In this tutorial, Controlling & Simulating 3D Fluids: Maya nParticles, we will demonstrate how Maya’s powerful nParticle dynamics can be used to create flowing liquids and apply this technique in a 3D liquid splash simulation. Although nParticles have many applications in Maya, we will customize settings that are effective for a gel loading animation.

We encourage you to also explore the related tutorial, Controlling & Simulating 3D Fluids: Maya Fluids & Bifrost, to fully understand the strengths of these different approaches to fluid simulation.  We developed these two tutorials to help you determine which method is most appropriate for your production needs.  

Learning Objectives:

  • Learn how to use nParticles to create liquid splash effects.
  • Learn strategies for customizing settings for nParticles
  • Learn strategies for efficiently rendering and compositing fluids

TABLE of CONTENTS

01 nParticles project background
00:03:21
02 Selecting a fluid simulator
00:06:18
03 FBX asset import and cleanup
00:06:50
04 Creating simulation proxies
00:06:18
05 Creating nParticles and colliders
00:05:57
06 Adjusting particle volume
00:12:31
07 Settling the initial state
00:11:53
08 Liquid simulation parameters - incompressibility
00:05:43
09 Liquid simulation parameters - viscosity and surface tension
00:12:04
10 Simulation timing - nucleus time scale
00:08:17
11 Breaking symmetry - volume axis field
00:08:58
12 Meshing the simulation
00:12:32
13 Caching out with Alembic
00:07:34
14 Scene setup for shading
00:04:38
15 Setting depth of field
00:02:46
16 Creating a mia_x material
00:09:20
17 Optics interlude - Index of Refraction and Reflection underwater
00:04:01
18 Optics interlude - hacking the camera
00:03:57
19 Adding a second surface
00:05:01
20 Optics interlude - nested dielectrics in mental ray
00:04:00
21 Optics interlude - alternate approaches to nested dielectrics
00:03:35
22 Strategies to reduce mental ray artifacts - collision avoidance
00:03:40
23 Shading wrap-up
00:09:20
24 Render layers and batch render
00:09:59
25 Compositing with After Effects
00:15:00
26 nParticles Conclusion
00:02:06

RUN-TIME 03:04:56