Visualizing Flow Through Tubes

Autodesk 3ds Max Tutorials > Special Effects > Particle Animation Tutorials > Working with Particle Flow >

In this tutorial, you’ll use Particle Flow’s event-driven features to control the flow of a simulated fluid substance (gas or liquid) through several branching tubes. Arrows visualizing the direction and speed of the substance will be animated as particles. As arrows approach branches in the tubes, they will selectively change flow direction, and, ultimately, will change color as well. You'll also learn how to use the BlobMesh compound object to simulate the look of the fluid substance for rendering purposes.

NoteThis is an intermediate-level tutorial. You should be familiar with basic Particle Flow and 3ds Max functionality such as track bar usage and the Align tool.

Skill level: Intermediate

Time to complete: 45 minutes

In this tutorial, you will learn how to:

Set up an event-driven particle system
Use instanced geometry as particles
Create branching paths
Use BlobMesh compound objects to create a viscous fluid.

Tutorial Files

The files for this tutorial can be found in the tutorials\mech_design directory on the program disc from which you installed 3ds Max. Before doing the tutorials, copy the \tutorials directory from the CD to your \3dsmax7 local installation.

Lessons

Setting Up the Particle System

Creating Particle Motion

Creating Branching Paths

Applying Final Touches

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