Environmental FX

This first week of the module is about the Bullet plugin in Autodesk Maya. By using this plugin, the gravity and other forces can be controlled. This way, one can simulate how different everyday objects will behave in the real world. An example is if a box is dropped from a height, then hitting the floor. This can be recreated in Maya using this plugin.

Box

First, I added a box to the scene. Then a plane to serve as the floor. I made the box an active rigid body. And the floor a passive rigid body. The box then falls and collides with the floor.

Dominos

I made a simple domino from a box, then duplicated it several time, until I had the number of dominos I wanted. I added the active rigid body to the dominos so they will collide with each other.

It was possible to make a path for the dominos by using a curve pen tool to draw a path for them. Then, to make the first domino fall, I animated it rotating, falling on the second one.

I added some spheres and color for fun. It is interesting to see different objects interacting with eachother.

Jenga tower

I started out making a single Jenga tile, then duplicating it and having three of them laying side by side. The all I had to do was to duplicate the three of them, placing them on top of each other. Then I selected every other layer and then rotated them. I had to change some settings for the gravity and the initial fixed frame rate from 60Hz to 240Hz for the simulation to work properly.

I played around with the gravity and mass settings, to see how it would affect the simulation.

Cloth

The second week, we had a look at cloth simulation. I created different simulations using nCloth in Maya.

Using a plane and then making it a nCloth object, it will start acting as a piece of fabric. I had a look at the different presets Maya have for cloth simulation.

Flag

Just by connecting the plane to a cylinder, you can make a flag on a flagpole. Using constraints to connect the two objects. I then created wind for the flag using the settings in the nucleus1.

Skirt

I made a skirt on an animated figure using a cylinder. I just deleted the bottom and top of the cylinder and scaled it to look like a skirt. When the character walks, the skirt behaves as it would in reality. I used the same method as with the flag to the pole to attach the skirt to the character. And I used nCloth on the skirt and rigid shape on the character to make the skirt react to colliding with the character.

Trampoline

This is a trampoline with a rip in it. It is made by a plane with nCloth, and a pipe. The rip is made just by selecting a few edges in a row, then clicking the nConstraint and use the Tearable Surface function. The two are connected together by constraints. And by adding a Volume Axis, I could manipulate the environment around the trampoline.

Playing around

Bifrost Particles

By using the Bifrost graph in Maya, I got to play around with particles. I learned about how to use the Bifrost graph, which uses a node system like Nuke does. The different nodes controls different parts of the simulation.

This image is showing how the node graph looks like. Each node does something different. I like how organized the node system is. If I ever need to go back to something, it will not be too difficult to find my way back to it.

This is an image rendered out in Arnold

nParticles

I explored many different ways of using the nParticle system, using emitters, emit from objects and playing around with the many settings.

In this case, I used the water type particles to create water in a glass.

Bifrost smoke

This session focused on how to create a smoke simulation using the Bifrost graph. I started by placing a sphere in my scene, then create a basic particles graph node. I exploded the node, and we added several nodes to explore the possibilities of Bifrost smoke simulations.

The smoke simulation seen in the viewport

This is the nodegraph for my simulation.

For rendering in Arnold, I changed around the settings for the sky dome light I put in. But I also had a look at the render settings to turn off functions that are not necessary to have for this render. I also changed the color and brightness for the lighting.

Final Arnold render.

Bifrost explosions

This session focused on how to create explosion simulation using the Bifrost graph.

Assignment 01
Part 1

For this first task, I decided to use the cardboard boxes I had at home, and film them collapsing. Then recreate the scene creating a destructive simulation using Bullet in Maya. I spent hours trying out all the different settings in different combinations to get the closest possible effect.

By using the bullet plugin, I was able to make the modeled boxes into dynamic rigid bodies. This means that they will collide with other objects. I also did this for the colliding cylinder. For the wall and floor, I assigned them static body properties. Then when something comes in contact with them, they will act as a real -life wall or floor would when having objects collide at them. If I skipped this step, then the boxes would go straight through them.

