Animating water in a pipe?

[stusic]

Hey All,


I’ve got another task at hand, and I’m hoping to get some insight into how to go about it…


I’ll be animating a system where the main focus is water going through pipes. I’m having a hard time seeing how I could go about showing the pipes, yet also showing the water flowing through the pipes. I imagine I can use a visibility track to make the pipe semi-transparent, but animating the water in a way that it looks realistic and going in the right direction (following the pipe) is what’s stumping me. I think I can get a realistic material for the water, but animating it to follow the pipe is perplexing.


Does anyone have any ideas that can lead me in the right direction?

Thanks oodles!

[stusic]

Something like so:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR44ZoMHvEg

[dellis]

That shouldn't be too difficult....just animate a cylinder traveling through the pipe using path deform. then you could add a bunch of modifiers above the path deform to simulate the turbulence.

This is a really old sample that i made awhile back but the concept is the same:

http://www.dwayne-ellis.com/junk/aby..._test_disp.avi

One thing though....if the water is traveling with turbulence (air at the top of the pipe), then you are going to have to model this into the initial cylinder before you assign the path deform. Post back if you need some help!

[Andre Baros]

I haven't needed to do this myself, but isn't that what Real-Flow is for? Or the less powerful, less expensive alternative, Glu3D?

[dellis]

realflow would definetely do it...so would glue....but i think he wanted to stay inside of MAX without buying something extra. Those are great alternatives though...wish i could convince my boss to buy them!

[Andre Baros]

Yeah, but time is money. If you can bill the expense to the job and save a bunch of time than it's often worth it.

[dellis]

I agree with that....its always nice getting new tools and having someone else pay for them.

[stusic]

not so much when they're your pockets though. realflow's sweet, and well worth the money, but i'd want to know i'd get some use out of it.

[Darius]

Are u looking for the movement of the water or the realistic water material?

[stusic]

Are u looking for the movement of the water or the realistic water material?

A little bit of both, but it's more the water moving through the pipe that I'm having trouble with. Making an object that behaves like a fluid, but conforms to the shape of the pipe, all the while clearly showing the direction of flow is proving difficult.