Creating Maps From Fluid Sim

[Overload]

Hey everyone. It

[MADjestic]

Hey everyone. It

[peship]

Export meshes with sim data baked to the point attribs, write shaders to pick it up and render it as additional color coded passes.

A good approach for foam ( or whatever other ) maps is to bring the rf particles in your main 3d application, color code them based on the sim data and render additional passes.

A skilled comper can make a great use of them.

As i side note - having rman with it's deepShadows is very helpfull for rendering of dense point clouds and making them look like water.

These are general rules and they apply to basically everything, not just realflow.

Saying that, i assume you dont have programmers at hand.

Realflow has many data i/o limitations and extracting usefull information from what comes out by default from it can be a pain. If that's not the case, then writing a custom exporters to bake all the needed data directly in the meshes will solve most of your problems at once.

[Overload]

Thanks guys Yea it does suck that we are sticking with 3dmax. Main reason is I am the only one who knows Houdini

I guess the main problem is there isn't much documentation on Realflow (not as good as Houdini anyway). So I don't know what variables can be reached or obtained for doing custom things. And I have no clue how to access data such as hit and collision numbers to maybe make maps based off that. I'm pretty good at compositing so if I could get the maps out, I can make great use of them.

By default Realflow makes colors for particles that are involved with collisions, but no clue how to access the information to split it up ?? I guess if I knew what variables can be carried over, then I can reach those directly inside Houdini (or Max). I guess the upside to our pipeline is we do have Renderpipe by ArtVPS, so essentially we are running Renderman on a renderfarm. But without separate maps, that doesn't help much. Thanks again

Anthony

[Val]

I think nathing wrong with 3DSmax,

if you know how to use tools you can do complex

shots in max or any ather aplication.

I like to use houdi too.. but you can do same tasks in any

main pacage... just need to do good planing...

[Overload]

I think nathing wrong with 3DSmax,

if you know how to use tools you can do complex

shots in max or any ather aplication.

I like to use houdi too.. but you can do same tasks in any

main pacage... just need to do good planing...

Oh I agree . I just got so used to the node based approach that it makes more sense for me to work that way. Plus, the way expressions work in Houdini are vastly superior to Max . Probably the reason I like Digital Fusion so much now.

But back on topic, I still can't figure out a way to efficiently make these maps from Realflow for compositing. Making maps through projections doesn't seem very efficient. I've been digging through any forum I can find on Realflow, and no luck so far . The search continues

[peship]

I dont think you can generate additional comp elements directly from realflow.

You need to bring the particles/meshes in MAX, apply shaders, expressions, render them nicely, etc.

[Overload]

Yea thats more what I was referring to , doing the maps inside Houdini or Max. I'm just not sure what data to access to make maps look correct for that sort of thing.

[Ratman]

Hey Overload, have you looked into the Python scripting side of it (assuming you're using RealFlow 4) as you can control how to export, and all the map info should be in there, haven't dived much into RealFLow 4 yet, but was pointed in that direction for these things.

[brandonY]

Hey Overload, have you looked into the Python scripting side of it (assuming you're using RealFlow 4) as you can control how to export, and all the map info should be in there, haven't dived much into RealFLow 4 yet, but was pointed in that direction for these things.

i have done Python scripting within RF4, exporting info is pretty simple.

[Ratman]

Yeah, that's what I've heard, might dive a bit into it tonight.

[Overload]

Hey Ratman, that was going to be my next venture. I just got a book on Python Scripting, just no time to dive into it. Yea, I am running Realflow 4. I kinda figured that scripting would be the only way to get what I want.

[Ratman]

I've found Python to be very easy to pick up, as the syntax is very easy to read, from what i saw the manual seems to have some nice stuff in explaining Python in realFlow, i'll see what i can come up with tonight if i have some time with it.

[Overload]

That would be awesome . I don't have much scripting experience, other than a Renderman course I took, but I'm not to bad with expressions in Houdini, Maya, Max, etc. So hopefully I can pick it up rather quickly. Thanks again.

[Ratman]

Yeh, if you know mel or C++ it'll help, but they are very different again, like in C++ it'll take you around 6 to 8 lines to make the simple "Hello world!" thing, in python you only need one:

 print "Hello World!"

And that's it, very exciting times ahead with HOM, if they work as i imagine it'll speed up workflow in quite a few areas and open up a whole slew of new possibilities .

[MADjestic]

Yeh, if you know mel or C++ it'll help, but they are very different again, like in C++ it'll take you around 6 to 8 lines to make the simple "Hello world!" thing...

#include<iostream.h>
void main(void){cout<<"Hello World!";}

C++

#include <stdio.h>
main(){  printf("Hello world!"); }

C

Hello World in different languages

[Overload]

Wow, so many languages.....I think I'm set on going with Python first, most people seem to agree that's the easiest to pick up on (not to start a Mac vs. PC kinda war here ).

The map generation isn't urgent, just something that I know what I want to do, just not how to get there. And I can just see it being something that I will be needing to use in the near future. Thanks again for the help

[Ratman]

Direct copy onto Dev C++ and no worky, now

 
#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main ()
{
  cout << "Hello World!" << endl;
  system("PAUSE");
  return 0;
}

That's the ticket.

[MADjestic]

Direct copy onto Dev C++ and no worky, now ...

Dev C++ is just an IDE (Integrated Development Envoronment). One of many, as well as there are many compilers\interpreters. One and the same code can be both 'worky' and 'no worky', it depends.

C++ Compilers

[Ratman]

Anyway, point i was trying to get across before was of the ease of the syntax of Python and length , not to start a debate.