Thanks for this Duncan! After seeing the example I had hoped you'd detail how this was done. Very nice example. I love the improvements to nParticles and fluids!

wow thank again, for usefull scene...
hai duncan, we are interesting for script making explotion that u made....i dont know, u can share us or no!!...
and i can see that u make some explotion for particlebomber scene...
hoply u can share us for that script....thank.s ..

Looking under the hood, that's wow.. amazing. Great technique.

Although I was convinced that it looked like a waterfall in the the image. But when I watched the video, I have to be honest, the beginning looked more like a big pile sand, dust, gravel and debris falling altogether. Although the latter parts of the video looked like a waterfall eventually. I think this will for both.

I have been amazed by the things I have been able to pull off thanks to NParticles and NCloth. I am alway grateful for the experiments and discoveries. Thanks you...

this is great Duncan. You are my "guru" using particles in Maya.

brilliant

If you simply want to recreate your exact molecular motion as animation in Maya I would suggest converting your data to the Maya particle nCache format (this is an iff format that we publish). I would only use the curves if you had simple flow data and wanted to add more particles. Instead of curves you could also potentially set the velocity grid on a fluid node(which would only have a static velocity grid) then use it as a force on particles( with conserve = 0 on the particles to exactly follow the fluid flow).

Thanks for responding. I would like to try what your suggesting. Unfortunately I am somewhat of a novice with MAYAs more complicated procedures...

How would I go about converting my data into iFF format? IS there a pluggin or script of somesort? And can this then be directly attached to a particle?

Unfortunately I don't know of any scripts you could tweek to do what you want. You would need to read up on our cache format( use the nCache, not the old style particle cache) and then write some code to convert your data into a cache file. (this is the hard part) Then you would simply load the cache to a particle system in Maya.

Another way might be to create a bunch of ascii files with your particle positions in them... then create an expression (not a particle one) that each frame reads the file for the current frame then sets the positions of your particles(looping over all the particles). If this was slow, you could then create a particle cache and use that instead of doing the MEL read.

Thank you, I will follow up with your suggestions.

Hi Duncan - I know this probably isn't the best place to post this so forgive the intrusion. I watched a video of your Mandelbrot presentation and it was fantastic. So much so that it inspired me to try my hand at it. I seem to be doing ok but when I venture into attempting fluid versions, I fail miserably. Do you plan on sharing that code or is that a personal research project? I'm particularly interested in the Mandelbox/Mandelbulb stuff but I'm totally lost on how to get this represented in a fluid sim. You're examples were extremely inspiring!

The fluid rendered mandelbox was done by internally changing the fluid texturing code and recompiling Maya. Users can't do it unfortunately. I toyed with the idea of putting it into Maya but it would add a lot of attribute clutter than would rarely be useful to anyone. A better thing would be to provide api for overriding the fluid internal texture, but this is also a bit problematic because it would also have to have a mental ray component.

I would suggest you explore this site:
http://www.fractalforums.com/

You will find lots of discussion about the Mandelbox including code and posts by the fellow who created it. As well there is info on what software to use and how to use it.

If you really want to use Maya I think it would involve writing a volume rendering shader in Mental Ray, which would be a chore. (although perhaps there is something available for mental ray already out there) Maya of course would provide more flexibility with things like animation and light setup than specialized fractal programs.

Your post made me look around and I found this:

http://www.ms.mff.cuni.cz/~kadlj3am/big/boxplorer/

Jan Kadlec has graciously made this realtime GPU Mandelbox program available to all, source code included!

Thanks Duncan! I really appreciate your responses. I've been hanging out in the fractalforums and it's very interesting. Even though I can't do this inside of Maya Fluids (yet), you've really inspired me to look into this more. Much appreciated.

I would definitely like to use Maya for this because there so much opportunity for unique FX based on this technique. Great stuff!

hi duncan this is great stuff, and could be great if you explain, or you give some hints on how to do this kind of
stuff maya 2011 special features:

vimeo.com/12466787

it looks really amazing... mainly those cubic structures with random patterns.... fractals and such... i didnt know that maya was able to do things like that... how did you that???

I intend to create a blog post on the 2D stuff I showed, which used a mel expression to create a mandelbrot texture. The 3d stuff was done by coding a custom texture for a Maya fluid node, which is not possible for users. However there is an excellent program for exploring the 3D mandelbox interactively here(source included):
www.ms.mff.cuni.cz/~kadlj3am/big/boxplorer/

Also www.fractalforums.com has lots of info on generating these structures.

