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 1^st frame. Keep the same value at 70^th frame also. At 71^st frame, set the value to 5. At 79^th 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 1^st frame, set its value to 1. At 60^th frame, set its value to 2 and at 115^th frame, set the value to 4.

Step 3

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

Step 4

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

Step 5

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

Step 6

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