Throughout this tutorial we are going to talk about the core feaures of RealFlow. Starting with the basics, we'll discuss the fundamental parameters of a standard SPH system as well as looking at the Hybrido solver. We'll also cover some meshing techniques using the RenderKit particle mesher to avoid flickering issues. Then we'll look at how to render our mesh in V-Ray for Maya and finally how to composite our passes in NUKE. After completing this tutorial, we'll have a much better understanding of the entire process to make a realistic and believable fluid.

We will begin this tutorial with the simulation of our RealFlow assets, and discuss some important RealFlow settings to keep in mind as we prepare our assets to be used within Maya. Once we bring our RealFlow assets into Maya, we will explore topics that include setting up shaders and materials for realistic water, controlling the rendered appearance of RealFlow splash particles, rendering Hybrido foam and whitecaps in Maya, incorporating mist into our renders, and we will learn how all of these things can be accomplished without having to rely on the RealFlow RenderKit for Maya. By the time you complete this tutorial, you will have a better understanding of how to render your own Hybrido simulations using Maya.

We will begin this course by learning how to import RealFlow meshes into Maya, and we will go step-by-step through the process of adding lights, materials and proper render settings to mimic appearance of realistic glass and liquid materials. From there, we will go deeper into the integration process, learning how to take geometry from Maya into RealFlow, using RealFlow's soft and rigid body dynamics to create moving objects, as well as understanding how scene scale plays a critical role in the behavior of our simulations. We will learn how to cache and re-use RealFlow simulation data and discuss many tips, tricks and techniques that you will be able to use in both the simulation and the rendering stages of your RealFlow projects.

The RealFlow RenderKit is an extremely powerful set of tools for rendering RealFlow particle data directly within our primary 3D application. With the RealFlow RenderKit, we have the ability to control the size and shape of our rendered particles, we can increase or decrease the number of particles that are rendered, and we can also shade our particles based on RealFlow magnitude data. Using the RealFlow RenderKit, we can also generate meshes around our particles at render time, eliminating the need to mesh our particles inside of RealFlow. During this course, we will also discuss how RealFlow particles can be rendered as volumetric clouds, as well as learning how to import RealFlow displacement map sequences into Maya for Rendering.

In this series of lessons, we will guide you through the process of using mental ray to realistically render RealFlow geometry within Maya. We will begin this process by learning how to import your mesh sequences from RealFlow into Maya and placing primary illumination sources. From there we will use the mental ray Architectural Materials to create realistic, refractive liquid, and discuss some very important settings to be aware of when using these shaders. Finally, we will create refractive caustic patterns that can add a high level of realism to the final render. Getting the proper look for your final renders will require a lot of troubleshooting and adjustments of many different attributes. Through these lessons, we will address many of these common problems that you will run into and how they can be resolved, allowing you to achieve the desired result in a much sorter amount of time.

Popular highlights include: Importing Geometry to RealFlow; Daemons; Advanced Mesh Generation; Keyframing in RealFlow; Particle and Mesh Loaders; Exporting Particles and Meshes; Scene Setup in Maya; mental ray Materials; Photons; Caustics; Particle Expressions.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Exporting Adobe Illustrator objects for importing into Maya; Learning how to export geometry correctly in Maya for use in RealFlow; Using techniques for controlling RealFlow particles using geometry. For a complete overview of RealFlow check out Introduction to RealFlow 4, an in-depth guide to learning fluid and dynamic simulations.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Importing objects into RealFlow ; Using a Volume Daemon to keep the scene clean ; Setting up the emitters and daemons that will create the water drop effect ; Surface tension and Magic daemons ; Creating a mesh from the particle simulation for exporting back into Maya . For a complete overview of RealFlow check out Introduction to RealFlow 4, an in-depth guide to learning fluid and dynamic simulations.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Importing RealFlow geometry into Maya ; Getting soft shadows with an area light ; Creating a mental ray Dielectric Material ; Setting up mental ray caustics ; Image based lighting. For a complete overview of RealFlow check out Introduction to RealFlow 4, an in-depth guide to learning fluid and dynamic simulations.