
| | 01:55 | Once you've done that, you can close the
dialog then hit Z for Zoom Extents Selected.
| | 01:59 | Why don't we also hide the grid in
each of our three orthogonal views?
| | 02:04 | I'll simply type G each time to do that.
| | 02:09 | To deform the surface,
we'll now add a Noise modifier.
| | 02:17 | With the Noise in place, we'll now drop
about halfway down, changing the Strength values.
| | 02:22 | Here's what you want to type in.
X will be 25, Y will be 25, and for the Z
| | 02:27 | direction, we'll set that at 75.
| | 02:30 | Let's also a little further
up change the Scale to 125.
| | 02:34 | This will set the size of the Noise effect.
| | 02:37 | A larger number giving us a slightly
smoother look to our ground surface.
| | 02:41 | Even though I'm going to leave things
the way they are, if you ever want to
| | 02:44 | vary the mathematical calculation
that's being used to generate the look of the
| | 02:48 | curvature of the surface, you can always
change the Seed number a little bit above Scale.
| | 02:51 | Go ahead and click on that spinner
a couple of times and you'll see the
| | 02:54 | difference that it makes.
| | 02:55 | We're also going to want to
put our Geometry on a slant.
| | 03:01 | So on the toolbar, click on the Rotate
icon, then right click on that same button.
| | 03:09 | In the Absolute:World values on the
left-hand side for the number of degrees in
| | 03:12 | the X-direction, type in 15.
| | 03:18 | After doing that let's activate the
Perspective view and we'll orbit things around.
| | 03:22 | We're going to want to position our
ground plane fairly square with the
| | 03:25 | viewport, but still getting
that upward slant direction.
| | 03:28 | For the orbiting operation, I'll
simply use the Alt+Middle mouse combo.
| | 03:32 | So that's going to do it
for the look of our geometry.
| | 03:34 | Next, we'll be adding in our particle system.
| | 03:36 | Let's go ahead and save our
files, so we can take it with us.
| | 03:39 | I'll see you in the next video.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding the mudslide particle system| 00:00 | Now that we have our geometry in place,
we can begin building our particle system.
| | 00:05 | Because the flow of our particles will
need to cover a wide area as thing slide
| | 00:09 | downhill, we'll use a
blizzard to create our effect.
| | 00:12 | To keep things inline with our geometry,
we'll create our blizzard in the Front view.
| | 00:17 | You'll want to place it directly above the mesh.
| | 00:20 | We'll go to particle systems, there
is the Blizzard, second one down on the
| | 00:24 | right, and we can now
position it in the Front view.
| | 00:29 | Let's now open up the Modify column so
we can change the Blizzard icon's size.
| | 00:34 | Right at the top under Basic Parameters
we'll take the Width to 200 and the Length to 15.
| | 00:40 | To properly position the particle
system we'll use our Transform type-In.
| | 00:44 | Up on the toolbar click on the Move icon.
| | 00:47 | Once you've done that right-
click on that same button.
| | 00:51 | Using the Absolute:World coordinates on the
left-hand side, here's the numbers to type.
| | 00:56 | We'll take the X to 0, the Y to 165, and
then for our Z-axis we'll set that to 65.
| | 01:06 | If you look in the Top view, the
Blizzard is currently pointing in the
| | 01:09 | opposite direction.
| | 01:11 | So in the top window we will activate the
Rotate command, then also use the Angle Snap.
| | 01:18 | You can simply type the keyboard
shortcut A to activate that command.
| | 01:24 | In the Top view we'll grab the yellow
ring, spinning it around 180 degrees.
| | 01:33 | Let's now go back our settings on the
right, so we can adjust the particle display.
| | 01:38 | We'll take the Percentage of
Particles being viewed in the viewport to 25%.
| | 01:42 | For the type of viewport
visibility we'll change that to Mesh.
| | 01:51 | Because we're looking to create more
of a flowing effect where our particles
| | 01:54 | will bunch up or blob together, we're
talking about a look that's best created
| | 01:58 | using Max's MetaParticles.
| | 02:00 | Once we set things up, it's important
to realize that we're going to be using a
| | 02:04 | particle type that can be very
debilitating on even the fastest computer.
| | 02:09 | It's just the cost of doing business
when you wanted to create more of a
| | 02:11 | flowing type effect.
| | 02:13 | So my word of advice is as we get into
the metaparticle adjustments, let your
| | 02:17 | machine dictate what it can and can't do.
| | 02:20 | You're better off using lower settings
and fewer particles when testing things out,
| | 02:24 | knowing that you can always go
back and crank up your settings when it
| | 02:27 | comes time for final output.
| | 02:29 | For a project we're going to want a
total of 200 frames. To make the change
| | 02:34 | go ahead and right-click on any of the
arrows to the right side of our Time segment.
| | 02:38 | On the left-hand side about halfway down in
the Animation category, set the End Time to 200.
| | 02:46 | Once you've locked that in, go down
the timeline and verify that we do
| | 02:49 | indeed have 200 frames.
| | 02:51 | With that now done, we can go back to
our Blizzard system, changing the type of
| | 02:55 | particles that will be emitted.
| | 02:56 | The category below Particle
Generation is Particle Type. Let's go there.
| | 03:01 | Right at the top under Particle Types, we'll
change from Standard particles to MetaParticles.
| | 03:09 | This is a big one.
| | 03:10 | Under the MetaParticles Parameters
category uncheck Automatic Coarseness.
| | 03:16 | This will give us the opportunity
to be able to adjust the MetaParticle
| | 03:19 | calculations for both our
render and for our viewports.
| | 03:22 | Under Evaluation Coarseness, change
the Render to 5 and the Viewport to 5.
| | 03:27 | The lower each value goes, the higher
detail, but at the expense of a longer render.
| | 03:32 | Let's now go back to our Particle
Timing and we can set our emission times.
| | 03:37 | Here's what we'll do.
| | 03:38 | We'll start the particle emission at frame 30.
| | 03:40 | You'll want to enter that for Emit Start.
| | 03:44 | We'll then have our particles last
the entire length of our animation.
| | 03:48 | So for that take the Emit Stop to 200,
the Display Until to 200, and for the Life,
| | 03:54 | we'll knock that down at 200 also.
| | 03:57 | Let's now slowly scrub the
timeline and we'll see what we get.
| | 04:01 | Our problem here is that the size of
our particles is just too darn small.
| | 04:06 | On the right we'll go to the
Particle Size, changing that to 10.
| | 04:13 | Let's now go ahead and scrub again.
| | 04:23 | Now our particles do indeed display
larger, but let's go a little higher still.
| | 04:28 | We'll take our Size value to
15 and the Variation to 100.
| | 04:37 | For the Speed of our emission let's slow
that down a little bit, changing the number to 5.
| | 04:45 | Now that the particles are a little
easier to see. If needed why don't we go and
| | 04:48 | change the color of our Wireframe on
the Blizzard to something little brighter.
| | 04:55 | That'll just make things a little easier to
see as we continue to make our adjustments.
| | 04:59 | As far as the number of particles
we'll use, under Particle Generation
| | 05:03 | let's change the Use Rate from 10 to 20.
| | 05:09 | Once we've done that we'll activate the
Perspective view and render things up.
| | 05:16 | We'll be coming back a little later in
the project to make a few more adjustments.
| | 05:20 | Let's go ahead and close our render window
then orbit the Perspective view for inspection.
| | 05:33 | That's going to do it for our Blizzard.
| | 05:34 | Next, we'll add a little gravity into
our scene so we can get our particles
| | 05:38 | flowing in a more downward fashion.
| | 05:41 | Let's save our scene up as Mudslide01
and we'll get to all that in our next video.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Binding a Gravity space warp to the particles| 00:00 | To pull our particles down as they
shoot from the Blizzard emitter, we'll add a
| | 00:04 | Gravity space warp into the mix.
| | 00:06 | Using a file named Mudslide01 that
we've carried over from the last video,
| | 00:10 | let's see what we can do.
| | 00:12 | Let's first change back to a four-way view.
| | 00:15 | The quickest way would simply
be to use the Alt+W shortcut.
| | 00:18 | Let's now slowly scrub our timeline.
| | 00:30 | You'll notice most easily seen in the
Left view that our particles are currently
| | 00:35 | just shooting straightforward.
| | 00:37 | We'll pull those towards the
ground by means of a Gravity Warp.
| | 00:40 | Now in order for the force of
gravity to come from the top of our scene down,
| | 00:43 | we'll need to create it in our Top view.
| | 00:46 | Let's do that to the right-
hand side of our ground geometry.
| | 00:50 | In the space warp category, the Gravity is
the fourth one down on the left-hand side.
| | 00:55 | Let's go ahead and place that in our scene.
| | 00:58 | Neither its size or position is important.
| | 01:00 | The only thing that matters is
the direction of the gravity points.
| | 01:03 | For it to affect ourBlizzard particles,
it'll have to be bound to the particle icon.
| | 01:08 | Now to do that I'll first
select the Blizzard in our scene.
| | 01:10 | Once I've got that selected, on the
toolbar on the left-hand side I'll
| | 01:14 | activate Bind to Space Warp.
| | 01:18 | Then I'll simply type the
H key to open up a list.
| | 01:22 | From here it gets easy.
| | 01:23 | We'll simply double-click on the Gravity.
| | 01:26 | Now if you slowly scrub the timeline
focusing on the left-hand view, you'll
| | 01:29 | notice that things are
falling much too aggressively.
| | 01:32 | To correct that we're going to have
to lighten up on the Force value on
| | 01:35 | the Gravity space warp.
| | 01:37 | We'll go back and select the Gravity,
then head to the right-hand column.
| | 01:43 | Under Strength, let's change
that from 1 to let's say .7.
| | 01:46 | Once you do that go ahead and
scrub the timeline again, focusing in on
| | 01:53 | the left-hand view.
| | 01:55 | Things are still dropping much too fast.
| | 01:57 | Let's change the Strength
instead to let's say .3.
| | 02:06 | Scrubbing again.
