Understanding Particles and Dynamics in Maya

Preview

1. Creating Fluid Container

Step 1

Open Maya.

Step 2

Jump in 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.

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

Go to Contents Method rollout and change the values of Temperature and Fuel to Dynamic Grid.

2. Creating Emitter

Step 1

With the 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 as Volume and Volume Shape as Sphere and then click on Apply and Close button.

Step 3

You can see the spherical emitter inside the fluid container. Place it on the bottom surface of the container.

Step 4

With the Emitter selected, go to Fluid Attributes rollout and set the value of Density/Voxel/Sec to 50.

Step 5

Set the value of Fuel Method to No Emission.

Step 6

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 8.

Step 7

Go to Lighting rollout and turn on Self Shadow option and change the value of Shadow Quality of 1.2. Set the Ambient Brightness value to 0.2.

Step 8

Go to Shading > Color and click on Selected Color option. Set the color to bit dark. It changes the color of the smoke in the viewport.

Step 9

With the Emitter selected, go to Fluid Attributes rollout and set the value of Heat/Voxel/Sec to 25.

Step 10

Hit the Play button. You can see that the fire is simulating straight and smooth.

Step 11

With the fluid container selected, go to fluidShape1 > Content Details > Temperature and set the values of Turbulence to 25. Hit the Play button and now you can see the turbulence in the fire simulation.

Step 12

Set the Temperature Scale value to 2.5.

Step 13

Set the Dissipation value to 2.

Step 14

Go to Shading > Incandescence rollout and set the value of Input Bias to 0.075.

Step 15

Go to Shading > Opacity rollout and set the value of Input Bias to 0.080.

Step 16

Start rendering the frames and you will the smoky fire simulation as shown in the following image.

Conclusion

Hope you must have enjoyed the tutorial. In the next part of the series, I'll show you how to create a burning house or car simulation using fluid dynamics in Maya.