Manual Linking

Owned by thomas (Unlicensed)
Last updated: 15 May, 2018
2 min read

RealFlow | Maya's multi-physics solver is capable of calculating interactions between different fluids, materials, and rigid/elastic deformers:

  • A RealFlow node's "Linked Domains" field is of particular importance, because it defines which scene elements will be able to interact, react on daemons, or collide with objects. 
  • In terms of linking, rigid and elastic deformer are treated in exactly the same way as fluids – and it is even possible to combine deformer and fluids.
  • There is a simple rule: Interacting scene elements have to be connected through their "Linked Domain" fields.

Example 1

In this example the two fluid containers, A and B, are able to interact with each other and both fluids are affected by a "Gravity" daemon:

 

  

Left: Fluid_A | Centre: Fluid B | Right: Gravity

Example 2

Let's keep the setup from above, but this time we add a "k Age" daemon that will only delete particles from "Fluid_B":

 

A "k_Age" daemon is connected to Fluid_B only.

Example 3

Of course, every fluid container needs its own emitter to create particles. "Fluid"_A" is attached to "Emitter_A", B to B. To attach an emitter right-click on the "Fluid" field and choose "Set Fluid".

 

Left: Emitter_A | Right: Emitter_B
Emitters can only be attached to one fluid container!

 

Example 4

Now we also add a collision object to catch the particles. Collision objects are defined through a "Collider", which has to be aware of the two fluid containers as well:

 

Both "Fluid_A" and "Fluid_B" will interact with the object.