Tutorial

Making an Anemone with RealFlow

Hello everyone. My name is Jalo and I’m an Art Director in an Argentinean agency
and a 3D instructor. In this tutorial, I will try to explain how to make an anemone in
RealFlow. It is important to clearly understand what it is that we are trying to create,
so it is necessary to at least quickly investigate of the subject of our attention.
So search for some anemone reference images to get an idea of textures and the
artistic touch you would like to pursue. Investigate a little the morphology and aspects
of anemones and, after studying, try to draw one. It is an exercise that always I
make... it is a good beginning.

Now it is time to create the base. We use 3ds Max and we start off with modeling a
box. Add noise and two bend modifiers. Bend the box from two different axes to obtain
a ball shape. asdasddasdad
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Making an Anemone with RealFlow
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Making an Anemone with RealFlow

Eliminate the unnecessary faces from the back of the cube. Once we obtain the correct
shape, we exported the object as .obj to the archive. Be sure to use triangular faces:
it is a golden rule to be able to obtain good results once inside RealFlow.

Inside RealFlow: the first step is to define the folder we want to work with and the
second step is to define that the axes in the “Preferences” tab are the same as in 3ds
Max.
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Making an Anemone with RealFlow

The next step is to define if your scale will be of 1.0 or 0.1. In this case it is best to
leave scale at 1.0. Our simulations will be better with this scale.
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Making an Anemone with RealFlow

Import the box .obj from the archive into RealFlow.

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Making an Anemone with RealFlow

Create a Fiber emitter. This type of emitter lets us choose if vertices are going to
generate fibers, such as hair, canes or in this case, anemones

First we choose the object.

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Making an Anemone with RealFlow

In the “Node Params” field, we can choose the Length, Stiffness, etc of the fibers. But
first we need to define which vertices are going to generate these fibers. We don’t
want the whole surface to be full of fibers; we just want to select some single areas.
In this case the idea is to generate an empty space, surrounded by randomly places
tentacles.

Once we have defined the areas that we want to generate fibers, we create them with
the “Create” button.
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Making an Anemone with RealFlow

If we are satisfied with the generated areas we could move on to simulate the scene.
But we need to add to daemons like gravity to produce a dynamic simulation. So we
add a gravity daemon.
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Making an Anemone with RealFlow

Simulate. We see that the fibers by effect of gravity fall to and collide with the
ground.

This is of course logic, but it is not what we are looking for when we want to create
anemones in the sea. The density of the water and their form make the anemones
look like they are without gravity and controlled by the mass of the water. So we are
going to rotate the gravity upwards to obtain the floating effect of the anemone arms.
Simulate.

This is a good beginning but, it is not the end. We have to create the sensation of the
mass of the water affecting the anemones, and in addition we have to produce the
effects of the waves and water streams.
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Making an Anemone with RealFlow

The first step is to animate the gravity in both its axes X and Y. The animation of this
gravity must always take place with a type of inclination, because the sea currents do
not change so quickly from one direction to another one. What we are reproducing is
only a short take of the ocean so there is not too much change in direction.

To do this, we go to “Node” and do a right-button click on the track of X. Create key

frames at Time frame 0.

Go to frame 120. Animate X to 85 degrees in frame 0. Turn X to -30 in frame 120 and
to 85 degrees in frame 200 again.

Animate Y to 45 degrees in frame 0 and turn Y back to 10 degrees in frame 120 and
again to 45 degrees in frame 200.

Simulate.
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We have to create a loop of the animation and to do that we use the “Curves Editor”.
In the “Node” pane a right-click open the Curves Editor. We are going to visualize the
curve.
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Making an Anemone with RealFlow

In order to create a loop of the animation, we go to “Envelope” and we choose “Loop”

in “Post-behavior”.
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Making an Anemone with RealFlow

However, to obtain a more random loop we can also create one directly with the
mouse. Double click on the keyframes line and draw a random and constant curve.
This gives much more loop with greater realism.

We do this same for the Y-axis.

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Making an Anemone with RealFlow

Simulate.

