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Left explosion is fluid attached to particles. Right is the look I achieved using custom
particle attributes and particleSamplerInfo. This tutorial requires basic knowledge about
particles in Maya like adding custom attributres, writing expressions« Check some of
my tutorial about particles and fluids!|

xirst I created particle emitter emitting 10000 particles in first frame, then it stops (than
it emits 10000/24 particles, since it lasts for one frame). Emitter is volume sphere
emitting radial in all directions.|
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I added turbulence field to break uniform look.|

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Glso I added radius PP so particles will get bigger during expanding.|

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I assigned fluid shape shader particles.|

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I set resolution 10x10x10. Sometimes 3x3x3 can be enough. If you have noise in
renders in quality tab set the quality to 3 and interpolator to smooth. On all grids put off,
since texturing is main thing here.|
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Gll things about the look are under shading and texturing tab. I created gradients for
incandescence and opacity. Color is driven in other way, just to show you different
approaches. I will show you what I connected to fluid attributes and how. Glso if you turn
self shadowing on fluid, you will get nice cloud shading, although fluid particles will not
cast shadows on other fluid particles.|
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In hypershade there¶s node called particleSamplerInfo. It contains many particle

attributes, so you can use them in shading networks. So if you want some particle
attribute connected to fluid connect it from particleSamplerInfo to fluid. It doesn¶t support
custom attributes. In particleShape there are attributes called userScalar1, userVector1,
userScalar2« So first thing is to add those attributes, since they are disabled by default
(that¶s pretty common stuff, so I will not get into explaining it)|
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So first connection is userScalar1PP to textureTime. This is most important thing if you

want all fluids to be different. Idea is to randomize userScalar1PP on creation, so every
particle will get different time. So on creation expression we type:|

particleShape1.userScalar1PP=rand(0,100);|
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Glso in runtime after dynamics we add:|

particleShape1.userScalar1PP+=0.01;|

so time will be animated|

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Second connection is ?

 to 

 

 (the color value of the
only point in color ramp)|

Since color is rgb I used vector attribute. I made ramp for this. |
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Shading network for that attribute looks like this|

Normally in Maya when you create ramp for attribute (like RgbPP), Input V is mapped to
particle Gge and Input U to none. I used U to custom attribute SelectorPP to map U
component also.|
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This is ramp I used. So normaly V is mapped according to age (0 birth, 1 death). U is

mapped by selectorPP which is random number form (0,1) created on birth of particle.
In this way we have particles with same age sampling slightly different colors. We get
more randomness, variety which is more natural.|
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I got that kind of ramp by multiplying two textures.|

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|
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I will skip third for now. Next three connections are from ?

 to
 
. Since transparency is gray there¶s no need to use vector. Just
map one sclar to all components of vector.|

I used simple ramp, here, mapped particleGge to V, nothing to U. I didn¶t faded particles
all way, I wanted more information. I can easily fade it in compositing.|

Next connection is ?


 to 


? . Gs you saw for
incandescence I created ramp. Since it¶s center gradient when we move input bias it
looks like fire bright part is sucked into. It¶s enough to map one scalar to input bias.
Range must be from -1 to 1.|
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In array maper set the ranges to -1,1 (also common stuff). I used selectorPP here to
map U, so I get little bit randomness.|

Gs I mentioned SelectorPP is just random number form 0,1. It¶s constant through life of
the particle, that¶s why I put it only on creation.|
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Now exciting part. On fluid there¶s attribute called implode. It gives fluid nice streak,
motion blurred look. By default implode center is 0,0,0 in local space, which means it
comes from center of every fluid particle. Our explosion comes from 0,0,0 in world
space, so we want to streak every fluid from that direction. If you subtract particle
postion from 0,0,0 you will get exactly opposite from the position of particle (or just
multiply by -1). Implode parameter doesn¶t work very good when implode center goes
over 1, so we normalize that numbers, and assign them to userVector2PP. Expression
is like this (if picture is not clear)|
R
 
  
   |
R|
R
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R
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R 
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"! R|
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R|

R|
!
R |
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  # $
 
  !|
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So you get nice motion blurred explosion. On my core2duo render took about 15 min
per frame. |
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Check avi file I rendered for this (DIVX)|