Well, that's a little bit better.
| | 02:08 | Why don't we also try a value of .2?
| | 02:20 | That will give us a nice little
drop to our MetaParticle effect.
| | 02:23 | So that's going to do it for forcing
the particles down toward the surface.
| | 02:27 | We still though need them to recognize the
geometry that we want them to slide along.
| | 02:32 | That's the job for a Deflector,
which we'll set up in the next video.
| | 02:36 | Let's save our file up as
Mudslide02 so we can take it along with us.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding the Deflector space warp| 00:00 | With our particles now being pulled down
on our scene, we'll want them to detect
| | 00:04 | and deflect up from and
along our ground surface.
| | 00:08 | Using a file named Mudslide02
let's see if we can get that to happen.
| | 00:13 | With Max offering several different
types of deflector systems we'll want to
| | 00:17 | choose one that'll use the actual ground
geometry in our scene as the deflection device.
| | 00:22 | That's the call for the UDeflector.
| | 00:24 | Let's grab one from the Deflectors
category of space warps and we'll drop it in
| | 00:29 | the Top view directly to the right
-hand side of our ground object.
| | 00:34 | I'll place mine just
below our Gravity space warp.
| | 00:36 | With that in place we're going to want to
bind it back to our Blizzard particle system.
| | 00:40 | Before we do that, let's go back to frame 0.
| | 00:43 | That'll simply avoid some needless
calculations once the binding takes place.
| | 00:47 | Once we've done that we'll
select the Blizzard icon.
| | 00:53 | We can then click on the Bind to Space
Warp command, then type H. From the list,
| | 00:59 | we'll choose the UDeflector, because
the UDeflector uses actual scene geometry
| | 01:06 | as the deflecting object, we'll now be
re-select the Deflector icon, then click
| | 01:11 | on the Pick Object button
in the right-hand controls.
| | 01:16 | Make sure you're in the Modify column
when you look for that Pick Object button.
| | 01:19 | When you find it, go ahead and click on it.
| | 01:22 | Then in whatever viewport is most
convenient for you, go ahead and click on
| | 01:25 | the ground geometry.
| | 01:28 | When you've made that selection,
go back to the Pick Object button and verify
| | 01:32 | right above it that it reads ground.
| | 01:34 | Let's now again slowly scrub our timeline.
| | 01:51 | We definitely now have our particles
being affected by that ground surface.
| | 01:55 | Let's move to around frame 85
and render our Perspective view.
| | 02:01 | We now have to make some adjustments,
but before doing so let's orbit the
| | 02:04 | Perspective view and you can see how the
particles are riding along the ground surface.
| | 02:10 | Let's see if we can get things so the
particles don't bounce maybe quite so high.
| | 02:14 | With the UDeflector selected, let's
change the Bounce setting to .5.
| | 02:25 | Let's go ahead and again
render the Perspective view.
| | 02:27 | All of a sudden you're probably really
starting to see a slowdown in your render times.
| | 02:35 | Think what's happening. We're not just
generating difficult particles to render,
| | 02:39 | that being a MetaParticle, but we're now
also asking those particles to deflect
| | 02:43 | against that piece of geometry in our scene.
| | 02:45 | That's a ton of different
calculations that Max has to pour through.
| | 02:48 | Let's take things back to the first
frame and we will make a couple more
| | 02:51 | adjustments to the UDeflector. Let's try this.
| | 02:53 | We'll take the Bounce to .4,
Variation we will set to 50 and we'll add a little
| | 02:58 | Friction. Let's go 10 on that.
| | 03:02 | After plugging those in, let's again
scrub the timeline to see how things look.
| | 03:18 | Why don't we have our
particles not grab quite so much?
| | 03:21 | We'll take our Friction instead down to 5.
| | 03:29 | We can scrub the timeline again, and
you can see how they now slide a little
| | 03:38 | faster along the ground surface.
| | 03:45 | Let's go back to the Perspective
view full-screen and orbit again.
| | 03:48 | I want you to notice the way the particle
geometry is conforming to the ground surface.
| | 03:52 | Next, we'll get to creating our
materials for both our ground surface and
| | 04:00 | our mud-like particles.
| | 04:02 | Let's save our file up as Mudslide03,
so we can take it with us into the next video.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating the materials for the scene| 00:00 | With both our ground geometry and
falling particles needing a texture, we will
| | 00:04 | be using this video to add those skins.
| | 00:07 | Using the Mudslide03 file that was saved up
in the last video, let's see what we can do.
| | 00:12 | For our ground surface, let's use a map
that'll give us the look of a hillside
| | 00:16 | consisting of both a
little dirt and a little grass.
| | 00:18 | We'll open up the Material's Editor and
apply a clean sample slot to the ground object.
| | 00:26 | We can now name that material Ground.
| | 00:31 | From there, we'll jump up on the
Diffuse branch choosing a Bitmap.
| | 00:39 | We can now navigate to this chapter's
folder in the Exercise Files choosing a
| | 00:43 | JPEG image called Ground.
| | 00:45 | I'll click on the View button in the lower
left-hand corner so you can get a quick peek.
| | 00:49 | With that in place, we'll then want
to activate our Show Map in Viewport.
| | 00:55 | And so we have a little more control over our
mapping, we'll now apply a UVW Map Modifier.
| | 01:07 | We'll leave that set to
Planner and we're ready to go.
| | 01:11 | For our mud-like particles, I'm thinking
about just a simple dark brown material
| | 01:15 | with a little shine.
| | 01:17 | Back in the Material Editor, we'll
select a clean sample ball and we will drag
| | 01:20 | that to the Blizzard particles.
| | 01:25 | Keeping up with our naming,
let's call this on, Mud.
| | 01:30 | Let's now open up the Diffuse Color
swatch and we'll type in some numbers.
| | 01:36 | Using the top ramps on the right-hand
side, we will take the Red to 60, the
| | 01:40 | Green to 45 and the Blue to 30.
| | 01:43 | We can then close the Color Selector and
unlock the Diffuse and Ambient swatches.
| | 01:48 | We'll then jump up on the Ambient
swatch, changing the Value to 40.
| | 01:55 | Let's go ahead and move to
somewhere around the middle of our Timeline
| | 01:58 | and render our view.
| | 01:59 | We are probably going to
need a little shine for the mud.
| | 02:03 | Let's take the Specular Level value to 20.
| | 02:06 | Once we've got that set in, we'll render again.
| | 02:08 | That probably looks little bit too much
like chocolate, which frankly I wouldn't
| | 02:14 | mind being down at the
bottom of the hill for that.
| | 02:16 | Unfortunately, that's not
the look we're looking for.
| | 02:19 | So let's change the Specular level,
we'll take it down a bit to 10.
| | 02:23 | Let's render again and
we'll see how that looks.
| | 02:26 | We're getting closer, but the strength of
our shine is still little bit too strong.
| | 02:30 | Let's take the Spec Level
instead down to about 5.
| | 02:37 | That's looking a little bit better,
let's also adjust the Glossiness. We'll bump
| | 02:41 | that up maybe to about 25.
| | 02:48 | Rendering again and I think that's going
to work just fine for our level of shine.
| | 02:52 | To wrap things up, we'll now make a
couple of final fine-tune adjustments
| | 02:56 | to polish things off.
| | 02:57 | We'll save our file up as Mudslide04
and we'll move it in the next video
| | 03:01 | for those final tweaks.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Making final adjustments| 00:00 | With everything now pretty much in
place, the Gravity, the Deflector and
| | 00:04 | our scene materials,
| | 00:05 | we can now focus on making a few final
adjustments to finish off the effect.
| | 00:09 | I'll do that using a file named Mudslide04,
which we've carried over from the last video.
| | 00:14 | Let's start by selecting our Blizzard
particle system and working in maybe a
| | 00:18 | few more particles.
| | 00:20 | We'll head over the Modified
settings and change the Use Rate to 30.
| | 00:29 | Once I've done that, I'll move to
somewhere around the middle of the
| | 00:32 | Timeline and render.
| | 00:33 | So that's added to our flow,
let's also try Use Rate of 45.
| | 00:40 | Once we've locked that
number in, we'll render again.
| | 00:47 | That's better still. Why don't we now
change the Size of each particle to 18?
| | 00:56 | That should fill out the flow even more.
| | 01:00 | That looks even better still.
| | 01:02 | Now we don't want our particles to
take any time to grow to full size.
| | 01:05 | We'll take the Grow For number down to 0.
| | 01:09 | We could leave the Fade For as it is.
| | 01:11 | Now as far as the speed of our particles, we
probably need to slow those down just a bit.
| | 01:15 | Let's go back to our Speed
values and change that to 3.
| | 01:21 | In addition to slowing things down,
a lower Speed value will also allow our
| | 01:25 | particles to accumulate a little
more as they flow down the hill.
| | 01:28 | Let's render that and see
that looks. Even better still.
| | 01:34 | Now little farther down in our
settings, we have a MetaParticle Tension adjustment.
| | 01:41 | You'll find that under Particle Type.
| | 01:43 | Tension determines just how well and how
much one particle will blend with another.
| | 01:48 | Higher tension values tend to make
harder blobs that don't blend together well,
| | 01:52 | which is not what we want for our affect here.
| | 01:55 | So I want to take that value down a bit.
Let's take the Tension to 0.5 and render again.
| | 02:06 | So we keep getting closer to
the look that we're aiming for.
| | 02:09 | Let's see how a Tension at 0.7 would look.
| | 02:18 | So the effects are subtle, but you
can't see there is a minor change.
| | 02:21 | Why don't we also vary that Tension
effect from one particle to the next?
| | 02:26 | Below Tension, you'll see a Variation
percentage. Let's change that to 70,
| | 02:29 | and we'll render again to see how that looks.
| | 02:37 | Let's also adjust our
UDeflectors balance a little.
| | 02:41 | We'll close our render,
then type H for Select by Name.
| | 02:44 | From the list, we can
double-click on the UDeflector.
| | 02:49 | Back on the right, we'll
change the Bounce from 0.4 to 0.3.
| | 02:54 | Once that setting is calculated its
way in, let's go and render again.
| | 03:03 | One last fine-tuning tweak. If you
look at the color of our mud maybe we can
| | 03:07 | darken that up just a tad.
| | 03:11 | We'll close our render and
head back to the Material Editor.
| | 03:16 | Let's take the Mud Material's Diffuse Color
swatch and we'll lower the value just a bit.
| | 03:19 | I'm going to take that to right around 50.
| | 03:24 | Lets take a quick picture and
see what change if any that's made.
| | 03:29 | So that did darken things up just a bit.
| | 03:32 | Last thing we want to do before
wrapping this up, we're going to reposition our
| | 03:35 | view for final render.
| | 03:37 | I'll close my open setting
boxes, then zoom and orbit around.
| | 03:46 | Once I've set what I think is my final position,
| | 03:48 | I'll select my Ground Plane and rescale it.
