Particle shader for Caramel bubbles

[luis_alcala]

Back in the PHX forums for some guidance. I am using the attached settings for a caramel material and particle shader. The biggest hurdle I am having is trying to see how to adjust the air bubbles so they look more random in size and not as perfect circles. Maybe someone has used the shader and can shed some light on how to adjust these. Super welcome to any additional feedback people may have. Just trying to further my knowledge with this great plug-in.

[georgi.zhekov]

Hey,

If you're using Foam particles for the bubbles you can adjust the Variation Small, Variation Large and the Size distribution in the Foam rollout.

If you're using the Liquid particles with reduced Count multiplier in the Particle Shader in 3ds Max you can use pFlow or tyFlow to create some particles (with different size) based on the liquid and then render them with the Particle Shader.

If you're using the Liquid particles in Maya - I'm afraid that there is no way to randomize the size yet, but we have some ideas on how to do that in the future. So it's best to use the Foam particles in this case.

[Svetlin.Nikolov]

Ah, the particle shader renders spheres in the Bubbles/Splashes/Cellular modes and this is how it must be in order to be able to render tons of particles quickly.

Instead, maybe you could use the V-Ray instancer and instance irregular shapes over the particles though? Not sure how you could reduce the number of particles that way though - maybe you are using Count Multiplier on the liquid particles? If this is the case, an alternative to using reduced liquid particles would be use pflow or tyflow and use a fluid force operator to drive pflow or tyflow particles with the liquid, and then instance your animated irregular shape using V-Ray instancer over that?

[Svetlin.Nikolov]

Hehe, same time

[luis_alcala]

Hello Svetlin and Georgi,

Those sound like pretty good suggestions. Do you guys have any examples that I could possibly look at regard this suggestion:

using Foam particles for the bubbles you can adjust the Variation Small, Variation Large and the Size distribution in the Foam rollout.

I am currently using Maya 2019 and Vray next with Phoenix 3.

[georgi.zhekov]

Ah,

Actually all of these are simulation parameters for the Foam and you can find more about them here - https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/PHX4MAYA/Foam
Though this will require simulation again.

I totally missed that there is another way, which won't require foam and simulating again. You can achieve what you're after by just adjusting the Particle Shader settings.

Just increase the Size variation and the Size Distribution in the Particle Shader options. You can try what happens if you set the Size Variation to 2 and Size Distribution of 1. Then adjust the values from there.

The size variation will control the relative range of the size while the distribution will control the ratio between small and large bubbles. You can find more about what each option does here - https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...+PhoenixFDFoam

[fixeighted]

Out of interest, can these bubbles be squashed or will they always be spherical?

[georgi.zhekov]

Can't be squashed yet, this is still in the to do list. Will add one more vote for it

[georgi.zhekov]

Ah, just to clarify - we will be implementing render time support for modifiers such as bend for example.
If you need to use other shapes different than spheres you can use a particle instancer for example and instance any shape over the particles created by Phoenix.

Cheers!

[fixeighted]

Cool, that'll work.
Another question I think I know the answer to but I'll ask anyway....in the example above, of nuts in a sauce; can the nuts be simmed along with the sauce, to have them stay beneath the resulting mesh surface, so affected by its viscosity/stickiness e.g. ?
A lot to ask probably

[luis_alcala]

Hello again Georgi,

So, total noob question, regarding your suggestion:

Ah, just to clarify - we will be implementing render time support for modifiers such as bend for example.
If you need to use other shapes different than spheres you can use a particle instancer for example and instance any shape over the particles created by Phoenix.

Do you guys have some examples on how to do this suggestion using what you recommended in Maya?

[georgi.zhekov]

Hey,

So here is how it works:

After you run your simulation, open the Outliner > disable "Show DAG objects only" from the Outliner's Display options.
Then select the Particles_Liquid_of_0_PhoenixFDSimulator1 (if you wish to use the Foam or any other particle group, select it instead of the Liquid one) and turn on Create a Nparticles system from this System.
This will create nParticle system out of the Phoenix particles. Now you can use that with the Maya Instancer options to instance custom geo over the nParticles.

Just select the geometry you wish to instance first and then select the Phoenix Simulator, go to the FX menu set and then from the top Nparticle menu choose Instancer.