An Introduction for Beginners Realflow 2014 Maxwell Render Maxwell Render Workflows, Materials, Realtime Previews with “FIRE“, Lighting, Why Realflow? Output Channels
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An Introduction for Beginners RealFlow 2014 Maxwell Render Maxwell Render Workflows, Materials, Realtime Previews with “FIRE“, Lighting, Why RealFlow? Output Channels Elements of the RealFlow Software Your First Project What is inside the package? Foam with SPH Fluids The RealFlow Product Range Which is the right version for me? Elastic Particles Cloth The RealFlow Pipeline Calm Fluid Surfaces Exchanging geometry, particles, meshes, and more. Shattered Glass RealFlow‘s User Interface RealFlow UI elements, Customizing the Layout, Adjusting Axis and Scale, Adding Particle-Based Meshing Nodes Navigating the Viewport Falling Pencils Perspectives, Panning - Rotating - Zooming, Shading Modes, Shortcuts Floating Objects Time and Animation Timeline, Creating Animation Keys, Manipulating Animation Curves Hybrido and Rigid Bodies RealFlow Preferences Slow Motion Bunnies Configuring the Viewport, Backup Settings, Preview Settings Simulation Settings Substeps for SPH Fluids, Hybrido Fluids, and Caronte, Simulate and Reset, Updat- ing the Timeline Cache, Relationships Defining Interactions between RealFlow‘s Scene Elements Exporting Simulation Data Cache Formats, Platform-independent Formats, Connectivity and Data Exchange, Export Central, Image Formats, Alternative Paths Importing Simulation Data Connectivity Plugins, RealFlow RenderKit Page 2 Platige Image Page 3 RealFlow 2014 Over the last years computers have become more and more powerful, and modern systems are able to solve complex tasks like simulations, physically-based rendering, and handling huge amounts of polygons. With increasing computer power, the de- mand for realistic fluid and dynamics simulation has been growing as well. Today, you can see fluids ranging from small drops to huge floods – and all these elements are often combined with rigid and soft bodies. There is hardly any commercial or fea- ture film without fluids – and many of these effects have been created with RealFlow. With RealFlow, you can literally dive into this world and create stunning, ar- tist-controllable, and realistic simulations of watery or viscous substances, huge amounts of interacting rigid bodies, deforming soft bodies, and infinite oce- an surfaces. An open pipeline, connectivity plugins, and sophisticated render tools make it easy to exchange your RealFlow simulations with your favourite 3D software. RealFlow also supports standards like Alembic I/O and OpenVDB. This document is a quick guide to RealFlow‘s user interface and main tools. Once you have read through it you will be able to create your own fluid and dynamics simulations. No matter whether you are a beginner in the field of visual effects or an experienced, production-proven veteran: you will love RealFlow‘s intuitive workflow and the endless possibilities this unique simulation tool offers. Information | Learning Edition The RealFlow Learning Edition is available to everyone interested in learning RealFlow – not just to students. For 99 USD you will get a permanent, non-com- mercial license. The Learning Edition can be purchased through our online store on http://www.realflow.com and downloaded directly. Connectivity plugins and the RealFlow RenderKit are, of course, also part of the package. With these tools it is possible to exchange simulation between RealFlow and your 3D application. Faculty licenses are completely free and available to schools and training facili- ties. Please contact us for more information: http://www.realflow.com/queries/ Mirada Page 4 Why RealFlow? RealFlow also has the ability to cover all your simulation needs within a single RealFlow has unreached expertise in the field of fluid dynamics. In 1997, Ignacio package. As a RealFlow user you are able to simulate everything from small drops Vargas and Victor Gonzalez founded Next Limit and released the first version of Re- to huge ocean surfaces – and combine fluids with body dynamics. alFlow. Over the years, RealFlow experienced constant development, and has been equipped with state-of-the art technologies. Soon, RealFlow became the industry RealFlow is fast, very fast, and handles hundreds of millions of particles, thousands leader in terms of fluid and body dynamics simulations, and has been used in many of objects, and complex setups. The software‘s intuitive workflow, the flat learning feature film and TVC productions. In 2008, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and curve, and its endless possibilities are unrivalled in the world of physical simula- Sciences has granted a Technical Achievement Award to Victor Gonzalez, Ignacio tions. RealFlow is available for Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows. Vargas and Angel Tena for the