| | 03:53 | That'll simply take me back to the original
plane, changing the Width and Length as needed.
| | 04:04 | Now you'll notice that our geometry
has changed size, but our mapping hasn't.
| | 04:08 | We will have to go to our UVW
Map Modifier, clicking on Fit.
| | 04:16 | Now if you render and find that you're
still a little bit short on either end,
| | 04:18 | like I'm here at the top, I'll close
the window, then activate Safe Frame for
| | 04:22 | a more accurate look.
| | 04:25 | You'll find those settings up
in the upper left-hand corner.
| | 04:27 | I'll click on Perspective and then about
halfway down, we'll choose Safe Frames.
| | 04:32 | I could also use the Shift+F shortcut command.
| | 04:36 | This gives me a better view. I can simply
orbit as needed and I'll be ready to go.
| | 04:44 | Once I've got myself in final
position, I'll create a Camera by using the
| | 04:47 | shortcut command Control+C. I'll render
one last time, verifying that I'm ready to go.
| | 05:00 | There you go with a
little down the hill mudslide.
| | 05:02 | This will take a little time to
render but after the wait, things will end
| | 05:06 | up looking like this.
| | 05:07 | You can find the file in the
Exercise Files for this chapter.
| | 05:10 | The AVI clip is called Mudslide.
| | 05:13 | Let's also save the Wireframe scene
file up as Mudslide Completed, if you'd
| | 05:17 | like to look it over.
| | 05:18 | There is your mudslide, a little work,
a lot of render, and some nice-looking
| | 05:22 | results by way of Max's MetaParticles.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
10. Project: Exploding a Wooden ShackScoping out the project| 00:00 | Creating explosion effects almost
always involves layering or combining several
| | 00:06 | different individual effects to get
the end result you're trying to achieve.
| | 00:11 | There is usually particles that explode
up and out, some kind of bright light or
| | 00:16 | glow from the actual detonation and
many times some form of residual fire or
| | 00:21 | flames out of the aftermath.
| | 00:23 | So it's usually a pretty comprehensive
set of procedures that go into making a
| | 00:27 | realistic looking explosion.
| | 00:29 | What we'll be doing in this
chapter is blowing up an old wooden shack
| | 00:33 | filled with explosives.
| | 00:35 | The project will involve not just a
particle system but also space warps, a Fire
| | 00:40 | effect, even a lighting technique that
we will use to produce a blinding glow at
| | 00:45 | the point at which the explosion occurs.
| | 00:46 | So, we're going to have a lot
of different things going on.
| | 00:50 | When all is said and done, we'll end
up with a result that'll look like this.
| | 00:55 | We've got quite a lot to do.
| | 00:56 | We'll get things started in the next video.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating the explosive devices| 00:00 | Let's kick our project off by first
creating the explosion for our effect.
| | 00:05 | This is a file named Exploding Shack.
| | 00:07 | The scene consists of an old beat up
shed whose wooden wall planks and rusty
| | 00:11 | metal roof were modeled as separate objects.
| | 00:14 | If we temporarily turn our Shaded view
to Wireframe and orbit around, you can
| | 00:18 | see that each piece of geometry has
been cut into varied shapes and sizes to
| | 00:23 | facilitate the way the shack will blow up.
| | 00:26 | Each cut to our geometry came by way of
the Editable Poly Quick Slice command.
| | 00:31 | Now once the cuts were made, all the
individual objects were then attached
| | 00:34 | together, so we could then easily choose
just a single scene object for our explosion.
| | 00:40 | So that's basically the
geometry we have in our scene.
| | 00:43 | Let's go ahead and now
create the explosion device.
| | 00:46 | What we're going to be doing is using a
combination PArray particle system and
| | 00:51 | PBomb space warp to create
our exploding shack debris.
| | 00:55 | Incorporating the PBomb will merely
give us a little more control as to where
| | 00:59 | the detonation point on the explosion occurs
| | 01:02 | and then how the particle pieces
will react once being blown away.
| | 01:05 | We'll start with first
creating the particle array.
| | 01:08 | Now its position and orientation
in our scene is inconsequential.
| | 01:12 | So let's reopen all four views, and
we'll drop it into our Top window directly
| | 01:16 | to the side of our wooden shack.
| | 01:18 | Once we have that in place, we'll move
to our commands in the right-hand side
| | 01:21 | and then under Pick Object,
we'll click on the Wood Shack.
| | 01:25 | Once you've made that connection, look
under the Pick Object button and verify
| | 01:28 | the Object reading as Wood Shack.
| | 01:31 | Okay, let's now add in the PBomb space warp.
| | 01:34 | Now it's going to be the PBomb that we're
going to be using as our detonation device.
| | 01:38 | In other words, what'll actually drive
our shack debris away from the point of
| | 01:42 | explosion because the position of the
PBomb icon is important as to the way
| | 01:47 | the effect ends up.
| | 01:48 | We're going to want to make sure to
locate it, set it on the shack and a little
| | 01:51 | more towards the bottom.
| | 01:53 | We'll first drop in our scene, then
worry about getting it in a position.
| | 01:57 | In the Command panel, I will reactivate Create.
| | 01:59 | I'll open up my Space Warps, then on
the right-hand side, third one down,
| | 02:03 | I'll click on PBomb.
| | 02:05 | Now for this, I'll simply go back to my Top
view, dropping it below my particle array.
| | 02:12 | Once we have it in view, we can
activate the Bind to Space Warp command then
| | 02:16 | bind the Particle Bomb
back to the PArray. Okay.
| | 02:20 | With that connection now made, we can
focus our attention in centering the PBomb
| | 02:24 | on to the wooden shack.
| | 02:26 | With the Particle Bomb selected, on
the right-hand side of the toolbar, we'll
| | 02:30 | click on the Align command.
| | 02:31 | Then using any of the viewports,
we can now click on the wood shack.
| | 02:35 | In the dialog, we'll take both Current
Object and Target Object to Center, then
| | 02:39 | at the top we'll verify that all
three axes, X, Y and Z, have been checked.
| | 02:44 | Once we've done that we can
click on either Apply or OK.
| | 02:48 | Now we can take our Front view full
screen, and we'll move the Particle Bomb a
| | 02:51 | little further down, maybe centering it
between the door handle and the ground. Okay.
| | 02:56 | Once we've done that, we'll take it back
to four views. Just choose the Alt+W shortcut.
| | 03:00 | That I'll do it for the two things
we'll be using for the actual explosion.
| | 03:05 | In our next video, we'll start making
some adjustments to both of these newly
| | 03:09 | created scene elements.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adjusting the explosion settings| 00:00 | Now that we have both our particle
array and Particle Bomb created we can go
| | 00:04 | about making the needed adjustments.
| | 00:07 | I'll be doing all that in a file named
Exploding Shack01, which is a carryover
| | 00:11 | from the last video.
| | 00:13 | The purpose of using the PArray with
our explosion was simply to create the
| | 00:17 | particles, or better put, objects that'll
be flying out once the shack explodes.
| | 00:22 | The particle array won't be used to
generate the force or shooting away debris effect.
| | 00:27 | Its job is merely to produce what
will be pulled up and out by the PBomb.
| | 00:32 | Let's select the particle array in our
scene and make a few changes to its settings.
| | 00:36 | When you get to the Modifier column
in the stack you'll drop below the
| | 00:40 | PBombBinding, clicking on PArray.
| | 00:43 | For the Particle Formation we'll
leave things set to Over Entire Surface.
| | 00:47 | We'll also want to change our
Viewport Display to being Mesh.
| | 00:52 | In the Particle Generation category
under Particle Motion we'll change both
| | 00:56 | Speed and Divergence to 0.
| | 00:59 | Now, this is being done so the particle
array will have no affect whatsoever on
| | 01:03 | our particle fragments shooting out.
| | 01:05 | Remember, we are going to
be using the PBomb for that.
| | 01:09 | Below the Motion Settings let's
now adjust our particle timing.
| | 01:13 | We'll take our start time to frame 30 then
set the Stop, Display Until, and Life to 130.
| | 01:19 | Now, with 125 frames down on our
timeline we are using the setting of 130 just
| | 01:24 | so there's no confusion at
the animation's last frame.
| | 01:27 | In the next tab down Particle Type
we'll change our type of particles to
| | 01:31 | Object Fragments and down below we'll keep
the Object Fragment Controls set to All Faces.
| | 01:37 | Now, let's go and scrub over the
first several frames of our animation.
| | 01:41 | Remember, our explosion is
set to begin at frame 30.
| | 01:44 | When you get to around frame 40,
go and render the Camera view.
| | 01:48 | With these results three quick things.
| | 01:50 | One, the pulling away effect that we
are seeing is not coming from the PArray,
| | 01:55 | but from the PBomb that we have bound to it.
| | 01:57 | Second, we currently have a
light in our scene casting shadows.
| | 02:01 | We probably ought to turn that shadows
casting off, so it doesn't slow us down
| | 02:05 | while setting things up.
| | 02:06 | Three, notice that the original
shack is still visible in our scene.
| | 02:10 | Remember that with the PArray the original
geometry is not what actually breaks away.
| | 02:15 | It's instead whatever you have set up
in the Particle Emission Settings as
| | 02:19 | far as Particle Type.
| | 02:20 | Now, because the original shack is
still hanging around, we are going to need to
| | 02:23 | set up a visibility track to take
care of that still and view status.
| | 02:27 | We'll do that in just a moment.
| | 02:29 | For now, we'll just keep
working with our PArray settings.
| | 02:32 | For the particle array skin under
Material Mapping and Source we'll change the
| | 02:36 | control to Picked Emitter then
hit the Get Material From button.
| | 02:40 | That'll grab the material that we have
in our wooden shack, applying it to each
| | 02:43 | and every object fragment.
| | 02:44 | Let's also pet a little spin on each particle.
| | 02:47 | Under Rotation and Collision
we'll set the Spin Time to 35.
| | 02:50 | That will ensure that each particle
will take just over a second to make
| | 02:54 | one complete rotation.
| | 02:56 | Let's render our Camera view again.
| | 02:58 | Now, we still have that light casting shadows.
| | 03:00 | Let's go back to frame 0
and we'll turn that off.
| | 03:03 | The lights in our scene are currently hidden.
| | 03:05 | So we'll go to the Command panel's
Display tab choosing unhide Lights.
