Visual Effects

Now that my character is up and walking he is going to get into a lot of trouble.  I’m not sure who is going to make a bigger mess me or him.  Time to dive into Dynamics in Maya because there is going to be an explosion.

My new book Creating Visual Effects in Maya – Fire, Water, Debris, and Destruction by Lee Lanier.

New book is read and I think I have the basics and ready to jump in so here I go.

Paint Effects are good to use as long as I can remember  t0 convert before I try to render.  I’m feeling confident so I decided to make a waterfall. Basic emitter set up was easy enough and now I’m faced with a wall of options.  Most of the time small changes work if you make a big change things go crazy and you can’t tell what changed because it is dramatically different.

Ok looks good until I rendered yikes more changes that need to stick together more and well look like water – hint Dynamics look completely different when render so render often.

Another helpful hint – Run your Dynamics all the way to the end. I’m not sure why but is growing and expanding with time and since it is a waterfall I’m not really sure that is what I want.

Finally the best tip for Dynamics – What ever you do DO NOT upgrade Maya if you are in a middle of a project. Maya 2015 has redone their Dynamics and they added Bifrost and Xgen and some the the options previously available are gone. If you have just a few more changes wait to upgrade or if you are just about to start water simulation use Bifrost is seems easier and looks great.