Make realistic gold flow over a mountain peak

[loonytoonx]

:help: Greetings and Salutations to all! I'm in a tricky situation and need some help. I am working on an animation for a company and I have the animation finished except for one key element. They would like to have gold flow down over the top of a mountain peak. Let me explain a bit more. The base animation has an eagle that flies around a landscape for about 15 seconds, and then flies up to the top of the mountain and lands. It's at that point that gold needs to flow down over the mountain and I need to be able to make stop about halfway down (that should be simple if at that point the animation ends. In effect, the gold is signifying coming from the eagle once it lands. However, the gold has to be of realistic texture (I have already created that, thanks to all who helped me in my last posts) and also the consistency and hardness of gold.

I have tackled this problem from many different angles and I cannot seem to achieve the right effect. I started with particles and sprites and they do not achieve the look or feel of gold that the client wants (plus, it will be much easier if I stick with Maya Software to render). I next tried using the cloth simulation, but it too was giving me difficulties. I already have created water for the scene (the DT Maya Unlimited tutorial is excellent and helped a lot), but I'm not sure if the water will create the effect the client wants. The last option I have tried but did not spend much time on is a soft body solver. I think this may create the effect the client wants, but I'll need to figure out how to make it flow over the mountain and make it start as the eagle lands. At this point I'm stuck and I have about 3 weeks to complete the animation for showing. Any advice, tutorial, suggestion, or help will be greatly appreciated and once I get this turkey finished, I would like to show everyone the final product in case anyone else comes across this dilemma.

Thank you for your time and help,
LoonytoonX

[brandeil]

Well how do u want it to look like, as it is in its solid state or fresh from the smelter. if its hot gold then its going to be a viscus liquid, a little like when mercury flows.

[loonytoonx]

I spoke to the client today and they want it to appear like lava flowing over the mountain. I will go back to the DT volcano tutorial and see what I can do. I would like try and avoid this though and use the Maya Software to render. To answer your question, yes, it needs to look like it is fresh from the smelter and be melted over the mountain. Any suggestions on what to try?

Thanks

[brandeil]

been a long time since I did the volcano tut, however I used to do it with bloby particles for Software render with a high particle rate to get the texture right. then u just have to get the texture right, gold with an orange glow?, depends on how your customer likes it.

[loonytoonx]

Here is the problem I am running into. If I create the lava along a curve flow path, it appears as just one stream, not all over the mountain top. I am also having problems creating a surface flow because the mountain is a polygon and it has too much geometry to convert to a subD or Nurbs object. The client wants this as photorealistic as possible. As a side note, can Maya use .mat files from 3DSMax? I looked up and I don't think Maya can, but wanted to check and be sure.

[baronkarza]

mmmh only an idea..if you create a curve on the top and only on the top ?..or in alternative if you create a poly or nurbs or object (no renderable) inside the mountain jus a little bit make this live create a curve on it and create flow path ( the end of a curve on the top of the mountain) ? only an idea
bye baron

[brandeil]

Use the poly sculp tool to do suttle channels in the mountain. Also u may want to look at the shaders at highend3d, I know they have some gold metal shaders their, they are very good.

[loonytoonx]

Thanks for the help everyone. I figured out how to make the gold stream over the mountain. I used a cone-shaped emitter with blobby surfaces, with a gold texture I downloaded from highend3d ;) I thought it looked really cool, but after showing it to the client; they changed their mind again and wanted the gold in a fixed position on the mountain. They want it to look like the gold was melted over the mountain peak. I have not tried any kind of deformer yet and wanted to check first on how I might easily solve this new problem without spending too much time on it because I still have to fix a texture map for the mountain itself. To break it down: the gold needs to have a rounded, melted look, but conform to the mountain's grooves and ridges.

[hixthebeast]

hmm, i was bored so i thought i would have a shot at this!! i used flash mx to make the mountain texture and gold texture flow, i saved the mountain and gold together as image sequences and the gold by itself (for bump mapping it later) in maya i saved the mountain color as the image sequence and used the hypershade to make the gold bump mapped and slightly incandescent etc. and the good thing about doing it this way is that it doesnt matter how bumpy or detailed the surface it is being put onto is!! anyways here is the link:
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f342/hixthebeast/finished.swf

[brandeil]

Shouldnt be hard to do, select the mountain area polys with the select brush, then dupicte them then enlarge it slightly then use the smooth function, and tweak to fit :)
Glad u found the shader :D