| | 03:09 | Once we've done that to be able to
select our light from a select by name list
| | 03:13 | we'll simply type H. From the list
you can now double-click on Omni Shadow.
| | 03:18 | Back in the Modify column under General
Parameters simply uncheck Shadows being on.
| | 03:23 | Let's render again to verify that
those shadows are indeed turned off.
| | 03:27 | Now for the detonation force
of our PBomb let's select that.
| | 03:31 | In our right-hand settings about
halfway down under Explosion Parameters notice
| | 03:36 | the Start Time for our
PBomb being set to frame 30.
| | 03:39 | To speed up the explosion effect
we'll change the Strength to 4.
| | 03:43 | Now, because scrubbing the timeline
can easily come to a complete standstill
| | 03:46 | with all of our particles, let me show
you the way the current strength value
| | 03:50 | would look if rendered out.
| | 03:52 | That pretty much does it for
our fragment emission settings.
| | 03:55 | Let's save the file up as Exploding
Shackle2 and we'll take it into the next
| | 04:00 | video where we'll create the
visibility track for our wooden shack.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Setting up the shack's visibility track| 00:01 | With the particle fragments exploding
outward and our original shack still being
| | 00:05 | visible in the view, we'll use this video
to configure a visibility track to take
| | 00:10 | care of the shack's display.
| | 00:12 | To set things up, I'll using a file
named Exploding Shack02 which was saved up
| | 00:16 | at the end of the last video.
| | 00:18 | Now a visibility track is a handy
little way to make an object disappear and
| | 00:22 | reappear if necessary over
the course of an animation.
| | 00:25 | That disappearing trick can be done
either gradually as if an object was
| | 00:29 | magically dissolving into thin air or it
can be done like a toggle light switch.
| | 00:34 | Immediately visible or
immediately invisible in other words.
| | 00:38 | Now, for our example we are not looking for
any kind of supernatural dissolving effect.
| | 00:42 | We just want our original shack
gone once the explosion occurs.
| | 00:46 | Here is how we can make that happen.
| | 00:48 | In any viewport, select the
original shack and then right-click.
| | 00:51 | From the menu that pops up on the
lower right-hand side choose Dope Sheet.
| | 00:55 | Now down at the bottom on the left-hand side
under Objects you'll see the name Wood Shack.
| | 01:00 | Go ahead and click on that name to select it.
| | 01:03 | Using the pulldown menus in the
upper left-hand corner of the Dope Sheet
| | 01:06 | dialog click on Tracks.
| | 01:08 | Now, from here you'll choose
Visibility Track and then Add.
| | 01:12 | What you'll notice is a new visibility
track has been added to our wooden shack.
| | 01:16 | Now, this is where we going to
want to change it to an on/off toggle.
| | 01:20 | Again, on the left-hand side
click on the name Visibility.
| | 01:23 | Back in the pulldown menus on
the far left open up Controller.
| | 01:27 | When you get in the list
choose the top entry, Assign.
| | 01:30 | This list controls every type of
controller in Max that can be used to control
| | 01:34 | the wooden shack's visibility.
| | 01:36 | The one we'll want to choose to
create that immediate on/off toggle is
| | 01:40 | called just that, On/Off.
| | 01:42 | You'll find it fourth one down from the bottom.
| | 01:44 | You'll want to select
that name then click on OK.
| | 01:48 | With the On/Off visibility
controller you'll now see a bright blue line
| | 01:51 | extending from our first
frame to the end of our animation.
| | 01:54 | Now, the way this works is any frame
in which that blue line is on top of,
| | 01:58 | the shack will be visible at that point in time.
| | 02:01 | To change the shack's visibility, in
our case so it disappears, we are going to
| | 02:05 | want to add a keyframe
along that light blue line.
| | 02:07 | Now, we can do that by clicking on the Add Key
icon up on the left-hand side of the toolbar.
| | 02:12 | The icon has a little plus sign
in its upper right-hand corner.
| | 02:15 | Once you find that, go ahead and click.
| | 02:18 | Back down at the bright yellow line
go around frame 30 and click again.
| | 02:22 | Now, it doesn't have to be perfect.
| | 02:23 | In fact, you'll notice down here at the
bottom I've actually set mine at frame 31.
| | 02:28 | To make the change, I'll simply
highlight that 31 number and type in 30.
| | 02:33 | Once I have that in place, I'll click Enter.
| | 02:35 | What we've now done is to keep the
wood shack visible over the first 30
| | 02:39 | frames of our animation.
| | 02:40 | At frame 30 at the point that our PBomb
explodes we'll then have that wood shack disappear.
| | 02:46 | Let's close the Dope Sheet and we'll
see if that in fact doesn't take place.
| | 02:50 | To quickly move to frame 40, I'll
highlight the frame number down on the
| | 02:53 | right-hand side of the interface.
| | 02:55 | With that now highlighted I'll type in 40.
| | 02:57 | Giving the system a chance to update,
I'll now render the Camera view. There you go!
| | 03:04 | The explosion is currently taking place and
we no longer have the original wood shack.
| | 03:09 | If we'd render things out of this point,
here's how things would be coming along.
| | 03:12 | So, that will do it for the Visibility track.
| | 03:15 | Let's save our project up as Exploding
Shack03 and we'll move it into the next
| | 03:19 | video where we'll set up the
fire effect for our explosion.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating the fire effect| 00:00 | With our visibility track now taken
care of, let's see about adding a little
| | 00:04 | fire explosion into our effect.
| | 00:06 | I'll be using the Exploding Shack03
scene file that I've carried forward
| | 00:10 | from the last video.
| | 00:11 | Now creating fire in Max can be
done a couple of different ways.
| | 00:15 | One of those techniques is to use what
is called an Atmospheric Apparatus to
| | 00:19 | hold the fire effect.
| | 00:21 | That holding container is
available in several different shapes.
| | 00:25 | For our fire a round or spherical shape
apparatus will probably work the best.
| | 00:29 | You can find all those containers
under the helpers tab in the Create column.
| | 00:33 | Let's select the SphereGizmo and we'll
create one of the top view under a PArray.
| | 00:37 | Now, we are going to want our fire
explosion to appear to originate from
| | 00:41 | inside the wood shack.
| | 00:43 | So with that in mind we'll start by
centering it in the middle of the shack
| | 00:46 | geometry using the Align command.
| | 00:49 | With the Sphere Gizmo selected we'll
activate the Align command up on the
| | 00:52 | right-hand side of our toolbar.
| | 00:54 | Then we can simply click in
any view on top of our shack.
| | 00:57 | In the dialog we'll make sure that
Current Object and Target Object are both set
| | 01:01 | to Center and X, Y, and Z
up above are all checked.
| | 01:05 | Moving to our controls in the right-
hand side we'll change the size of our
| | 01:08 | Sphere Apparatus to 200.
| | 01:10 | With that now in place we'll drop down
to the Atmospheres & Effects section down
| | 01:14 | below clicking on Add.
| | 01:16 | In the Add Atmosphere dialog
we'll double-click Fire Effect.
| | 01:21 | To get to our settings back on the
right we'll click on the name Fire Effect.
| | 01:25 | Then below that below that we'll click Setup.
| | 01:28 | Now Max's Fire effect has quite a few
different settings that you can use to
| | 01:31 | control the look and behavior of your fire.
| | 01:34 | Not just in the color, shape, and detail
of your flames, but also whether or not
| | 01:38 | you're looking for more of
an explosion type of effect.
| | 01:41 | What's nice is you can make just a few
quick adjustments keeping most of the out
| | 01:45 | of box settings and get a
relatively realistic looking effect.
| | 01:50 | Now with money in hand you could always
fork out a few bucks and buy yourself a
| | 01:53 | specialized plug-in for creating
extremely believable fire in Max.
| | 01:58 | But for the purpose of this
project we'll just be sticking with the
| | 02:01 | off-the-shelf-it-ships-with-the-
software way of doing business.
| | 02:05 | In the settings, down in the Shape
category we'll keep things set to Fireball.
| | 02:09 | Tendril will be used for creating more
of a log or slender flame like you'd see
| | 02:13 | in a campfire or maybe a burning building.
| | 02:15 | We'll leave all the other settings as
they are and jump out into the bottom
| | 02:19 | into the Explosion section.
| | 02:21 | There, we'll turn on Explosion,
making sure that Smoke is also checked.
| | 02:25 | Once we've done that on the right-
hand side we'll click on Setup Explosion.
| | 02:29 | Now, this is where we can set both our
Start and End times for our explosive effect.
| | 02:33 | With our particle fragments set to
start blowing away from the shade at frame 30,
| | 02:37 | we'll set the fire Start Time to 27.
| | 02:39 | This will begin our fire explosion
just a fraction of a second before the
| | 02:43 | fragments start exploding out.
| | 02:45 | For End Time we'll set that to 90 and
basically is making a fire explosion
| | 02:49 | that'll last roughly 3 seconds.
| | 02:51 | Now, once we've done that we
can go ahead and close the dialog.
| | 02:56 | Let's now move to frame 29
and render our Camera view.
| | 03:00 | Two frames into our fire we now see
it coming out of the roof of our shack.
| | 03:04 | Let's see how things look rendering frame 37.
| | 03:07 | So at this point you see the explosion
taking place, and what a fireball we are getting.
| | 03:11 | Let's also see the way
things would look at frame 60.
| | 03:14 | At this point, our flames have
dissipated, now turning into a light gray smoke.
| | 03:18 | Now, if we rendered out the fire
effect alone using all the default settings
| | 03:22 | and just adjusting the Start and End
Time as we've done, here is the way things would look.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding a bright explosion glow and wrapping things up| 00:00 | With our explosion now including fire
originating from inside the wood shack,
| | 00:05 | we'll turn the intensity of our blast
up a notch by adding a bright glow at the
| | 00:08 | point at which things start blowing up.
| | 00:11 | We'll do that using the Exploding
Shack04 scene file that we brought with us
| | 00:15 | from the previous video.
| | 00:16 | Our blast glow will be created by an
Omni light that we'll position in the
| | 00:20 | middle of our exploding shack.
| | 00:22 | Let's go ahead and drop it into the Top
view and we'll get to setting things up.
| | 00:25 | Once in our scene, let's
name our Omni Explosion Light.
| | 00:29 | Now, as far as actual illumination,
we're really only worried about this
| | 00:33 | Omni hitting the ground.
| | 00:34 | We could make that happen using
the light's Include/Exclude feature.
