Best way to get fire/smoke sim from 3ds Max to volume grid in Maya

[Jussing]

Hi, I'm creating sims 3dsmax and Phoenix FD for a client who will render in Maya and Vray, and looking for tips for the most smooth workflow.

- Should we use VDB or AUR? Pros and cons for both?
- Is it reasonably plug and play to load it into a Vray volume grid, or should we go the extra mile and rent a Phoenix for Maya to load it into?
- Can all the look dev from Phoenix in 3dsmax (smoke and fire curve settings, etc) be transferred directly to Phoenix in Maya? Or even Vray?
- Anything else I haven't thought of?

Thanks
/Jonas

[georgi.zhekov]

Hello,

VDBs are slower than AUR for dense grids so if one does not need importing huge sparse grids or exporting Phoenix sims to other software, AUR is the way to go.

Loading the cache in V-Ray Volume Grid or Phoenix in Maya and dialing the same settings should produce the same results.

Note that in V-Ray 3.6 the fire and smoke render curves of the V-Ray Volume Grid are outdated and it will be a bit more difficult to match the ones in 3dsMax. In V-Ray Next for Maya the VolumeGrid would be completely equalized with Phoenix, so you can get a beta build an see how this works.

The other way to equalize the scene is to get a Phoenix for Maya, where the settings between Max and Maya should match.

[Jussing]

Thanks for the tips, Georgi!

/Jonas