danb4026 Posted May 5, 2009 Share Posted May 5, 2009 I need to fill a hemisphere with 22 smaller spheres. Using the Scatter object and "volume" distribution, I cannot seem to get the spheres to not intersect the distribution sphere or each other. Is there a way to fill the volume without objects intersection each other or the distribution object? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy Burns Posted May 6, 2009 Share Posted May 6, 2009 I think you should be looking at reactor to make this. there are some tutorials in max an it would be worth doing the first one to see how it works. What it does is gives objects physical density, mass, etc. Basically with reactor you just make the bowl and put all the balls above it. Then you give everthing some phsical qualities. Then in reactor there is a small program that lets you view what will happen when the balls drop it is like an animation. once it is right you can save out the model of the finished. sounds like a lot of work but it is very handy to know something about this. in scatter there are a lot of settings also that just may do what you want but I think if you have time have a look at reactor it is good fun messing with it too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danb4026 Posted May 6, 2009 Author Share Posted May 6, 2009 Thanks Tommy, I will go thru the reactor tuts now and see what I can come up with. Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claudio Branch Posted May 6, 2009 Share Posted May 6, 2009 I think you should be looking at reactor to make this. I agree...Reactor Rigid Body Collection is the way to go. Reactor + Mental Ray = 22 Ballz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danb4026 Posted May 6, 2009 Author Share Posted May 6, 2009 (edited) Claudio, looks great....how did you create the liquid effect? Did you have to make that a rigid body or soft body itself? I am running the animation right now. It says its 85% done, but I don's see anything happening. Will let you know. Edited May 6, 2009 by danb4026 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy Burns Posted May 7, 2009 Share Posted May 7, 2009 you should see the animation work straight away if you have givin the spheres mass (weight) they should just drop into the bowl and react of each other (hence reactor) eventually they will stop moving like in real life this is when you stop the animation. I can't really remember but you sort of save out the animation and it creates key frames of all the movement in your scene but you will only need one frame of this. the animation will go on for ever if you leave it. If you do the tutorial probably take an hour or two but well worth it. This is the only way you will understand it and even then it is easy to make a mistake all the rigid body settings have to be right stick with it though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy Burns Posted May 7, 2009 Share Posted May 7, 2009 BTW I don't think Claudio has any liquid in there that is just the reflection of the rim on the spheres Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claudio Branch Posted May 7, 2009 Share Posted May 7, 2009 BTW I don't think Claudio has any liquid in there that is just the reflection of the rim on the spheres Correct...that material is actually a Mental Ray Car Paint shader. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danb4026 Posted May 7, 2009 Author Share Posted May 7, 2009 I had this working for a while, but now the spheres are exploding and not dropping into the bowl. Not sure what I am doing wrong. Max is also freezing when I do the preview animation, and when it comes back, I see the sphere totally exploded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claudio Branch Posted May 7, 2009 Share Posted May 7, 2009 I am not certain why the spheres would be exploding...it simply doesn't like the settings. If your geometry count is too high, you can lock up Reactor pretty easily if your machine doesn't have enough RAM. Like I said previously, try to get one ball working correctly and move from there... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danb4026 Posted May 7, 2009 Author Share Posted May 7, 2009 It appears to be because I had alot of segments. I was trying to get the balls to to have a nice solid, smooth like yours do. But apparently adding segments is not the way to do that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claudio Branch Posted May 7, 2009 Share Posted May 7, 2009 Try doing a sim on a single sphere with a lower face count and then ramp it back up for the money shot...here is what I rolled with: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claudio Branch Posted May 7, 2009 Share Posted May 7, 2009 My spheres have a 15' radius and 48 segments.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claudio Branch Posted May 7, 2009 Share Posted May 7, 2009 When you are running the sim, you want to use the least amount of geometry possible. Reactor is going to gobble up your machines RAM if you have huge amounts of vertices in your objects. You can simplify the object and turn up it's face count after the sim is over. All Reactor is doing is creating keyframes as the objects fall and interact. You can change the objects' mesh density after the fact. I did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danb4026 Posted May 7, 2009 Author Share Posted May 7, 2009 Thanks, looks like you have to up the Internal Steps value if I up'ed the segments to 48, otherwise the sphere starts to deform and come apart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danb4026 Posted May 7, 2009 Author Share Posted May 7, 2009 Oh!!! Thanks Claudio....I thought the geometry had to be in place before. You've been a huge help...thanks so much! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claudio Branch Posted May 7, 2009 Share Posted May 7, 2009 Sure thing...glad to hear it's coming along. Post it up when you're finished... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy Burns Posted May 7, 2009 Share Posted May 7, 2009 The turorial I did on reactor had about 40 little spheres with heads and arms in a box then falling out. I remember that they turned the item into a proxy and I never had trouble with memory and there was a lot going on. Claudio you might have seen the same one (tutorial) but I can't remember where I got it do you as Dan is having trouble finding it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claudio Branch Posted May 7, 2009 Share Posted May 7, 2009 Claudio you might have seen the same one (tutorial) but I can't remember where I got it do you as Dan is having trouble finding it. That tutorial came out with Discreet Max 6. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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