FumeFX Tutorial Just the Beginning

Get started with FumeFX

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Fume FX is the industry standard and most popular and very artist friendly Fluid Dynamics plugin for 3Ds Max written by sitniSati ( http://www.afterworks.com/ ).

Here we will create a very simple image of burning teapot (kind of :) ).

Prerequisite: 3Ds Max, Fume Fx plugin (latest is version 2.1 but anything after ver 1.0 will do the job)

So,

Step 0. >> This is the most difficult stape, believe me. Get Fume FX installed and activated and then 3ds max running :) . Rob it

steal it, do whatever you want... but get fumeFX with 3ds max installed in your computer.

step 1. >> From Create panel create a Teapot. Dont make it very large. just a moderate teapot.

Step 2. >> Give it a dark color material. (

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http://www.afterworks.com/


Step 2.1>> press M or find and click on tool bar for material palette to open up ,

step 2.2. >> If its very large (in max 2011) make it smaller by going to Modes > compact Material Editor…

Step 2.3>> Click on one Material Swatch and drag it over our poor teapot to assign that material to it.

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Step 2.4 >> at the diffuse color palette give it a darker color.

) And we are done with our teapot. And here the fun starts… read on..

step 3>> Go to create panel and click on standard primitives drop down box and select FumeFX. (if its not there then FumeFX is not installed Properly.)

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Step 4 >> Now click on the Fume FX button under object type rollout.

step 5 >> Now draw the Fume FX grid (yellow Box) at the surroundings of the 3d space where fire simulation will take place .

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tip: See the little yellow box at the bottom left corner? That is the visual representation of the unit of volumetric pixel of

the simulation. (3d fluid simulators work by creating lots of 3d points in space known as volumetric pixels (or voxels) which behaves

according to physical laws and then while rendering , simulator applies appropriate materials to them and then blurs them to create

the illusion of fire, smoke etc (oversimplified).

Step 6>> Now Select Helpers under Create panel and at the standard drop down menu

select FumeFX.

Step 7>> Then Click on the object source button under object type roll out.

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Step 8 >> Create the object Source inside the grid.

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step 9>> at the Modify Panel Under parameters rollout click on Pick objects Hand icon and select the teapot.

By doing so we have successfully set the Teapot object as the emitter.

Step 10 >> Select the FumeFX Grid and Click on Open FumeFX UI button (see image below for details

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):: This opens the central control panel of FumeFX. You will control almost all simulation properties from here.

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Step 11>> So first Go to Obj/Src > Pick objects > Select the “object Src” you created.

Step 12 >> Go to General tab and Adjust spacing value to something like 1. this value is directly related to the simulation resolution. Lower the value, Higher the

Resolution so Higher the simulation time.

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tip: If at some point fumeFX UI disappeares , just select the FumeFX grid…and stay under modify panel, It will come back .

Step 13 >> At simulation tab, options are pretty self explanatory… So here I am giving the screen shots of my settings…

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Step 14>>Now we will add an animated noise map to control the intensity. If you have the latest version of fumeFX then you can use wavelet noise also to get nice

pattern / detail on fire.

For noise map, Press M to get the 3Ds Max Material Editor and from there press Get Map button (see image below) and add a Noise Map.

At the FumeFX object source parameter panel Click on Fuel Map Selector and select source from intensity.

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Then, Drag the noise map to the button that says None and Make it instance ( see image below.).

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Step 15 >> Turn on Auto key. Put Time slider at frame zero.

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Step 16>> Then go to Material editor noise Parameter , and do the following. For size parameter: you have to play a little to get the desired value which will work

for you based on your object sizes. Setting size to 8 worked for me.

step 17>> Now put time slider to frame 100 and change the phase value to 3.0 (play to get exact value). Turn off Auto Key.

Now Hit Simulate.

Depending on your machine it can take anything between 5 minutes to 5 years. So give yourself a break .

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When simulation finishes Turn on view fire channel

data at modify panel.

It will enable you to watch the simulated voxels in

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your viewport.

You can also turn on FumeFX’s real time preview window.

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Step 18> > Now come to FumeFX UI rendering tab:

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If you see a single color on fire color strip then right click on it and choose key mode to set the colour as gradient. Here is the gradient I used:

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And you are done… Now simply hit render setting… on toolbar and under Common panel > assign renderer roll out choose Mental ray..

using mental ray with a moderate Final Gather ,

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And finally get a nice looking Fire…

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well well well… look what have you done jonny… you burned the whole teapot…. :)

PS.

Let me know how I can improvise this tutorial.

Shoot me your attitude at : [email protected]

Hope you enjoyed and if you accidentally learn anything from it, please lemme know.

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mailto:[email protected]


With wishing you a happy fuming…. This is Shuvrodeep Dutta, signing out…. See you soon.

BaBye.

Tuesday, 08 February 2011

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FumeFX Tutorial Just the Beginning

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