I played around with the different settings for the boxes and cylinder, so they would appear to have the same mass and other properties as they would in the real world. It is a matter of making the timing and weight look right.

As I was going to render out an image sequence, I had some trouble rendering out the simulation. I figured out that I had to export the cache, then import it again to make it work

Assignment 01
Part 2

For the second task, I created a Cloth simulation using nCloth in Maya. I decided to use a towel I had at home, and film it being thrown onto a chair.

I made the chair into a passive collider, and the towel into a nCloth object. Added light and texture to them using the hypershade.

I started out by using one of the presets for nCloth, then doing adjustments from there. I tried many different ones to see how they look. I went out from the tshirt preset. Then I spent many hours to get it as close to my video as possible. It was quite a difficult thing to get just right.

I had the same type of problem rendering out the image sequence for my simulation. This time I could cache using the nCache function, creating a nObject cache.

Breakdown

Bifrost fluids

For this class, we learned about Bifrost fluids. This is a great way to create water, honey and other liquid simulations. I tried to create a water simulation.

I then tried using Bifrost Boss. This is great for creating oceans.

Bifrost Graph MPM Solver

By using the Bifrost Graph MPM Solver, I could create Snow, Sand, cloth and fluid simulations.

Bifrost Snow

Making a snowball animation using the Bifrost system.

Bifrost Graph Strands

In this class, we created hair strands and had a look at the different ways one can use it. It can be used as hair, short or long. Also wierd alien-seaweed creations.

XGen Hair

For this class, I learned how to use XGen to create hair. I downloaded a model, and created and groomed a ponytail.

Assignment 2

Natural

For the first task, I wanted to try creating something I never have done before. So I found several examples of how to create realistic looking clouds. I thought the process and the outcome was quite interesting.

First I created a plane, and created a new material for it with a surface shader. I then added noise to it, and tweaked all kinds of noise settings to create a good pattern for making clouds. Including density, amplitude, frequency, size rand and so on.

I then typed "=time" into the time settings to animate the noise. And also repeat the UV's to create several patches of noise

And by using the fluid 3D container, the noise turns into clouds.

Later I added shadows to the clouds in the fluid settings, so that their look looks more realistic. A lot of the work is tweaking the different settings in the noise and fluid attributes, to create the look you're looking for.

And by using a turbulence field and volume axis, I could adjust the magnitude and what direction the clouds move and at what speed. Then to finish, I cached out 100 frames, and chose the frame where the clouds looks the best.

I added a skydome light and an HDRI image before the final render.

Breakdown

Fantasy/Sci-Fi

I chose a fantasy theme for this part. I have a 3D cauldron model, where magic smoke comes out. As if someone is brewing a magic potion. I decided to use the Bifrost Aero smoke function for this.

I started by setting up the 3D parts and texturing.

I set up the smoke simulation using the Bifrost graph. I put in the cauldron as a collider, and used a platonic solid as an emitter for the smoke.

I played around with the aero solver settings and the source air settings to make the smoke look like I wanted. I set the style to fluffy, as it looks very nice. I wanted the smoke to fall down in the cauldron, then go up. So by changing the direction and initial speed of the smoke, I was able to get the result I wanted.

I cached out the simulation and added a material for the smoke. I ended up using two different smokes with different colors to make it a bit more interesting.

I created a camera to render from, and set up a skydome light.

Final Video

Breakdown

Surreal

For this last task, I wanted to create something fun and wierd. I used 3D models from Quixel megascans. And used nParticles to create a stream of bananas and avocado's so it looks like they are coming out of the pitcher.

I downloaded the 3D banana and avocado, and created an nParticle emitter for each of them. I then used an instancer to replace the spheres in the emitter, and switch them out with the bananas and avocado's. Then, I enabled rotation for the particles so that there would be a variation in position.