RealFlow | Maya Makes Particle-Object Interactions Fast and Flexible
Image: Parviz
Next Limit Technologies' RealFlow | Maya 1.0 is a software plugin for creating fluid simulations directly inside Autodesk Maya. The integration of the two applications makes it faster and easier to simulate not only liquids but also granular, viscous, viscoelastic, rigid and elastic materials because artists do not have to shift back and forth between 3D platforms. Instead, users have a straightforward, interactive workflow inside Maya.
With a focus on particle-object interaction, RealFlow | Maya works with all of Maya’s internal object types including NURBS. Objects can be used as obstacles and containers, so that animated bodies can collide with fluids to create splashes. These interactions can be controlled with physical properties such as friction, stickiness or bounciness.
RealFlow | Maya is compatible with Autodesk Maya 2017-2018 and forms a tight enough integration with the software to allow use of native Maya tools such as nParticles and MEL combined with RealFlow. As a result, most of the different types of substances are able to interact. Sand can be washed away by water, rigid bodies are trapped in heavy snow, different types of liquids can meet but stay separate. It suits small and medium-scale simulation projects from inside the Maya user interface.
Built on RealFlow's Multi-physics Dyverso solver, GPU acceleration and support for CUDA and OpenCL makes the plug-in fast and flexible. It is available for Windows, Linux and macOS.
Daemons, Forces and Falloffs
RealFlow uses particle-based simulations, the particles of which can be influenced in different ways by point-based nodes called daemons. Daemons perform force-related tasks such as simulate gravity or create a vortex motion, like a tornado. Forces, an important element of RealFlow | Maya, are introduced and influenced through various daemons, some of which can be controlled and limited with customisable falloffs to shape their behaviour and scope - for example, with gravity, attraction or wind.
As well as realistic physical properties, RealFlow | Maya's controls support more creative looks when used to create crown splashes, for example, or entwined spline emitters, swirling splashes and thin sheets of fluids moving in slow-motion. Objects and textures affect each other in RealFlow | Maya. You can use the object texture to emit particles, customise its properties like its friction, or generate new textures from which particles leave wet marks on an object’s surface.
The skinning tool is a smart tool that transfers position and velocity information from rigid and elastic material particles to objects, in order to make them behave like rigid or elastic bodies. But you can also use liquid, viscous, viscoelastic or granular particles to deform and move objects, and make use of abstract shapes.
The RealFlow commands in RealFlow | Maya are exposed for scripting, allowing users to query particles information for new possibilities. Initial states can be generated from a chosen simulation frame out of an existing sim, and used as the start point for a new simulation pass. This is a simple way to save time on simulations that begin in the same manner.
This new plug-in is available for purchase now through Next Limit’s website and resellers. www.nextlimit.com
