SPLASH
Plug-In
Tutorial #1
Splash by Digimation is a plugin
that lets making water fluid dynamics easy. Using it you can make solid
models interacting with water. In this tutorial you will learn
about basic plugin's options and how to create a splash on the water.
Plug-In
Basics :
The Splash plugin consist of two main types of objects:
Pool - the water
area where the action takes place. It is situated in Create/Fluid Mechanics
panel. After creating it you can change the mesh Density (the greater density
the smother ripples will be) and other parameters which will be described
later.
Stones - the
objects that fall or move in the water. They are in the Helpers/Fluid Mechanics
panel. There are two types of Stones: Impact Stones (I-Stone) and Wake
Stones (W-Stone). I-Stones lets you to make splashes and ripples
on the water when something falls into the water. W-Stone is a helper that
can be linked to an object that moves on the water surface (water crafts,
ships, boats, animals like ducks or swans and others) and make wakes that
are left after the floating object.
Now you
will learn how to make a simple animation in which a stone falls into the
water making water rippling.
fig.2
fig.3
1.
First you must make a pool. select 
in the Create menu, click in the top view port where you want the center
of your pool to be and drag until you're satisfied with it's dimensions.
Then go to Helpers panel and select there I-Stone. Make the I-Stone icon
in the front view right above the pool we've just created. (fig.2)
Then go to the 50 frame, turn the "Animate"
button on and move the I-Stone so that it would be right under the pool.
(fig.3) Now you have the animation in which the Stone falls into the water.
2.
Now select the pool and go to the modifiers
panel. Open the Setup sub-panel click on "Select Stone" and select
your I-Stone. Now you have attached your stone to the pool animation.
Before the
animation will look like you want you must set up the parameters of the
splash:
Mesh Density:
was described before. Set it to about 5.
Speed: this option
lets you specify the speed at which ripples move from the center point.
Set to 95.
Damping: the
option lets you make your ripples bigger or smaller as they move from the
center. If the number is greater than 100 then the ripples will be
damping. If the number is less than 100 the ripples will become bigger
as the becoming in larger radius. Set it to 100 so the ripples would
be damping normally.
Then there are two boxes - one called Impacts (changing it's parameters
makes effect on I-Stones) and Wakes (it's parameters changes the animation
of W-Stones)
Size: the value
sets the radius of the first ripple, Change this number to 60.
Strength: the
parameter sets the strength of the stone falling into the water - the depth
of the splash center. Set
it to 85.
Duration: the
number that sets how long will the splash center hole lasts. Set this value
to 2.
The parameters
in Wakes box is identical.
3.
In the end select the Perspective view port and play the animation in it.
You'll see when the stone reaches the pool's surface it begins to ripple.
All that have left is to apply a material to the pool and render! (fig.4)
That's it!
And if you
will work more with it's outlook and pool parameters you can make some
kind of this. (fig.5)
You can download
scene described in this tutorial: tut1.max
fig.4
fig.5
The page was made on 5.08.97. It's the property of the #3dsmax
channel on Undernet.
Copyright to D.Gurjanov. If you have questions about Splash
plugin or 3D Studio MAX email to Dima003@hotmail.com