At the moment we get a good effect with the incidence of the masses of water with the
anemones, but nothing is happening with the arc on fibers. So we will add three “Noise
Field” daemons to the scene.
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Making an Anemone with RealFlow

Once added, we turn on the “Bounded” option which will restrict an area and we
distribute them over the surface to create different fields from the arcs, to create
randomness.
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Making an Anemone with RealFlow

Before simulating, we are going to edit the parameters of “Strength” and change the
“Scale Factor” for the three noise fields.
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Then we randomly animate the rotation of the gravity and the Strength of the Noise.
Take as look at the Curve Editor of Noise Fields.

Simulate.
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Now we have defined the animation of the anemones. Add a “Mesh” to the scene from
the command icons panel inside RealFlow.

In Nodes, right-click on “Mesh” and we see that the only emitter that there is in the
scene is “Fiber”. Right-click on “Mesh” and select “Build”. This creates our scene.
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Without the floor Mesh, our Mesh is defined by the layout of Fibers. Generate the
Mesh... first you deactivate this and build the Mesh again.
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Making an Anemone with RealFlow

Now we have a more rounded form cleared of the tentacles. We do not have a floor
but only a membrane that integrates the tentacles with the floor, like a system of
Metaballs.

To make this, first we remove the Mesh of the floor from “Global Links”.
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Making an Anemone with RealFlow

Add a Realwave to the scene. In the commandos of the Realwave layout, we select
“Custom” and in Custom .obj we select the Mesh of the floor.
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Making an Anemone with RealFlow

Now, the important part is in the options of Realwave. We select “Particle to Layer” and
put it on “Yes”. This will make a distribution of particles on the ground, fixed particles
that will serve to add it to the Mesh Builder.
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Making an Anemone with RealFlow

Add both emitters of the particles to the Mesh, and right-click on “Mesh” in Nodes,
Build.

Good... although one does not see it, parts of the Mesh are being generated. On the
floor the particles are much separated and it is necessary to edit them.

Select the emitter of the floor in the Mesh emitter, in this case, the Realwave emitter.

Edit the parameters of “Radius” and the amount of “Blend” between these particles.
Use a Blend factor of 190 and put Radius on 0.09.
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Making an Anemone with RealFlow

Now there is a problem: as this is a system of Metaballs, if the tentacles are joined
too much they will stick together. The best thing than we can do is to select the Fiber
within the Mesh Builder and lower the Blend Factor to 0.00001 and the radius to 0.11.
This will keep the tentacles from sticking together too much.
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Before exporting and generating the file BIN to 3ds Max, generate a Mesh dense
Polygon with size 0.03 and activate two other parameters…

Intro, Mesh options.

Filter: Yes. Put “Relaxation” on 0.07 and “Tension” on 0.1 and “Steps” on 100.
Optimize so that the flat zones smooth: Optimize, Curvature.

Simulate, but in the Mesh option node choose “Build, No”.

To only generate the simulation of the fiber, choose the frames you like for us to test
first. Render and put the “Node on mesh” option on “Yes”. Then click in “Build” again
and generated a single file BIN.
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Making an Anemone with RealFlow

In this case: frame 357

Once we have exported the BIN, we check it in the folder we are working with for
RealFlow. Import into 3ds Max. Command panel “Next Limit”. RF LOADER. We select
the BIN and create the Mesh.

With the “Create Mesh” button, we go to the frame in 3ds Max that corresponds to the
generation of the Mesh in frame 357 in RealFlow, which should show this Mesh:
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Making an Anemone with RealFlow
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Making an Anemone with RealFlow

Once we have found the Mesh in the scene, we activate the “Hold” button from the
options on the Mesh loader and select frame 357. Activate Offset: 357, and select the
frame that we want to hold. Now, frame 0 in 3ds Max always presents the Mesh.

Now we need a test render. We create a camera and we locate its best position. Finally,
we render the scene.
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Making an Anemone with RealFlow

Okay, that is all for now. I hope this tutorial has helped you to open up new ways to
build scenes and think about 3D and CG. I enjoyed doing this and I hope you enjoyed
too. Keep up the good work!

MAKING AN ANEMONE IN REALFLOW BY JALO

PART 1 / 2: MODELING, ANIMATING AND IMPORTING TO 3DS MAX.

08-03-2007 Argentina – jalo22@hotmail.com – www.jalo.tv

Link to Test Simulation: Video

Link to wallpaper: wall01

http://www.jalo.tv/html/makinganemo_jalo1.htm