Meshing is the process of turning a particle cloud into a solid object. Although meshing requires a little experience to get a feeling for how the parameters play together, there is a simple rule of thumb:
- The more particles, the better the mesh.
It is very difficult to get a good mesh from just a few hundreds or thousands of particles. Those meshes normally look blobby and muddy, and not like water.
Resolution, Radius, Smooth
When you start with your adjustments on the mesh you should always try the default settings to get an idea of which parameters you have to adjust:
- "Resolution" determines the mesh's level of quality, and better settings will create more and smaller polygons.
- "Radius" is the size of the spheres RealFlow | Cinema 4D creates around the particles to blend them together. With high values meshes often look thick and blobby, low values create a torn look.
So, the art is to find a balance between "Resolution" and "Radius". Since this balance is sometimes difficult to get you should take a look at "Smooth":
- "Smooth" controls how strong the individual spheres will be blended together.
- A starting value around 3 or 4 is good. Higher values will remove more detail from the mesh.
Thinning, Relax
Another very common mistake is the extensive use of the "Thinning" and "Relax" filters:
- These parameters are applied to sharpen a mesh's border, but very high settings may create the look of liquid metal.
- Start with moderate "Relax" values, e.g. 0.1, and increase the number of "Relax Iterations" instead (e.g. 5) to get better control.
- "Thinning" will shrink the mesh and when the value is too high the mesh will not match the underlying particle cloud anymore.
Building the Mesh
At the moment, particle simulation and meshing are connected: when the mesh sequence is being cached, the particle simulation will always be performed as well.
Individual meshes for testing purposes can be created though:
- "Auto Build". When enabled the mesh will be created automatically when you change a parameter from the "Mesh" tab.
- "Build" Mesh". A click on this button triggers the mesh creation process.
Once you are ready go to Scene > Cache and press "Cache Simulation". The meshes will be created and saved to the location specified under "Cache Folder (Mac OS X | Windows)".