| | 00:38 | Now, you'll find that over on
the right in the Shadows category.
| | 00:42 | Directly below where it reads Ray
Traced Shadows, click on the Include button.
| | 00:46 | In the list on the left,
locate Ground then double-click.
| | 00:49 | That moves that ground object
over to the Include or Exclude side.
| | 00:53 | Now, above the Ground listing, you'll
see two buttons, Include and Exclude.
| | 00:57 | We'll want to click on the
Include button for this example.
| | 01:00 | This will make sure that our new Explosion
Light only illuminates our Ground object.
| | 01:04 | Now, once we have that in place in the
lower right-hand corner we can click OK.
| | 01:08 | Once we've done that, we'll now want to
center our Explosion Light directly in
| | 01:12 | the middle of our wooden shack.
| | 01:14 | We'll again be using the Align
command on the upper right-hand side of the
| | 01:16 | toolbar to make that have.
| | 01:18 | With the Omni Light selected, click on
Array, then anywhere on the green shack.
| | 01:22 | As we've done in the past, we'll
make sure both Current Object and Target
| | 01:25 | Object are set to Center and then we'll verify
that all three axes, X, Y and Z, are checked above.
| | 01:31 | Once you've made that verification,
you can click either Apply or OK.
| | 01:35 | To now add a real bright glow effect to
the light, we'll use Max's render effects.
| | 01:40 | You'll find those in the
Rendering pulldown menu under Effects.
| | 01:44 | Okay, when the Dialog Settings open,
up at the top in the right-hand corner click on Add.
| | 01:48 | From the Add Effect menu, we
will then choose Lens Effects.
| | 01:52 | Down below in the same dialog box
under Lens Effects Parameters,
| | 01:55 | we'll double-click on the Glow
setting on the left-hand side.
| | 01:58 | That double-click, merely adds it to
our Lens Effect effect over on the right.
| | 02:03 | Now that we've determined that it's a
glow that we want to add to our light,
| | 02:06 | we are going to have to pick
that light from our scene.
| | 02:08 | In the bottom left corner in the Lens
Effects Globals, click on Pick Light.
| | 02:12 | Now, we'll simply type the H
command so we can nab it from our list.
| | 02:15 | Okay, now there is the lights in our scene.
| | 02:17 | Let's now double-click on Explosion Light,
and once you've done that verify that
| | 02:21 | to the right of Pick Light
it reads Explosion light.
| | 02:24 | Now, so we can focus in our effect,
let's hide the geometry in our scene.
| | 02:28 | We'll do that by going to the
Display column, clicking on Geometry.
| | 02:31 | Once we've done that we'll verify that
we are indeed at frame 0, then back in
| | 02:35 | the dialog, we'll activate Interactive.
| | 02:38 | This now gives us a rendered window,
that'll automatically re-render any time we
| | 02:42 | make a change to our settings.
| | 02:44 | Now, back in our Effects dialog,
we'll go down below we can currently see.
| | 02:48 | Under Glow element, about a quarter of
the way down in the left-hand side, we'll
| | 02:51 | now change the Size.
| | 02:53 | Let's highlight that number, typing in 100.
| | 02:55 | Now, as soon as we do with Interactive on,
we see the change in our Glow effect.
| | 03:00 | Let's try a size of 250 and to get the glow
even larger still, we'll set the size to 500.
| | 03:05 | Okay, we can now go back to
the top, turning off Interactive.
| | 03:09 | Once we've done that, we can close our
rendered window and unhide our Geometry.
| | 03:13 | Let's render again so we
can check out the effect.
| | 03:17 | We can change all that
back in the Effects dialog.
| | 03:20 | We'll go back in the Glow Element settings
and take the Occlusion on the right down to 0.
| | 03:25 | Once you've done that, let's render again.
| | 03:27 | Okay, to make the glow even
brighter, we'll go back up to the Lens
| | 03:31 | Effects Global Settings.
| | 03:33 | In that category, about halfway down
in the left, you'll notice there's also
| | 03:36 | a size value there.
| | 03:37 | Let's take the Global Size to
200 and we can render again.
| | 03:41 | Now, even though the bright light is
masking out a good portion of our shed,
| | 03:45 | you'll notice the light currently seems
a little bit too high up in our scene.
| | 03:49 | What we'll do is close the rendered
window, then go back to the Camera view to
| | 03:53 | reposition that light.
| | 03:54 | Now, in our shaded window, you
can see the current position of the
| | 03:57 | transformation gizmo.
| | 03:58 | that's directly in line with the light.
| | 04:01 | What we'll want to do using Screen
coordinates is to move that Omni light a
| | 04:04 | little bit more into the center of our shed.
| | 04:06 | Now, it doesn't have to be perfect but
we do want that glowing effect to look
| | 04:10 | like it's originating from
the center of our shed geometry.
| | 04:13 | Once you're happy with the new
position, try rendering again.
| | 04:17 | We can now simply animate the timing as to
when the glow will actually hit the screen.
| | 04:22 | Here's what we'll do.
| | 04:23 | we'll close the rendering and
return to our Effect settings.
| | 04:26 | Down in the Glow Element category,
we'll take the Size of our glow to 0.
| | 04:30 | Verifying we are at the first
frame, we can now activate Auto Key.
| | 04:34 | I'll simply use the keyboard shortcut,
the letter N to do that. Okay, here we go.
| | 04:39 | Now, we are not going to want
the glow to occur until frame 30.
| | 04:42 | So, let's move to frame 29 in our timeline,
and we'll lock the size of our glow down to 0.
| | 04:47 | We can do that by simply holding down
the Shift key then right-clicking on
| | 04:51 | either of the size spinners.
| | 04:53 | Now, if you've done that correctly, at
frame 29, you should now see red brackets
| | 04:57 | around the spinners for the size of the glow.
| | 04:59 | Let's now move to frame 30, and
we'll change that size to 500.
| | 05:03 | Again, once you've pressed Enter you should
see red brackets around the size spinners.
| | 05:07 | Okay, to now turn the glow off we'll go to
frame 45 and we'll set the size back to 0.
| | 05:13 | You can simply right-click on either of the
size spinners to take it down to that number.
| | 05:17 | Now, once we've got our keyframes
in place we can turn off Auto Key.
| | 05:20 | Let's now go back to frame 29
and we'll render our Camera view.
| | 05:24 | Now, at this point the light should
be off and that's indeed what we see.
| | 05:29 | Let's try frame 30 and see
what happens. There we go.
| | 05:32 | At the time of the explosion we now
have this very aggressive glowing effect.
| | 05:36 | Let's go to frame 45 and render and we'll see
if the glowing effect has indeed turned off.
| | 05:41 | So that's perfect.
| | 05:42 | The fragments are still exploding and
the fire was totally out of control, and
| | 05:46 | that's pretty much going to do it.
| | 05:47 | If we now go back and turn Shadow
Casting light back on, we've got ourselves
| | 05:51 | a completed project.
| | 05:52 | I'll close the render, go back to frame
0, then type H. There's my Select by name
| | 05:57 | list, second one down, I'll
double-click on Omni Shadow.
| | 06:01 | We'll get back to the Modify column.
Turn back our Ray Traced Lights.
| | 06:05 | Let's render that and again
our shadow shows in the scene.
| | 06:10 | Okay, there's our exploding shack.
| | 06:12 | we've got debris inside fire and an
intense glow effect to cap things off.
| | 06:17 | Now, there are a couple of more
things that we could've done here.
| | 06:19 | Although this particular scene looks
just fine without those added effects.
| | 06:23 | If need be, we could've added a
Gravity space warp bound with the PArray, to
| | 06:27 | pull our wood shack particles back down.
| | 06:30 | We could have added some kind of
Deflector down at the ground level for those
| | 06:33 | particles to bounce off of once they
came into contact with the ground surface.
| | 06:37 | Because of the angle of our scene, the
number of frames that we used, and the
| | 06:41 | tenacity of our blast, neither the
gravity nor the Deflector were needed here.
| | 06:45 | There is your exploding
shack from start to finish. Way to go!
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
11. Project: Turning Water into Steam Using Particle FlowScoping out the project| 00:00 | In this project, we are going to be
incorporating a Particle Flow particle
| | 00:03 | system to simulate several drops of
water falling on to a hot metal surface.
| | 00:08 | When the drops make contact, we'll
have each turn into a tiny puff of steam.
| | 00:12 | Now to pull that off, we are going
to have quite a few things to setup.
| | 00:15 | We'll first need to have a PFlow
event that will generate our water drops,
| | 00:20 | having each traveled downward
toward our hot plate in hopes of making
| | 00:24 | contact with that surface.
| | 00:25 | We'll then need to wire in some
kind of test that will have the drops
| | 00:29 | magically change into the look of
steam, if and when contact with that
| | 00:33 | hotplate is indeed made.
| | 00:34 | In order for that changing the steam to
take place, a second new event will need
| | 00:39 | to be added to the particle flow, that
event giving our particles a completely
| | 00:43 | different set of characteristics to
take on as to their look and behavior.
| | 00:46 | We'll be creating materials, do a
little modeling, building in a couple
| | 00:50 | different space warps, all kinds of fun
stuff that I think you'll find not just
| | 00:54 | informative, but also maybe
even a little challenging.
| | 00:57 | When all is said and done, we are
going to end up with our finished project
| | 01:00 | that will look like this.
| | 01:02 | So what do you say?
| | 01:02 | Let's head into the next video
and we'll get things rolling.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating and positioning the particle flow system| 00:00 | This is a file named Project PFlow that
we will be using throughout this project.
| | 00:04 | The primary item of focus in our scene
will be the black round hotplate centered
| | 00:08 | at the bottom of our Camera view.
| | 00:10 | It'll be on the surface where our
particle water drops will fall and turn
| | 00:14 | into puffs of steam.
| | 00:15 | To kick things off, let's first create
the Particle Flow system that we will be
| | 00:18 | using to generate our particle effect.
| | 00:21 | Now in order for our particles to
travel downward in our scene, we'll need to
| | 00:24 | make our PFlow in the Top view.
| | 00:26 | On the right, we'll go under Standard
Primitives, clicking on Particle Systems.
| | 00:33 | The Particle Flow will be listed as PF
Source is the top button on the left.
| | 00:38 | Now we can go to the Top
view and drop one into play.
| | 00:43 | Once the PFlow icon has been created,
we'll then want to align it to the hotplate.
| | 00:47 | To do that, we can use the Align command
on the upper right-hand side of the toolbar.