I'm not sure what you are asking... one can set fluid voxel values directly in a plugin, expression or script, so the technique in this post could be implemented that way( if you don't have maya 2011 ), however you might find it to be a bit of coding to do the smooth particle emission into a fluid with radius and motion streaks.

Jalo... I just entered bug 367628 for the issue you describe (pond as field no longer works). If you just want to mesh the pond you could do convert:fluid to poly(with history on). That could also be used as a softbody target if you still need to use soft bodies.

I studied as a french horn player but I don't play horn anymore. Instead I like to read classical scores on the piano for fun. I have a pretty large collection of piano music( most of the classical repertoire ), however just last night I downloaded an iPad app that has preloaded pretty much everything written for piano( before about 1920), including concertos and such... something like 3000 scores. Amazing! The app was 10 dollars, but if you bought that much music in books it would be over 60,000 dollars. The visual quality is no as nice as a printed score and the ipad screen is a bit small( complex stuff by Scriabin can be an eye strain ), but it is compact and nicely indexed. Interesting times we live in.

Here is some more info on that app:
http://dailyator.com/new-ipad-app-is-perfect-for-piano-enthusiasts/52810/

1) some favorite of piano work composers?
It is really hard to single out favorites, because I'm constantly becoming enthralled with different composers and works( the piano has such a wonderful repertoire ). A lot of the best stuff I get over exposed to, so I like to play things I'm less familiar with.

Bach (although he didn't compose for the piano exactly). I would rank him as the greatest composer of all time if I had to, but it is apples and oranges, really. He is the one composer that I never tire of. The Well Tempered Clavier is great, the Goldberg Variations. I really enjoy listening to the grand organ works he did, and I have some transcriptions for piano, but while fun to play don't really have the same effect as on a large organ.

I've been playing some Handel lately, and really enjoying it. I think one of his suites was inspiration for the Goldberg variations, and I find the simplicity of Handel helps me better understands the musical forms that Bach was building upon. His music is not as complex or deep as Bach's but is fun and easy to play.

Beethovens Sonatas are magnificent... surely the finest written. Being an orchestral player I especially like to play transcriptions of Symphonies and concertos. Liszt transcribed( in his style ) all the Beethoven symphonies, and these are fun and challenging to play. I also have some other transcriptions of the 3d, 5th and 9th that are simpler that I sometimes enjoy playing. That iPad app has all his string quartets transcribed for piano, which is the first time I've seen this. It is like discovering a bunch of new Sonatas.

Brahms is also one of my favorites. I have a transcription of his Symphonies I really like to play. As well his more intimate works as well as his sonatas are some of my favorites. I also love his two piano concertos.

Rachmaninoff wrote a lot of great stuff for piano. I find his work not all up to a high standard but his best works are brilliant. I prefer much of his earlier work, and my favorite is likely his 2nd concerto.

I especially love the later symphonies and piano concertos of Mozart.

I suppose I need to cut this list short, as otherwise I will go on for pages and pages.

2) and to return a little bit on 3D stuff, days ago I have the question, if possible share a one mesh solver(convert:nParticles_to_Polygons) for two diferent nParticles, in order to mix it and be independent, but if they approach close the same mesh solver work like metaballs and integrate the two nParticles. (kinda makes RealFlow, particles of different emitters using a single solver mesh.)

There is no direct way to do this, however there are workarounds. The simplest is to simulate within a single particles system, and use per particle attributes and multiple emitters to differentiate the particles. (you can assign as many emitters to a single particles system as desired using the dynamic relationship editor). Another potential workaround is to combine two systems into a single one(there would be 3 particles systems in the scene). One could use emission to combine the systems, although it might be fussy setting everything up efficiently.

Try typing "ls -sl" to confirm you have two sets of 5 edges selected. Perhaps you have overlapping geometry resulting in too many edges.

It is Mel script. Type it into the script editor. It will list the items currently selected.

thanks, I'm not too sure what I was exactly looking for, but it did work, I just don't know what I did....
thank you for you help...

thanks . i searched or waterfall technique your note help me to make my project so good . i want your valuable advises for all my new projects . i think you be . i trust you .

hy anybody know haw to bild a 3d fractal in mel?

I'm sorry, but I can't understand your question. Perhaps you could simplify it.