creation of the RealFlow software application, reco- gnizing the significant contribution RealFlow has made to the process of making These are some of the reasons why the world‘s top studios and VFX artists trust in motion pictures. RealFlow. And they know why: tighter deadlines, shrinking resources, and higher demands call for reliable and fast tools. Information | RealFlow in Production Productions with RealFlow (excerpt): Pompeii, The Impossible, Resident Evil Retribution, The Great Gatsby, Dredd, Ice Age, The Avengers, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Battle of LA, Vikings, The Guardian, Despicable Me, 2012, Poseidon, and many more. RealFlow has also been used in countless commercials and student projects, as well as in games. RealFlow has a clearly structured, and customizable user interface, provides a com- mand line simulation engine (which can be triggered directly from the user inter- face). RealFlow‘s “Relationship Editor” gives you the freedom to describe interac- tions between a scene‘s elements simply by drawing lines between nodes. We have also included powerful Python and C++ APIs. If you prefer a node-based workflow – no problem: RealFlow Graphs are a complete visual programming interface with access to nearly any part of our simulation software. Another, big advantage is that RealFlow can be used with almost any 3D software. We provide dedicated import/export and render tools for the main platforms: 3ds Max, Cinema 4D, Houdini, Lightwave, Maya, and Softimage; Modo has built-in im- port filters. Furthermore we have open-sourced many file formats. This makes it possible to write your own import tools. Trizz & Fusion C.I.S. Page 5 Elements of the RealFlow Software Particles Particles are RealFlow‘s universal “currency” for all fluids, but it is also possible to create, manipulate, remove, and control them through scripting (Python, C++, Graphs – RealFlow‘s node-based visual programming tool). Particles are introduced by emitters and they can store a broad range of properties, e.g. velocity, vorticity, pressure, curvature or mass. RealFlow provides free tools for rendering particles as sprites, spheres, objects of any shape, or volumetrics inside your 3D application. Hybrido Fluids RealFlow‘s Hybrido fluid simulation technology consists of two elements: 1) HyFLIP. This system allows artists to create huge amounts of water, for examp- le floods, oceans, and breaking waves. A versatile and robust viscosity model gives you the possibility of simulating substances ranging from water to chocolate, honey, or molten glass. 2) HySPH (also known as “secondary fluids”). With this fluid type you add details like splashes, foam, bubbles, and mist to the HyFLIP simulation. This way you get a realistic and convincing image of real fluids. SPH Fluids This fluid type is the choice when you need a high level of detail. Turbulent and vivid fluids with small drops, viscous paint splashes, substances with different densities, fruit juice, lemonade, or cream – all these different types of fluids can be handled by RealFlow and interact with each other. Rigid and Soft Bodies Caronte is a powerful rigid and soft body dynamics engine and also part of the RealFlow package. Caronte is able to handle thousands of objects, provides fracture tools, and simulates deformable bodies with high accuracy. Tools like MultiJoints help you to simulate collapsing and breaking structures with a high degree of realism. MultiServos act like motors – they accelerate and decelerate your objects, and create physically correct motions. RealWave RealWave is a fast and versatile tool for huge ocean surfaces. RealWave allows you to combine different, predefined wave models. RealWave also supports the interaction between objects and waves, and you can simulate effects like buoyancy, splashes, and secondary waves. Page 6 Daemons These helpers introduce forces to accelerate particles and object, they are used to remove particles based on their position in space, but also attributes like speed or isolation time. Other daemons help you to customize UV data or add particles to get coherent sheets of fluid. Meshes Fluids are simulated as particles, but mostly rendered as solid volumes – so-called meshes. With RealFlow‘s fast and easy-to-use mesh engines it is possible to turn millions of particles into accurate meshes showing every little detail. Maxwell Render With RealFlow 2013 we implemented the core of the Maxwell Render engine. Now you are able to create high-quality renders from your simulations directly inside RealFlow. Scripting and Coding RealFlow‘s built-in tools help you to do amazing simulations, but there are situa- tions where you have to influence particles or objects manually. Python scripting, a C++ interface, and a node-based visual “programming” system let you accom- plish simulations which require more artistic freedom. Tools In addition to RealFlow‘s core