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a basic liquid simulation in Phoenix

for 3ds Max. By the end of

the tutorial, you will be able to create your own liquid

simulations, understand how the simulation interacts with other objects and will know the basics of editing some of the main settings of the

Phoenix Liquid Simulator.

This tutorial is a companion to go along with the QuickStart video posted on our YouTube channel

.

The Download button below provides you with an archive containing the start and end scenes.

make sure V-Ray is set as your Renderer in the Render Setup window.

Add a Dome Light to your scene and set it to be Invisible. 

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a Sphere

 with a Radius

 of about 4.0 centimeters. This sphere will be the source of the liquid.

the Tap

Water Preset button from the Phoenix

Toolbar. 

press the Start Simulation

 button in the

Toolbar.

Let the simulation run for a few seconds and you will have a chance to see the results in the viewport, click the Stop button to end the simulation process. 

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Render

your current frame to see the simulation results.

Note that the liquid fills the simulation volume container as it flows.

up

a water simulation manually.

If you are continuing from the

Preset section above, select the

Liquid Simulator and

Source objects and delete them from your scene. If not, create

a Sphere

 with a Radius of about 4.

0 centimeters.

Click on the Create a Liquid Simulator button in the

Phoenix Toolbar and click and drag in the viewport to create a volume to encompass the sphere

, while leaving some room for the liquid to fall

.

Move the sphere near the top of the

Simulator and make sure it is inside the volume.

Assign the material to the Simulator

and render a frame.

Feel free to adjust the material and the lighting in the scene to achieve the liquid look you’re going for.

the liquid collide with and fill an actual object rather than just the

Simulator’s grid.

The following scene file can be downloaded from the

Overview section above. It consists of a jar with a studio lighting setup and background.

Return to the

Perspective view and select the sphere. In the Phoenix

Toolbar click

the Tap

Water Preset like we did before.

We will need to adjust the

Simulator Grid Size so that it covers both the sphere and the jar. Again, use

the X/Y/Z size

 parameters in

the Grid

 rollout.

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is finished, go back to the camera view. Here is how the simulation looks so far on frame 23

.

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the Material Editor and create a new V-Ray Material

.

Set the Diffuse color to RGB (0, 0, 0).

Set the Reflect and Refract colors to RGB (255, 255, 255).

Set the Fresnel IOR to 1.33.

Assign this material to the

Simulator.

the Diffuse color to RGB (0, 0, 0).

Set the Reflect and Refract colors to RGB (255, 255, 255).

Set the Fresnel IOR to 1.6.

Select the glass part of the jar and assign this material.

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Render a frame to see how the fluid is interacting with the jar. Any geometry inside a simulation container will automatically interact with the emitting fluid. In addition, geometry can be excluded from interactions, and you can even create non-solid geometries, which are geometries that a simulation can flow through, but still be used as sources or forces acting on the simulation.

You can find more about this topic in our Solid and Non-Solid Bodies QuickStart tutorial.

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the fluid will eventually overflow the jar. To control how much fluid is discharged by the emitter, select the Liquid Source object and locate

the Outgoing Velocity

 parameter. Animating this value will control how much liquid is created, which can be used to start and stop the pouring of water.

Before proceeding, let's lower the simulation resolution.

Select the Simulator and navigate to

the Grid

 rollout. Click

the Decrease

Resolution button three times to lower

the Total

Cells to around 1.6 million cells.

the Outgoing Velocity

 to 16.

Note that if this value is set

to 0

 on the first frame, nothing will be emitted even if you start the simulation.

Next, scrub ahead to frame 23 and click

the Auto Key

 button.

 to 0

 at frame 23. With the current keys

the

Outgoing Velocity will gradually decrease from 16 to 0, which is not the effect we want.

Click and drag the key at frame 0 over to frame 20, so the liquid starts with a steady pour and then abruptly stops between frame 20 and 23.

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off Auto Key. Go back to the beginning and start the simulation.

After the simulation resolves

you may notice that the result appears a little choppy if you scrub through the timeline. To fix this, select the

Simulator, go to

the Preview

 rollout and turn

off Show Mesh. Only particles for the liquid pour will be displayed

and the simulation will scrub faster. At any point in the simulation

you can

turn Show Mesh

 back on to see the liquid better.

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Notice at around frame 30, at the top of the pour, there is a large spread of drops coming out of the emitter. This is because the emission is coming from the surface of the sphere.

Source object

and change

the Emit Mode

 to Volume Brush. What this means is that instead of emitting the liquid from the surface area of the sphere, it will now emit from the whole volume of the sphere.

A window will ask to convert the emitter to a Non-Solid object.

Select Yes. This will prevent the sphere geometry from interacting with the liquid simulation.

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Simulator and under

the Dynamics rollout reduce Steps Per Frame to 5.

that the spread out droplets are no longer an issue.

simulation looks

.