| | 00:53 | Once you've activated the button, you
can go ahead and click on the yellow
| | 00:56 | geometry in the scene, which
represents the round hotplate.
| | 01:01 | From the Align dialog, we'll make
sure Center Object and Target Object are
| | 01:04 | both set to Center.
| | 01:08 | Above that make sure all three
buttons, X, Y, and Z, have been checked.
| | 01:14 | Now working in the Front view, we'll move the
icon up so it can't be seen in the Camera window.
| | 01:18 | We are also going to want to make some
changes to the PFlow icon shape and size.
| | 01:29 | In the controls on the right, we'll change the
Icon Type to Circle then use a Diameter of 225.
| | 01:33 | We'll also want to see all of our
particles displayed in the viewports.
| | 01:38 | So under Quantity Multiplier, using the
viewport setting, change that to 100%.
| | 01:43 | Let's now go ahead and scrub the
timeline to make sure things are working.
| | 01:54 | Once we've done that, we can open up the
Particle view by typing 6 on our keyboard.
| | 01:59 | We've got a healthy handful
of things to talk about here.
| | 02:01 | Let's move in the next video and we'll
start looking into both our current event
| | 02:05 | setup and the actual
operators included in those events.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Reviewing the PFlow events| 00:00 | Let's take a moment and talk about the
specific operators that we have in our
| | 00:03 | particle event structure.
| | 00:05 | I am using a file named Project PFlow01
that's been carried forward from the last video.
| | 00:10 | With the PFlow icon selected, we'll
open up the Particle view and take a look.
| | 00:14 | You can do that by clicking on the
Particle view button the right or simply
| | 00:17 | using the 6 shortcut key.
| | 00:23 | As you can see, there is two events.
| | 00:25 | The systems global event at the top
containing a single render operator.
| | 00:30 | It's the second event in our current flow
that we'll be concentrating on at this point.
| | 00:35 | With Particle Flow each operator in
an event is designed to do something a
| | 00:39 | little different, controlling a certain
behavior or mannerism for the particles.
| | 00:43 | The Birth operator gives us start and
end times for our particle emission in
| | 00:48 | addition to determining the number of
particles that will be emitted over the
| | 00:51 | life of the particle system.
| | 00:59 | The Position icon operator uses the
particle icon in the scene as the location
| | 01:03 | from which the particles will be emitted.
| | 01:05 | It gives you a few options as to how and
where the particles shootout from the actual icon.
| | 01:17 | The Speed operator gives us control
over each particle's speed and how much
| | 01:21 | that speed can vary.
| | 01:27 | Down below that, the Rotation operator
allows you to control each particle's
| | 01:31 | orientation as it emits from the icon.
| | 01:40 | Again, you'll see you have a couple
of different options to choose from.
| | 01:42 | With the Shape operator you can choose
between various default shapes for your particles.
| | 01:47 | We'll be changing this one out,
| | 01:48 | using instead a Shape type operator
that will allow us to pick an object shape
| | 01:52 | from our scene as each particle's shape.
| | 02:02 | And lastly, the Display operator, which
simply controls how the particles show
| | 02:06 | up in the viewports.
| | 02:14 | So that's the basic construction
diagram for the PFlow we'll be starting with.
| | 02:18 | Next up, we'll create the geometry
that we will be using for our water drops.
| | 02:22 | We'll do that in the next video.
| | 02:24 | Let's go check it out.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Building the water drop geometry| 00:00 | The original particles in our scene
will be constructed of a custom shape that
| | 00:04 | takes the form of a water drop.
| | 00:06 | We'll model that geometry in this video,
using a file named Project PFlow01 that
| | 00:11 | was saved up from the previous video.
| | 00:13 | Let's see what we can do.
| | 00:14 | To begin, let's take the Front view
full screen and we'll select the hotplate.
| | 00:18 | That's the light gold geometry.
| | 00:21 | We can then type Z for the
Zoom Extend Selected command.
| | 00:25 | Now we can begin work on our water drop.
| | 00:27 | It's going to be made out of a simple circle.
| | 00:29 | So I'll go to my Shapes, and I will drop
a circle in somewhere above the hotplate.
| | 00:35 | For the size I am going
to give it a Radius of 5.
| | 00:37 | We are going to want it large enough so
we can see it, and we can always go back
| | 00:41 | and scale it down if needed a little later on.
| | 00:43 | Once you have type that in, type Z again.
| | 00:49 | We're going to want to get
down to the sub-object level.
| | 00:51 | For that we'll simply right-click on the
circle, choosing Convert Editable Spline.
| | 01:00 | Once we are in the stack, we'll
drop down to the Segment level.
| | 01:03 | The circle consists of four segments.
| | 01:05 | Let's select the two that
make up the right-hand side.
| | 01:09 | With those selected, we are going to
remove them from play. Let's hit Delete.
| | 01:13 | Now we'll go to the Vertex
level, selecting the top vertex.
| | 01:16 | We are going to want to move that up just a tad.
| | 01:24 | Once I have got it there, I will grab the
Bezier handle on the left and pull that down.
| | 01:27 | You can kind of get an
idea of where we are going.
| | 01:30 | I will then select the middle vertex
on the left and we'll pull that a little in,
| | 01:33 | and even though we might still want
to do a couple of minor changes, let's
| | 01:38 | at this point add a Lathe modifier.
| | 01:49 | The drop looks pretty good.
| | 01:50 | Now if you need to you can always
go back down at the Vertex level.
| | 01:54 | You could turn on Show end result, and
then you can make whatever changes from
| | 01:57 | there you might need to make.
| | 01:58 | I am going to also change the number of
segments on my drop to let's say around 20.
| | 02:09 | Let's also give it a name. How about water drop?
| | 02:19 | Once completed, I'll go back to four views.
| | 02:22 | I will just use the Alt+W
keyboard shortcut for that.
| | 02:24 | That will do it for our particle geometry.
| | 02:27 | We can now build a water drop material,
which we'll get to in the next video.
| | 02:31 | Let's save our scene up as
PFlowproject02 so we can take it along with us.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating the water drop material| 00:00 | Now that we have our water drop geometry built,
let's see about creating a material for it.
| | 00:05 | I'll do that using a file named
Project PFlow02, which I brought with me
| | 00:09 | from the last video.
| | 00:11 | 3ds Max offers a handful of ways of
creating a nice water like looking skin,
| | 00:15 | especially if you're using
the mental ray render engine.
| | 00:18 | Now I have already got things setup to
use that, so I will go ahead and enter
| | 00:21 | my Material Editor.
| | 00:23 | From there below the sample slots in the
left-hand side I'll click on Get Material.
| | 00:30 | From the Browser, I'll then open up
the tab named Autodesk Material Library.
| | 00:35 | I'll navigate down to the Glass
section and then choose the Clear glass.
| | 00:43 | Once I have that loaded in, I'll go
ahead and drag-and-drop it over to the
| | 00:46 | water drop in the scene.
| | 00:50 | Now to get a better view of what we are
looking at here, let's select the water
| | 00:53 | drop and change our Camera view to Perspective.
| | 00:59 | We can then use the Z shortcut key to zoom in.
| | 01:02 | Let's now go ahead and render.
| | 01:11 | So right off the box, we have got
ourselves a very realistic looking drop.
| | 01:14 | Now if you're feeling a little lag in your
render times, here is something you can do.
| | 01:20 | Down at the bottom of our render window
on the left-hand side you can lower the
| | 01:24 | Glossy Reflections and Refraction precision.
| | 01:34 | This will yield still good results but
maybe not quite as accurate as leaving
| | 01:37 | them at their default settings.
| | 01:39 | Either way you want to go, I just want
to make sure you know that you have got
| | 01:41 | some adjustments that you can make.
| | 01:43 | Now as an alternative to the Autodesk glass,
let's try the mental ray Arch & Design material.
| | 01:48 | We'll go back under the Get Material
button, then from the list open up the
| | 01:54 | mental ray materials.
| | 01:58 | There directly at the top is the Arch & Design.
| | 02:00 | Let's double-click on that.
| | 02:03 | From here we have a series of
templates that we can choose to use.
| | 02:06 | Back in the Editor right above the Arch
& Design logo go ahead and click where
| | 02:09 | it says Select the template.
| | 02:11 | Now from the list, we'll choose
Transparent Materials > Glass (Thin Geometry).
| | 02:19 | Let's also apply that one
and see how that would look.
| | 02:30 | So a slightly different look,
but still very realistic.
| | 02:33 | Let's also under the
templates, try the Glass (Physical).
| | 02:48 | So we certainly have another
believable option with that.
| | 02:51 | Now the one I would like to choose for
this project is a mental ray material
| | 02:54 | called Autodesk Water.
| | 02:56 | Let's see if we can't find that.
| | 03:01 | Back in the browser in the mental
ray materials you'll find it about
| | 03:04 | three-quarters the way down the list.
| | 03:07 | Let's apply that and see how it looks.
| | 03:20 | So there we go.
| | 03:21 | I think we have got a good-
looking skin all taken care of.
| | 03:24 | Let's now close all our dialogs, we'll
deselect the water drop, then hit Z again.
| | 03:28 | Well after doing that, we are going to
want to take our now Perspective view
| | 03:34 | back to Camera by typing C.
| | 03:44 | Now if we render again, it's pretty
obvious that with the water drop being so small,
| | 03:47 | it's going to be barely
detectable, but you never want to take anything
| | 03:50 | for granted, so we wanted to make sure
that we had a nice looking skin in place.
| | 03:54 | So that's it for our water material.
| | 03:56 | Next step, we'll make our way back into
Particle view so we can start setting things up.
| | 04:00 | Let's save our scene up as Particle
Flow 03 so we can take it with us into the next video.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adjusting the PFlow settings| 00:00 | In this video, we'll start making
the needed adjustments to our current
| | 00:03 | particle flow system.
| | 00:05 | I'll be using a file that we
saved up in our last video.
| | 00:07 | It's named Project PFlow03.
| | 00:10 | Let's go ahead and select the PFlow icon
and we'll open Particle view by typing 6.
| | 00:19 | Let's start with the Birth operator.
| | 00:21 | We'll select that, then on the right-
hand top, we'll change the Start time to 15,
| | 00:24 | the End time to frame 80 and then
for the Amount of our water drops why
| | 00:29 | don't we set that to 3?
| | 00:32 | In the Position Icon operator,
we'll change the location to Surface.
