Whats a Meta with you VRay Metaball Lesson

What’s a Meta with you: V-Ray Metaball

Lesson Introduction – Orientation • This presentation will take you through setting up metaballs with V-Ray • This information centers around the basic metaball parameters • The lesson topic is approximately 30 minutes in length • Presentation covers all 3 Learning Cycles for the Lesson Topic – Lecture, Demonstration, and Activity

Lesson Topic: V-Ray Metaballs • Objective – We will use several parameters to convert a standard particle system into an iso-surface during rendering • Develop the look for the water pouring out of a spigot • Use various meatball parameters to create different looks • Outcome – You will understand how to work with the meatball parameters to render water in V-Ray

Lecture: Terminology • Here’s some terms to be aware of when thinking about metaballs – Iso-surface – A way of displaying Computational Fluid Dynamics to help aid in studying fluid flow around objects – Resolution – The maximum detail displayed during the viewport preview – Threshold – Controls how close the iso-surface is to the particles

Lesson Topic: V-Ray Metaball • Metaball Overview • VRay. Metaball is a geometric primitive that can be used to create a raytraced iso-surface out of an existing particle system • The iso-surface is ray traced at render time and no actual geometry is generated. • VRay. Metaball node can be created from two areas • In the Maya menu choose Create > V-Ray > VRay. Metaball • By clicking on the Create VRay Metaball button in the V-Ray Shelf

Lesson Topic: V-Ray Metaball • Key Parameters for metaballs • Particle Radius – sets the particle size if Use particle size is disabled • Threshold – controls how close the iso surface is to the particles • Smoothing field bumps – will attempt to smooth out the surface by culling away small stray particles • Smooth radius – the radius value when Smoothing field bumps is enabled • Smooth expansion – a value that further controls the smoothing • Show Preview – enables the viewport preview • Resolution – maximum grid resolution used to compute the viewport preview

Lesson Topic: V-Ray Metaball • Threshold – controls how close the iso surface is to the particles • Lower values move the surface away from the particles • Higher values make the surface cling close to the particles Threshold: 0. 25 Threshold: 0. 5 • Particle Radius – determines the size of the particles Radius: 1. 0 Radius: 0. 85

Lesson Topic: V-Ray Metaball • Smoothing field bumps – attempts to smooth out the surface by culling away small stray particles • Smooth radius – the radius of the metaballs when Smoothing field bumps is enabled • Smooth expansion – a value that further controls the smoothing Smooth field bumps: Off Smooth field bumps: On Sm. radius: 0. 5 expansion: 0. 5 Sm. radius: 0. 3 expansion: 0. 245

Lesson Topic: V-Ray Metaball • Resolution • The maximum grid resolution used to compute the viewport preview • Lower values produce a more rough approximation of the metaballs surface that takes less memory and is faster to compute • Higher values produce more accurate previews at the expense of more RAM and slower calculation speed Resolution: 50 Resolution: 100

Lecture Conclusion: V-Ray Metaball • Iso-surface – A CG version of fluid calculations • Smooth radius – Size parameter when smoothing metaballs • Smooth expansion – Fine-tunes the smoothing of the metaballs

Time to see it work! • Demonstration Cycle! • Watch while I demonstrate how to set up metaballs from an n. Particle system

Time to do it yourself! • Activity Cycle! • Now it’s your turn!! • Use the provided scene file to set up and adjust the metaballs • The next slide provides some specific values I used for your reference

Dialing in the right values • • • Particle Radius: 0. 755 Threshold: 0. 450 Smooth field bumps: Enabled Smooth radius: 0. 300 Smooth expansion: 0. 245 • Show Preview: Enabled • Resolution: 100