RealFlow's force-based daemons are not exclusive to fluids, but they also affect rigid and soft bodies. Very nice effects can be achieved with rigid bodies and the “DSpline” daemon: in this short tutorial we want to make 40 chocolate buttons (aka also known as “M&M” or “Smarties”) follow a given path. When the objects are attracted by the daemons's forces they will organize themselves and form a tail-like arrangement.
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All elements, except the Smarties can be added from RealFlow's “Edit” menu:
- Add > Daemons | Camera
The Smarties can be created in your 3D software and exported as an Alembic or SD file. In RealFlow, objects are imported with
- Ctrl/Cmd + I
- RealFlow nodes can be moved, scaled, and rotated with the the W, R, andE keys E keys.
- Imported objects from SD files have to be unlocked before they can be transformed with with Selected object > Node Params > Node > SD ↔ Curve
- Viewport perspective is changed with the the 1, 2 2, 3, and 4, and 5 keys. The last key enables the camera's view. keys.
- Shading modes are toggled with the the 7, 8, 9, and and 0 keys keys.
Preparing the Smarties Objects
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Drag the timeline slider to frame where the animation should start.
Right-click on Node Params > Node > Position > Add key to create keys for all three axes.
Repeat the last step for the “Look At” parameter.
Shift the timeline slider to the next frame and set new keys.
Repeat these steps for the rest of the simulation range,
Open Layout > Export Central
Look for “CAMERAS”, check “SceneCamera0” “SceneCamera01” and open its branch.
Check “Animation (.sd)” and/or “Alembic Animation (.abc)” to activate the camera's export resources.
Simulate
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