Case Studies
Dodot Activity "Pipibusters" (Serena Digital) | Versión en español disponible
When we took on this project, we thought of RealFlow straight away – in fact, we use RealFlow for all our fluid simulations. We got excited about the idea and dove right into developing the different elements that we needed to put together a “watermonster”: the body that would support the main character animation; the constant flow of water over the monster’s body; the splashes and puddles as he moved; the humidity in the air around him; and then the shaders, caustics, and so on..
We modelled the monster’s body the old-fashioned way, and rigged it in Maya. However, even though it looked pretty good, it seemed too “hard”, more like ice than water. We needed a more mobile and changing surface, especially when the monster moved. Our first idea was a softbody, but then we suddenly thought – wait a minute, we’ve got RealFlow! We redesigned the sim so that each footstep generated a wave that ran up the leg and spread out over the body. We converted the geometry into a RealWave and selected the starting points for the waves. In the end it looked fantastic.
The water flowing constantly over the surface was emitted by the geometry of the monster’s body and by other emitters located strategically around the body. We ran a few tests to find the best places to put them.
The splashes were trickier, because the water falling to the floor left a puddle that the monster then walked through. To get a better fit between the behaviour of the monster and the subsequent addition of materials, renders and composition, we needed to treat the different aspects (flow, splashes and puddles) as independent entities which also behaved like a single unified fluid. To do so, we had to create a script that converted the particles from the fall emitter into puddle particles, maintaining the original behaviour of the particles at the moment of transition; and the same process was needed for the splash particles.
Finally, we used dummy particles to create the moisture in the air around the monster.
To put together the shot when the monster is absorbed by the “monster-busting” rays from the guns, we had to work backwards: we animated the monster, reversed the animation, doubled the duration, and exported the sd. Then we launched a stream of particles in RealFlow which filled up the monster. Finally, we rendered every other frame, and reversed the order of the images, to get the final result.
We love working in RealFlow, because we get realistic, credible behaviour in every shot. We would like to thank Next Limit for all their advice and support.
Copyright:
Serena Digital - www.serena.tv
Fernando Jariego
Head of 3D Department, Serena Digital
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