| | 00:36 | this will emit our particles from random
points along the surface of the PFlow icon.
| | 00:47 | For the Speed operator, let's change the Speed
to 400 and we'll vary that by a number of 10.
| | 00:54 | As for the Direction of travel,
we'll leave that set on Along Icon Arrow.
| | 00:59 | With the Rotation operator, we're going to
change the Orientation Matrix to Speed Space.
| | 01:04 | This will allow each particle's
orientation to be determined by that particle's
| | 01:08 | direction upon entering the event.
| | 01:09 | Down below that, for X, Y, Z,
we're going to take the Z value to 90.
| | 01:16 | Then I'll make sure that the largest or
fullest part of the drop is down at the bottom.
| | 01:24 | With the Shape operator, here
we're going to want to make a change.
| | 01:27 | Look in the depot and find
the Shape Instance operator.
| | 01:31 | Putting this operator in place of the
Shape operator will allow us to pick the
| | 01:35 | water drop geometry as our actual particle.
| | 01:37 | Here is what we'll do.
| | 01:39 | with Shape Instance selected down on
the depot, we'll drag that, putting it
| | 01:42 | directly on top of the Shape operator.
| | 01:44 | When you get it there, you are going to
want to see a red line before dropping it in place.
| | 01:48 | That red light indicates that the
Shape operator will be replaced as opposed
| | 01:52 | simply shifted above or
below the Shape instance.
| | 01:59 | Once we have in that in the event, over
on the right-hand side at the top under
| | 02:02 | Particle Geometry type,
let's click on the None button.
| | 02:08 | To be able to choose our geometry from a
list, we'll simply type H. There we go.
| | 02:13 | Down at the bottom, we'll
now double-click on Water Drop.
| | 02:18 | Below that on the right-hand side, we
can also change the Scale or vary the
| | 02:21 | Scale if the need be.
| | 02:22 | We won't worry about that though
until little later on in the project.
| | 02:26 | For the Display operator, you'll
notice that things are currently
| | 02:29 | being displayed as Ticks.
| | 02:31 | You know that because of the entry in the
parentheses just to the right of display 001.
| | 02:35 | We're going to want to change that to Geometry.
| | 02:38 | So with the Display operator selected,
back on the right, for Type we'll change
| | 02:41 | from Ticks and instead choose Geometry.
| | 02:45 | With all this in place, why
don't we also now rename the event?
| | 02:49 | Let's call it Water Drops.
| | 02:50 | We go to the top of the name where it
reads Event 001 and simply right-click.
| | 02:55 | From the list, we'll choose
Rename, then type in Water Drops.
| | 03:03 | As your particle flow diagram builds,
it's always a good idea to try to rename
| | 03:07 | whatever events you can to keep things straight.
| | 03:09 | Let's now close the Particle view
window and we'll scrub the Timeline.
| | 03:21 | As we move along in our animation, we
now see that it's indeed the water drop
| | 03:25 | geometry that's taking
over for the particle shape.
| | 03:28 | Let's go ahead and render that and see
how the size of the drop actually looks.
| | 03:37 | That is a little bit on the big side.
| | 03:39 | So let's go back in the Particle view and
change the Scale on the Shape Instance operator.
| | 03:43 | Why don't we try a Scale
Percentage of let's say 80?
| | 03:56 | I'll minimize that and render again.
| | 04:01 | So there you go.
| | 04:03 | Now it's still a little but on the
large side but we do want to see it when it
| | 04:06 | comes time to render.
| | 04:07 | Now for the drop that you see on
the right, that's our original instance
| | 04:11 | geometry. We want to go
ahead and select and hide that.
| | 04:24 | Now we're looking pretty good.
| | 04:25 | Next up, we're going to wire in a test
that's going to program our water drops
| | 04:29 | to change into something else should
they come into contact with the hotplate.
| | 04:32 | Let's save our file up as Project
PFlow04 and we'll do that in a next video.
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| Adding the Collision Spawn Test and deflector| 00:00 | With our water drop particles now
heading down on the direction of the hotplate,
| | 00:04 | we'll add a test into our Water Drop
event that will have the drops colliding
| | 00:07 | with a deflector and breaking
into several smaller pieces.
| | 00:11 | We'll be using the Project PFlow04
files saved up in our last video for this
| | 00:15 | part of the project.
| | 00:17 | Let's reopen Particle view and take
a look at what we are working with.
| | 00:22 | Remember, you can do that by simply typing 6
shortcut key once you've got the icon selected.
| | 00:28 | To enable our water drops to collide
with the hotplate we're going to add a
| | 00:32 | Collision Spawn Test.
| | 00:34 | Go ahead and grab that out of the
depot and drag it down to the bottom of our
| | 00:37 | Water Drops event, directly below Display.
| | 00:45 | When you make it to the event, make
sure that when you let go off your mouse
| | 00:48 | you're doing so with a
blue line and not a red one.
| | 00:51 | With that now in place, we're going to
have to create something in our scene
| | 00:54 | that's going to generate that deflection.
| | 00:56 | Let's close the Particle
view and see what we can do.
| | 01:00 | Let's activate the Camera, going
full-screen, and we'll head over to the
| | 01:03 | Deflection's space warps.
| | 01:11 | For this one we'll choose the Deflector.
| | 01:14 | When you click on that button let's
also activate Auto Grid, maybe another
| | 01:17 | inch-and-a-half up. Go now directly to
the flat part of the hotplate and draw
| | 01:23 | out your Deflector space warp.
| | 01:26 | Don't worry about size and position.
The thing at this point is the way it's been
| | 01:29 | aligned to the hotplate itself.
| | 01:31 | Let's now turn off the Auto Grid
feature, then use the Align command on the
| | 01:35 | toolbar to center it on the hotplate.
| | 01:37 | When the dialog opens, let's change
both Current Object and Target Object to Center.
| | 01:48 | Making sure that all three X, Y,
and Z buttons are on top, we can then
| | 01:51 | say either Apply or OK.
| | 01:54 | Now that that's in position, we'll go
back to Four Views then in the Front view
| | 01:58 | we'll move the Deflector up
to the top of the hotplate.
| | 02:11 | Then we will return to our four-
view layout and change the size of the
| | 02:14 | Deflector icon to 385 X 385.
| | 02:21 | That ensures that it's the
proper size for the hotplate itself.
| | 02:25 | For the Bounce level, let's change that to 0.09.
| | 02:29 | We want the water drops to kick up but not much.
| | 02:32 | We'll then need to tie the Deflector
back into the Collision Spawn test.
| | 02:36 | So we'll go back and select the
PFlow icon, then reenter Particle view.
| | 02:44 | If we go ahead and click on the
Collision Spawn test, we'll see our controls
| | 02:47 | over in the top right corner.
| | 02:50 | In the second category from the top
called Deflectors, click on the Add button.
| | 02:55 | This will enable us to now
choose that deflector from a list.
| | 02:57 | We can now type H, and guess what it shows up?
| | 03:01 | We'll double-click now on Deflector.
| | 03:04 | What's going to occur at this point
as the water drops fall and hit the
| | 03:07 | deflector, something going to happen
and in our case we're going to want that
| | 03:10 | water particle to spawn or divide into more.
| | 03:13 | Back over on the right, about halfway
down, you'll see the Offspring number.
| | 03:17 | Let's change that to 12.
| | 03:23 | This basically says that as the water
drop hits the deflector, it'll spawn
| | 03:27 | into 12 more particles.
| | 03:29 | Now a little further up, staying in the
Spawn Rating Amount category, we want to
| | 03:33 | make sure that Spawn on
First Collision is checked.
| | 03:35 | We also want to make sure that our
parent, our original water drop, is removed
| | 03:40 | from action once the spawn takes place.
| | 03:42 | So for that, make sure that
Delete Parent continues to be checked.
| | 03:46 | We can now close Particle view and
scrub the Timeline to see how things look.
| | 03:59 | So when the drop makes contact with the
deflector, 12 additional drops are now being created.
| | 04:04 | Things won't stay that way but we
are going in the right direction.
| | 04:07 | With what we have in place, the next
thing to do is to add a brand-new event for
| | 04:11 | the spawn particles to go to.
| | 04:12 | Let's save this file up as Project
PFlow05 and we'll get to all that in the next video.
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| Turning the drops into steam| 00:00 | In this video we'll create a new event that
will have our water drops turn into steam.
| | 00:05 | We will be using the project PFlow05 file
that was saved up at the end of the last video.
| | 00:10 | When our water drops hit the hot plate
surface effectively changing their look
| | 00:14 | and behavior, we will be using a
specially made material for the look of the
| | 00:18 | transformed appearance.
| | 00:20 | Because of that, we will use a Shape Facing
operator as the foundation for our new event.
| | 00:25 | With the PFlow in our scene
selected let's re-open the Particle view.
| | 00:33 | Down in the depot, locate
the Shape Facing operator.
| | 00:36 | When you find it drag it in the main
window directly below the Water Drops event.
| | 00:45 | By dragging it into a blank area we
have effectively created a mrand new event.
| | 00:49 | Note that that new event automatically
comes with the display operator, so we
| | 00:53 | will be able to see the
new particles in our view.
| | 00:55 | At this point, we are going to want to wire
Collisions Spawn test down to our new event.
| | 01:00 | We'll simply hold down the Collision
Spawn socket on the left then drag it to
| | 01:04 | open circle on the event below.
| | 01:06 | Once you have made that
connection, go ahead and let go.
| | 01:12 | That in effect associates one with the other.
| | 01:14 | Now once we've done that,
| | 01:15 | let's name our new event Steam.
| | 01:21 | Right-clicking on that
name we can type in as needed.
| | 01:26 | When using Facing type particles, you
are going to want to make sure that that
| | 01:29 | particle shape always remains
perpendicular to the camera that you are using.
| | 01:33 | To do that, we will go to the top
right corner and click on the None button
| | 01:36 | directly below Look At Camera/Object.
| | 01:40 | This is going to enable us to
pick our camera out of our scene.
| | 01:42 | Once you have done that, you can type H.
Then select camera 001 from the list.
| | 01:52 | For the size of each Facing particle, let's
change that from 1 unit up to let's say 30.
| | 02:01 | And so we can see the actual
particle geometry in our view on the Display
| | 02:05 | operator, we will change the type to Geometry.
| | 02:12 | Why don't we also change the color of that
particle geometry to let's say a bright pink.
| | 02:21 | Once we have made all those changes,
we will again close Particle view and
| | 02:24 | scrub our timeline.
| | 02:30 | Now we are getting somewhere.
| | 02:32 | As each water drop hits the
deflector, it's changing into a series of
| | 02:35 | Facing type particles.
| | 02:37 | The next thing we are going to need is to
make a material for that steam particle.
| | 02:40 | We will save things up as project
PFlow06 and we'll take care of that in the next video.
