In this part of the series, I'll show you how to create burning and flying chunks using particles and fluid dynamics in Maya.
1. Setting Up the Particles System
Jump into the Dynamics
mode. Go to Particles > Create Emitter.
A volumetric spherical
particle emitter icon gets created on the grid, as shown in the following image.
Click on the Animation
Preferences icon in the lower right corner. It opens the Preferences window.
Set the Playback Speed value to Real Time 24 fps and click on Save.
With the Emitter
selected, go to emitter1 attribute and Set Key the value of Rate
(Particles/ Sec) to 400 at the 1st and 6th
At the 7th
frame, Set Key the value to 0. This action will stop the
particles emission from the 7th frame onward.
Go to Volume Speed
Attributes and set the value of Away From Center to 35.
Set the value of Random
Direction to 4.
Set the value of Along
Axis to 15.
Create a ground plane.
Select the emitter followed by the ground plane and go to Particles >
With the particle system
selected, go to Fields > Gravity.
Go to the gravityField1 attribute
and increase the value of Magnitude to 70.
2. Setting Up the Fluid Dynamics System
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.
Select the particles
followed by the container. Go to Fluids > Add/ Edit Contents > Emit
from Object and click on the option box.
Set the Emitter name as Chunks Emitter and click on the Apply and Close button.
Go to fluidShape1 attribute
and set the value of Base Resolution to 50, Boundary X to None,
Boundary Y to –Y Side, and Boundary Z to None.
Set the values of Temperature and Fuel to Dynamic Grid.
Under the Dynamic
Simulation rollout, set the values of High Detail Solve to All
Grids, Substeps to 2, Solver Quality to 30,
Simulation Rate Scale to 1.5, and turn on the Emit in Substeps option.
Go to Auto Resize
to turn on the Auto Resize option. Set the values of Max Resolution to
500 and Auto Resize Margin to 3.
Under the Display rollout, set the Boundary Draw option to Bounding box.
Go to the ChunksEmitter1 attribute and set the values of Rate (Percent) to 7000 and Max Distance to 0.700.
Under the Fluid Attributes rollout, turn on the Motion Streaks option.
Under the Fluid Emission Turbulence rollout, set the values of Turbulence and Detail Turbulence to 1.
Under the Emission Speed
Attributes rollout, set the values of Speed Method to Add and
Inherit Velocity to 1.5.
Hit the Play
button. You'll see the simulated frame in the viewport, as shown in the
With the fluid container
selected, go to Content Details > Density and set the values of Density
Scale to 0.5, Buoyancy to 0, Noise to 1, and Dissipation
Under the Velocity
rollout, set the value of Swirl to 3.
Under the Turbulence
rollout, set the values of Strength to 0.250, Frequency to
0.200, and Speed to 0.100.
Hit the Play
button to see the final effect, as shown in the following image.
In the next part of the series, I'll show you how to create a gasoline explosion in Maya.