Melting Man in Maya

# 1 10-02-2009 , 03:18 PM

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Hi Guys,

I have a character (Poly) in Maya whom I want to melt down in the last scene of my demo reel. (Something like Terminator movie - really inspired me).

I tried the trick given in one forum where I attached a lattice to the poly, created a soft body of the same, made it collide with the floor (poly plane) and gave gravity and turbulence to it.

Three issues with this:

a. The model was not deforming the way I want. I mean, the face was all intact till it was reaching the plane.

b. The collided particles were not spreading on the plane as it would happen when something melts.

c. More so, the collided particles started moving up after collusion leading to look as if the character is turning inside out.

Any help, suggestions???

GP

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# 2 10-02-2009 , 04:44 PM

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Which version of Maya do you have, I haven't used 2009 but I believe the new nParticle system can fill objects with particles, this could work for you.

Or if you have Realflow you can do a similar thing, and then just key when your particles fall to the ground.

Chris

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# 3 10-02-2009 , 05:09 PM

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I am using 2008. I am trying with Mudbox to get the same, but cannot simulate a melting down effect in Mudbox.

Rgds,

GP

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# 4 10-02-2009 , 06:39 PM

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You`ll never get it done in mudbox - its a model only program

I think real flow is what you are going to need if you only have maya 2008.

Its not that hard to learn as I did a water logo filling up slowly then falling apart after a few seconds and it took me about 3 days to figure out and 2 days of rendering. Follow my link to my mytoon site to see it. Also check out digital tutors has a interation with maya training kit which has a man falling to sand, but I think it can be changed to liquid.

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# 5 10-02-2009 , 07:37 PM

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Could you not use particles and goals, for a gooey effect? With ncloth to drive a blendshape for the motions?

Save you using realflow

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

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# 6 10-02-2009 , 07:53 PM

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The particle spreading can only be easily achived in maya 2009+ since the earlier versions of particles cannot change states out the box.

Goals can work you would want to animate the influence of gravity/ the goal over time or based on current hight from the surface level or just animate a texture.

If this is for a showreel to get work in this kind of effects it would usually be done in realflow / maya pipeline or houdini.

If the majority of your reel is not dynamics vfx work it wont be in your interest to do somthing that requires such a specific skill set.

Good luck.

FX supervisor - double negative

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# 7 11-02-2009 , 05:41 AM

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Hi Guys,
thanks for the responses and will look into each of them now. However, did a bit of work last night with Mudbox and Maya.

After exporting the model into Mudbox, deformed the same and saved them as separate files at each deformation stage. Brought them back to Maya and created a blend shape with the base object.

Animated the scene over a period of time with each of the blend shapes kicking in at regular intervals.

Not the best of the work, but looks melting-ish!!!!

Rgds

GP

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# 8 14-02-2009 , 10:05 AM

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Hi Guys
seen the effects on the RF4 site and they are really amazing esp the tutorial on melting girl. Understand what you meant when you suggested using this vis-a-vis mudbox etc.

Tempting to try this out for the show reel as RF4 seems to be quite maya user friendly.

Regards,

GP

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# 9 18-02-2009 , 02:41 AM

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Hi Guys

thanks once again for the advise on RF4. Have been able to successfully do up a small scene in my Show reel with the model melting and flowing like mercury. (There was a tutorial just for this).

Need some more help. As I have my model landing from the sky on a dusty road, (like Iron Man), need some advice on how to generate the dust from the ground on the impact.

Any suggestions on this?

Regards,
GP

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# 10 18-02-2009 , 08:05 AM

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Emit particles on collision.

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

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# 11 18-02-2009 , 01:53 PM

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This is a proper realflow job to get proper control of what you are wanting to do...

Import the model (triangulated only)
Fill the object the fluid and adjust viscosity
Add Gravity and adjust
put a nice plane poly on the floor for the particles to react
simulate, and check
simulate, and check
simulate, and check
simulate, and check
simulate, and check
simulate, and check
create a mesh from the particles
import new mesh and test
adjust in RF if need be
create a mesh from the particles
import new mesh and test
adjust in RF if need be
create a mesh from the particles
import new mesh and test

W00t cool melting animation

Chris (formerly R@nSiD)
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# 12 19-02-2009 , 10:36 AM

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Bah, nothing that a bit of scripting with nparticles wouldent do!

LOL

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

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# 13 19-02-2009 , 04:44 PM

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In the words of Harry Hill..

"... there's only one way to sort this out. FIGHT!!! ..."

Chris (formerly R@nSiD)
Twitter
When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will truely know peace - Jimmy Hendrix

Winner SM VFX Challenge 1

3rd Place SM SteamPunk Challenge (May 2007)

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# 14 19-02-2009 , 04:51 PM

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hehe I'll get me MEL gloves out then sonny!!!

LOL

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

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# 15 02-03-2009 , 02:43 PM

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Hi Guys,

quote
This is a proper realflow job to get proper control of what you are wanting to do...
unquote

quote
Bah, nothing that a bit of scripting with nparticles wouldent do!
unquote

both these responses have me interested. I have done job on RF4 for melting which came out great. As regards dust raising up using RF4, I am not quite clear on this. Would appreciate further explanation on this.

Also, scripting with nparticles!!!! Have never tried scripting in Maya though done a bit of business coding earlier. Is there one similar or close enough that I can see and say emulate????

Regards,

GP

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Melting Man in Maya

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