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| Creating the steam material| 00:00 | With our steam set to use Facing type
particles, it will be the material that we
| | 00:04 | now create that'll give our puffs of
steam their look. I'm going to be using the
| | 00:08 | project PFlow06 file from
the last video to do my work.
| | 00:12 | Let's open up the Materials Editor
and select a clean gray sample slot.
| | 00:16 | We can now name that Steam.
| | 00:22 | Let's now jump up on the Diffuse Color
swatch, changing that to a bright white.
| | 00:29 | Once that's taken care of, we will
enter the opacity channel on a material
| | 00:33 | adding a gradient map.
| | 00:43 | Why don't we now change our sample
slot to look like a cube, so we can better
| | 00:47 | see how that's coming? And I will then
double-click on that cube to open up a
| | 00:53 | larger viewing window.
| | 00:54 | For the Gradient Type,
let's now change that to Radial.
| | 00:59 | On our three color swatches let's do this.
| | 01:01 | Color number 1 will stay black.
| | 01:03 | Color number 2 though will also be black.
| | 01:05 | Now to make that conversion, I will
simply drag the Color number 1 swatch
| | 01:09 | down to 2 and say Copy.
| | 01:14 | As you can see that simply
reduces the size of radial effect.
| | 01:17 | Now to break things up, why
don't we add little Noise?
| | 01:20 | We will change the amount to 0.6.
| | 01:25 | For the Type, we'll use Fractal
and we will change the Size to 8.
| | 01:34 | So that gives us a nice
little wispy look to our steam.
| | 01:36 | To provide little dissipating effect
let's now jump up on the white swatch
| | 01:41 | and add a particle age.
| | 01:43 | For the Colors, we are going to
want to make a few changes here also.
| | 01:46 | For Color number 1, we will open up the
color swatch and change the value to 110.
| | 01:49 | That will give us a medium color gray.
| | 01:58 | For the Color number 2 swatch, we
will change the value there to 70 and for
| | 02:05 | Color number 3, so the Particle Age has
a chance to kind of fade away, we will
| | 02:09 | take that value to 0.
| | 02:14 | That will turn things
black and we are ready to go.
| | 02:17 | Now, as far as the percentages for each color
swatch, things are just fine the way they are.
| | 02:21 | Now to get the material actually on
Steam particles, we are going to have to add
| | 02:25 | a special operator to our Steam event.
| | 02:28 | Using a particle flow, there
is no simple drag-and-drop.
| | 02:31 | So let's close the Material
Editor and reopen Particle view.
| | 02:41 | Down in the depot, locate an operator
called Material Dynamic and when you
| | 02:45 | find that go ahead drag that in the
Steam event, placing it directly below the
| | 02:49 | Shape Facing operator.
| | 02:57 | That gives us now a container
that we can use to add our material.
| | 03:02 | With the Material Dynamic selected up
in the right-hand corner, click on the
| | 03:05 | None button at the top.
| | 03:07 | From the browser, we will go down to
the Sample Slots category and choose the
| | 03:10 | material named Steam.
| | 03:16 | That loads it into
place and we are ready to go.
| | 03:19 | Let's close the Particle view
and we will render around Frame 60.
| | 03:33 | There we go. One drop has made contact
and you can see the puff of steam that's
| | 03:36 | been generated from that.
| | 03:38 | The only thing we have to do at this
point is make a few final adjustments
| | 03:41 | and we will be set.
| | 03:41 | We will do that in our next video.
| | 03:44 | Let's save our file up as project
PFlow07 so we can take it with us.
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| Making the final adjustments| 00:00 | With the majority of our project now in
place, we're left with making only a few
| | 00:04 | adjustments to our steam
particles to get this baby in the can.
| | 00:08 | Let's make those needed procedures
using the Project PFlow07 file that was
| | 00:12 | saved up at end of the last video.
| | 00:14 | Now, there are two things in
particular that we're going need to do.
| | 00:17 | One will be to get our facing
particles moving around just a bit using a Wind
| | 00:21 | space warp and two, we are going to use some
kind of mechanism to make our steam disappear.
| | 00:26 | For that we will be using the Delete operator.
| | 00:28 | Let's see we can do.
| | 00:29 | Starting with the Wind space warp,
let's change the Top view to a Back view.
| | 00:33 | We can now grab a Wind over on the
right and place it into that new window.
| | 00:37 | Now like we did with the Deflector in
a previous video, we are going to also
| | 00:40 | align our Wind space warp to the hotplate.
| | 00:42 | So with that selected, let's go and
click on the Align Command on the right-hand
| | 00:46 | side of the toolbar.
| | 00:47 | Once we done that, using any of the views,
you can now click on the yellow hotplate.
| | 00:51 | Okay, from the dialog, we will make sure
X, Y and Z are checked, and Current and
| | 00:55 | Target Object are set to Center.
| | 00:57 | Once you've verified that, we
can go ahead and Apply or click OK.
| | 01:00 | Merely for visual purposes, I will now move the
Wind closer down towards the hotplate itself.
| | 01:05 | Okay, for the Wind settings, we'll do this.
| | 01:07 | We will leave Strength set to 0, and
we will change the Turbulence to 0.15.
| | 01:11 | We are just trying to mix in a little
added movement for our Steam, which we can
| | 01:15 | get by simply adjusting the Turbulence.
| | 01:17 | We really don't want the Wind to push
anything down so that's the reason we
| | 01:20 | left the Strength at 0.
| | 01:22 | Okay, now to get the Wind into Play,
we are going to have to go back in our
| | 01:25 | Particle view and add a Force
operator to our Steam event.
| | 01:28 | In the Depot, locate the Force, then
drag it directly above the Material Dynamic
| | 01:33 | in the Steam event, and remember you are
going to want that line to be blue when
| | 01:36 | you let go the mouse.
| | 01:38 | We can now select that Force operator,
then head to the upper right-hand corner.
| | 01:41 | Under the Space Warps box, let's click on Add,
and we can then select Wind from the list.
| | 01:46 | So notice that with the PFlow,
it's not a Bind to Space Warp thing.
| | 01:50 | That only works for Max's non-
event-driven particle systems.
| | 01:53 | For the Wind settings, we will
change the Strength to 0 and we will take
| | 01:57 | the Turbulence 0.15.
| | 01:59 | Now we are doing this just to provide a
little extra movement into our Steam particles.
| | 02:03 | That is what adjusting the Turbulence did.
| | 02:05 | We really don't want the Wind to
push anything down so that's the reason
| | 02:08 | the Strength was set to 0.
| | 02:10 | Okay, now to get the Wind into play, we
are going to need to add Force operator
| | 02:14 | towards Steam event.
| | 02:16 | You see when using particle flow,
there is no Bind to Space Warp command.
| | 02:19 | That's only when you are using one of
Max's non-event-driven particle systems.
| | 02:24 | For this one, everything revolves
around adding operators and tests for PFlow.
| | 02:28 | That Wind is added in by way of an operator.
| | 02:31 | Let's reselect the PFlow icon,
then re-enter a Particle view.
| | 02:35 | Okay, down on the depot,
locate the Force operator.
| | 02:38 | Now once you've found that, drag the
Force into the Steam event, positioning it
| | 02:41 | above Material Dynamic.
| | 02:43 | Now remember, when the line shows up, you
are going to want make sure that that's blue.
| | 02:46 | Let's now minimize Particle view and
scrub the timelines so we can see the
| | 02:49 | effect that Force has had on our particles.
| | 02:52 | So the Turbulence merely spreads the
spawning particles out just a tad more.
| | 02:56 | Okay, now to get the particles to
actually die off, we are going through a
| | 02:59 | Delete operator into the mix.
| | 03:01 | This time down in our part store, the
depot, locate the Delete operator and drag
| | 03:06 | it directly below Material Dynamic.
| | 03:08 | You can drop that in place as
soon as you see the blue line.
| | 03:11 | Now over on the right, in the Remove
category, we will set this to By Particle Age.
| | 03:15 | Then for the Life Span, or die-off
time for each Steam particle, we will
| | 03:19 | set that to 40 frames.
| | 03:21 | So now 40 frames after
creating the puff of steam.
| | 03:23 | Each particle will fade away.
| | 03:25 | Now that pretty much should to do it.
| | 03:27 | Let's render a couple of different points
in time, and see how things are looking.
| | 03:30 | I will go to frame 22.
| | 03:32 | Now at this point, you will
see the drop clearly in view.
| | 03:35 | Again a little bit on the big side,
but that simply gives us a better look at
| | 03:38 | what we are working with.
| | 03:39 | Let's also render frame 45.
| | 03:41 | Now here the water drops contact with
the Deflector is taking place, thereby
| | 03:45 | generating the visible steam.
| | 03:47 | Let's now move to frame 90, and see
how things look once rendered there.
| | 03:50 | There we go, our first falling water drop,
but the one that was toward the front
| | 03:54 | of our hotplate has made contact,
turned it in steam and then faded away.
| | 03:58 | Now once this baby has been rendered out,
the final product will look like this.
| | 04:02 | So there is a little particle flow for you.
| | 04:04 | Driven by the events that we set up,
you can see just how powerful a system it truly is.
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ConclusionGoodbye| 00:00 | That's going to do it for
creating particle effects in 3ds Max.
| | 00:04 | Over the course for the last several
hours, we have had chance to get a firm
| | 00:07 | grip on the stuff you need to know in
order to create a wide variety of visual
| | 00:11 | effects in your own scenes.
| | 00:13 | The space warps, the material
considerations, the important controls that you
| | 00:17 | can now use to create anything from
smoke, to fire, to water, to explosions.
| | 00:23 | That's right, you can now tackle
particle effects of all shapes and sizes,
| | 00:27 | working with confidence that you now
have tools and techniques needed to bring
| | 00:31 | up the realism and believability in
your visual effects,. And when wanting more
| | 00:35 | on the subject of 3ds Max, be sure to
look into the entire library of titles for
| | 00:39 | the software in the
lynda.com Online training library.
| | 00:43 | Till next time, for lynda.com, I am Steve Nelle.
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