smoke simulation using particle points?

[Adam Ferestad]

I have been trying to get a pyro simulation to source from a particle sim, but it doesn't seem to want to stick to it. I am still a real novice with pyro, so I am not really able to figure out how to get it to stick right. I need it to trial tightly to the path the particle follows through the scene. Any ideas?

[claudio_101]

Maybe this file can help, but your mind could go berserk from the pyro setup.

http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=172&page=viewtopic&t=22162

[Macha]

Hey Adam, does this help?

pyropoints.hip

[Macha]

This shows the speed a bit more clearly.

[Adam Ferestad]

I will have to look at it some, but I tried to apply some of the techniques from my scene to your file and they don't seem to mesh well. I am actually using a Particle SOP rather than a POP network currently. I couldn't figure out how to do what I wanted with any of the POP nodes. I am needing the axial force on the Force SOP, which I cannot find an analog for in the POP nodes at all. I am attaching the file, though it is really rough and disorganized for the moment, so don't judge too harshly. It is just too hot right now to go through and clean it up.

What I need is a good way to fill in the tornado and have it actually look like the dust/smoke is whipping around in it. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done on the system, but I was wanting to get the look right first. Any ideas?

[fxslave]

Look at this:

http://www.cmivfx.com/tutorials/view/276/Houdini+Smoke+And+Dust

This is exactly what you need

[Adam Ferestad]

Yeah, I have been planning on paying for the annual subscription as soon as I get the 300 bucks. That site has some amazing tutorials and I really want to do them, but I'm very short on money for doing them

[fxslave]

This tutorial is worth 60 dollars, it's a tiny price compared to any project of this kind. Pay per year of $ 300 I do not see the point, because it is 5 tutorials, I doubt that so many have come out on your topic in which you'll greatly to need.

[Macha]

One of the problems you're probably having is that your standard pyro setup has forces that battle with the forces you input from your popnet, notably boyancy.

You need to reduce those forces and/or mix/advect them with the forces of your popnet (probably v). In the example I posted above the only thing that happens is that I change the initial force when the fuel and smoke is emitted.

You probably want to continuously affect those forces. To do that you could pipe in your popnet and create a field out of them and gascalculate it with the velocity of the smoke.

[Macha]

You might not need a pyro setup in the first place. Just sops with a few volume nodes is likely to be sufficient. If you want you can make your poppet in dopa and use the nifty vortex force.

[Adam Ferestad]

I will have to experiment with it some more. I think I may go with the volume SOPs. I saw a video on them a while back, and I remember thinking that it might work out well. I know I am going to be playing with it for a while, but I was thinking that I may want to table this for the time being and switch to a different particle project, one that might be slightly easier and give good practice.

I want to pay the 300 bucks because honestly there are quite a few tutorials on there that I want to do. As I look at the list, I really feel the need to do all of them. There are currently 23 Houdini tutorials on there, totaling well over $300, so it would be much more cost effective to save up the $300 and just pay for the year. Plus then I have access to the all of the other tutorials for all of the programs, just in case I feel like learning some of the other programs. I am one of those people who doesn't feel complete unless I am learning, so I guess my priorities are a little bit different than most.