OK, I'm still not sure of your exact problem. However I recommend the following setup for a tornado:
Animate nParticles by making conserve = 0 and using a curve field. Set up the radius and directions on the curve field for the correction rotation of the particles. Emit from the particles into a fluid in a manner similar to this waterfall and render the fluid, setting intermediateObject ON for the particle shape so it doesn't render.
The particles can emit both density and speed (with inherit motion) into the fluid. You need to use Maya2011 for the emission from particles into the fluid. Also enable motion streak on the emitter. Also look at:
particleVortexFanHR5.ma
which can be found here:
http://area.autodesk.com/blogs/duncan/scene_files_for_fun_stuff_in_maya2011

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No mandelbulbs in 2012, sorry.

Great Work Duncan........ Thanks for the Tutorial

If it looks like balls moving then I would suggest a few things...
1. Make sure the particle motion is roughly correct without any fluid(you can look for other particle tutorials if this is a problem)
2. If the fluid simply looks like hard balls, not streaks, then your density dissipation may be too high on the fluid. As well you may not have enabled motion streak on the fluid emitter. Another possible issue could be having too large an emission radius (maxDistance on the fluid emitter). It should not be too much more than the size of a voxel.
3. Perhaps your fluid is stationary. You want some solving in general. Turn on draw of the velocity vectors so you can see what is going on. One can use both density buoyancy and inheritVelocity on the particle fluid emitter as a means of applying force to the fluid. (external fields could also be used but shouldn't be needed)

If you download the scene file you should be able to compare your setup with the settings of the various nodes.

I was referring to some 3d mandebrot set renderings I had done. Currently the fluid uses a built in texture for speed and users have no way of creating a custom or plugin texture for this this internal one currently (you are stuck with the various noise methods and attributes on the fluid)
It is possible to use shading network textures with a fluid(textures mapped to things like transparency or color ramp indices on the fluid), but by default they will evaluate at the outer bounds of the fluid. To evaluate such textures( which must be 3d or projected textures) within the fluid you need to enable volumeSamplesOverride on the fluid shape and increase the volumeSamples. For a detailed texture the volumeSamples would need to be very high, which could make the render significantly slower.


Also note that if you want to convert the fluid to poly then shading network textures are not evaluated properly.

Actually if you are using a fluidTexture3d (or 2d) then you don't need to use the volume samples override if you are mapping an attribute. Just map any attribute that affects shading( not simulation ) and it should work. The fluid node also has an outCoordinate attribute that can be used if you are using the coordinateGrid method (under the texture section of the fluid). This attribute could be mapped to the uv of a texture for example to push it around.

You can't make a connection that would override the internal fluid texturing. The kind of connection you were making would just change the internal texture type used based on the intensity of your fractal. Instead you want to map the texture to a fluid attribute like "transparency" or perhaps an opacity or color ramp indice, or even one of the ramp input bias values. For example you could connect your fractal's output to the first opacity indice:
fluidTexture2DShape1.opacity[0].opacity_FloatValue
If you wanted to smear your texture around based on the motion of the fluid you could make the fluid coord method =grid and the coord speed 1.0 then connect the fluid texture outUV to your fractal uvCoords.

Hi Duncan,

Love your work. It's been too long since we've seen any of it, what have you been busy doing? Maybe that would make a nice post.

Regards

I've actually got a backlog of 30 or so blog posts (with scene files and such) but I've been kinda busy with work and haven't found time to make them. I've been neglecting this blog lately, but hopefully in the near future I'll start posting again.

Gracias!

Thanks for the update.

Hi Duncan.
Don't know why I have so many problems finding these things....
Where can I find the Inherit Velocity attribute and motion streak? I've looked through the emitter, nParticle Shape and nucleus tabs and don't see it anywhere. Also...after assigning the fluid to my particles, they are rendering very large now. Thoughts

Those attributes are on the fluid emitter, not the particle emitter.
The main direction of flow should be determined by the particle emitter unless the dissipation is not high enough on the fluid.

Great! Thanks Duncan---and thanks for the quick reply!

On the fluid turn off realLights OR create a light with raytrace shadows ON. (in the maya renderer it forces raytrace shadows on for the lights that render the fluid if self shadow is on)

thanks for duncan!I would like to ask a few questions?
1.Does it use the SPH algorithm to realize the liquid simulation between the two nparticles from different transmitters?
2.How to achieve the self collision of the nparticles? What is its internal algorithm?