Preview
1. Preparing Rocket
Step 1
Open Maya. Import
Rocket.mb file which has been supplied with the tutorial.

Step 2
This rocket has been
already animated. You can modify the animation of Translate and Rotate
attributes as per your need.

2. Creating Fluid Container
Step 1
With the rocket mesh
selected, go to Edit > Delete > History to delete history.

Step 2
Go to Dynamics
mode. Go to Fluid Effects > Create 3D Container and draw a 3D fluid
container in the view port as shown in the following image.

Step 3
Go to fluidShape1 attribute
and set the value of Base Resolution to 50. You can change this
value to 150 just before rendering for the final output. Change the
values of Grid Size to 15 each.

Step 4
Go to Container
Properties and set the options of Boundary X to None, Boundary
Y to –Y Side and Boundary Z to None.

Step 5
Change the values of Temperature
and Fuel to Dynamic Grid.

Step 6
Go to fluidShape1 attribute
and under Display rollout, set the Boundary Draw option to Bounding
box.

Step 7
Go to Auto Resize
to turn on Auto Resize option and turn off Resize Closed Boundaries
and Resize in Substeps options. Set the values of Auto Resize
Threshold to 0.002 and Auto Resize Margin to 2.

3. Creating Emitter
Step 1
With the fluid container
selected, go to Fluid Effects > Add/ Edit Contents > Emitter and
click on the option box.

Step 2
In the Emitter Options window, set the Emitter type to Volume and Emitter Shape to Sphere. Click on Apply and Close.

Step 3
A spherical emitter icon
appears in the view port. Set the icon inside the nozzle of the rocket.

Step 4
Turn off the visibility
of the rocket layer so that only emitter is visible in the view port.

Step 5
Hit the Play
button and you will see small streak of smoke coming out of the emitter.

Step 5
With the emitter
selected, go to Fluid Attributes and set the value of Density/Voxel/Sec to 2 and Fluid Dropoff to 0.100.

Step 6
Go to Fluid Emission Turbulence and set the values of Turbulence to 1, Turbulence Speed to 1 and Detail Turbulence to 5.

Step 7
Go to Emission Speed
Attributes and set the value of Speed Method to Replace and Inherit
Velocity to 5.

4. Adding Details to Smoke
Step 1
With the fluid container selected, go to fluidShape1 attribute. Go to Dynamic Simulation and set the value of Damp to 0.002.

Step 2
Go to Content Details
> Density and set the values of Density Scale to 1, Buoyancy
to -1 and Dissipation to 0.5.

Step 3
Hit the Play button
and you will see the smoke emits downwards.

Step 4
Unhide the rocket layer.
Select the emitter followed by the rocket mesh and press P key. Now hit
the Play button and you will see the smoke follows the animation of
rocket.

Step 5
Go to Field > Volume Axis and draw an icon in the view port.

Step 6
Insert the volume axis
icon in the nozzle. Set the value of Volume Shape to Cylinder and
turn on Use Max Distance option.

Step 7
Go to Volume Axis
Fields Attributes rollout and set the value of Magnitude to 25.

Step 8
With the volume axis
control icon selected, set its Rotation X value to -180.

Step 9
Go to Window > Relationship Editors > Dynamic Relationships.

Step 10
In the Dynamic
Relationships Editor, select fluid1 and volumeAxisField1.
Close the window.

5. Keyframing Attribute
Step 1
It’s time to animate the
value of Density/Voxel/Sec. With the fluid container selected, set the
value of Density/ Voxel/ Sec to 2 at 1st frame. Keep
the same value at 70th frame also. At 71st frame, set the
value to 5. At 79th frame set the value to 1. This
will show the thrust effect before launching the rocket.

Step 2
Following the same way,
animate the value of Density Scale. At 1st frame, set its
value to 1. At 60th frame, set its value to 2 and at
115th frame, set the value to 4.

Step 3
Animate the value of Buoyancy. At 1st frame, set the value of Buoyancy to -10. Keep the same value at 60th frame also. At 61st frame, change the value to -8. Following the same way, animate the value of Dissipation. At 1st frame, set the value of Dissipation to 1. Keep the same value at 60th frame also. At 61st frame, change the value to 0.2.

Step 4
Following the same way,
animate the value of Noise. At 1st frame, set the value of Noise
to 0. Keep the same value at 60th frame also. At 61st
frame, change the value to 0.250.

Step 5
Following the same way, animate the value of Gradient Force. At 1st frame, set the value of Gradient Force to 0. Keep the same value at 60th frame also. At 61st frame, change the value to 25.

Step 6
Go to Volume Axis
Fields Attributes rollout and animate the value of Magnitude. At 1st
frame, set the value of Magnitude to 25. Keep the same value at
60th frame also. At 61st frame, change the value to 200.

6. Adding Smoke Texture
Step 1
Go to Lighting rollout
and turn on Self Shadow option. It adds the texture and thickness to the
smoke.

Step 2
Go to Shading rollout and set the value of Dropoff Shape to Off.

Step 3
Go to Color rollout and set the value of Color Input to Density. Set the value of Input Bias to 0.5.

Step 4
Go to Color
rollout and set the value of Input Bias to 0.425.

Step 5
The smoke is ready for
simulation. Hit the Play button and you will see something as shown in
the following image.

Conclusion
In the next part of the series, I'll show how to create a flame thrower effect using fluid dynamics in Maya.
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