Few days ago, Sitni Sati has released FumeFX 4.0 for Autodesk's Maya platform. FumeFX is a fluid dynamics engine designed for simulation and rendering of realistic fire, smoke, explosion and other gaseous phenomena. Basically, if you want to put something on fire, this is the tool for it. The engine features a very intuitive and robust workflow making it a perfect solution for the most demanding tasks in the computer graphics industry. The core engine allows user to interfere with simulation computation at the lowest level. It’s available for both Autodesk’s 3ds max and Maya. The new version offers many new features that help simulations to run faster and with more detail. Between the new features belongs QCG solver which is up to twice as fast as the CG solver found in FumeFX 3.0. Along with other enhancements and simulation optimizations, FumeFX 4.0 is generally faster in all kind of simulation present inside the engine than the previous versions.
New vorticity type has additional control over vortices which helps user to fine tune the final result. The highly optimized Spline Follow force field allows various special effects that were impossible before. A new Black-body radiation shader and new burning model that includes Oxygen has been built-in for achieving realistic fire and explosion animations. Additional sharpening options directly at render-time will bring out maximum possible detail from your existing caches. An optimized and fully multithreaded cache pre-processing will result in significant time savings across the render farms.
Effectors
Effectors are the most valuable and the most powerful feature. With just a few mouse clicks, artists can tweak the laws of physics or alter any simulated field based on built-in rules. For example, Effectors can drive setups where vorticity is controlled by velocity, gravity is controlled by smoke color and fire is created in voxels where velocity is above a user-defined threshold. All of this can be further refined by powerful test conditions or even confined to the Effector's gizmo.
RenderWarps
RenderWarps are another great tool that will find application on many VFX shots. This feature allows users to apply space warps such as FFD, Bend, Taper and Noise to precomputed FumeFX caches. As RenderWarps are a post-process, re-simulation is not needed.
N-Sim
N-Sim enables artists to connect many grids together and execute their simulations simultaneously as one big simulation. This approach can be invaluable for increasing the level of detail in scene setups such as a rocket launch.
The GPU accelerated Preview
The GPU accelerated Preview Window is another time-saver, providing instant feedback for adjusting rendering parameters. Self-shadows are computed extremely fast and the user can orbit the camera around FumeFX with self-shadows in real-time(1). FumeFX also supports preview with geometry included in simulation.
Rendering
- mental ray, VRay and Arnold for Maya renderer support available for both Windows and Linux.
- The GPU accelerated Preview Window gives users almost instant feedback on render settings.
- Fast self-shadowing is produced through an Illumination Map which is integrated inside of the FumeFX object.
- A highly efficient Multiple Scattering model enhances light dispersion throughout fluid and between multiple FumeFX grids..
- Smoke and Fire sharpening.
- Built in motion blur.
- Fluid Mapping integrates procedural map details with fluid motion.
Key Features
- Production proven results demonstrate this technology's ability to achieve realistic smoke and fire effects for cutting-edge industry applications.
- FumeFX supplements the user's artistic vision with the power of real-world physics for the ultimate in both style and realism.
- GPU accelerated Preview Windows with self-shadows and geometry.
- A multitude of parameters and FumeFX helpers give users maximum control of the fluid's behavior and appearance.
- Easy to use, basic effects can be created with just a few clicks.
- FumeFX is capable of dynamic interaction with other scene objects.
Simulation
- New and faster solver since FumeFX 4.0.
- Advanced vorticity type.
- Simulation of nested grids in one go (N-Sim).
- Powerfull Effectors that can control almost every parameter on a per-voxel basis.
- Application of various deformers on caches.
- Field3D and OpenVDB 3.0 I/O support.
- FumeFX can use Variable Density solver that uses smoke density and temperature as variables.
- Start simulations from scratch or by using other simulation results as a starting point.
- Stop, pause and continue simulations at any point.
- E-mail notifications.
- Simulation is multithreaded users can select how many CPU's to dedicate to their simulation.
- Users can watch the simulation progress in the interactive GPU accelerated Preview Window.
- Interactive simulation allows user to change almost every parameter during the simulation and see it's influence on the simulation result.
- Draft simulations can be created in mere minutes for fast previewing.
- Multiple advection schemes that can minimize numerical dissipation.
- User has control of which data is written to output files for rendering and further processing.
FumeFX has been production proven in titles such as Hugo, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance,Thor, Priest, 2012, Skyline, Suckerpunch, Spiderman 3, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Superman Returns, Iron Man, The Host (Gwoemul) and various games cinematics such as Warhammer Online, Classic Transformers, Dante's Inferno and others.
More information at: afterworks