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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 can be difficult to get a good mesh from just a few hundreds or thousands of particles. Those meshes often look blobby and muddy, not like water:

 

Meshes with default settings created from simulations with 5000 and 92000 particles

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 change:

  • "Resolution" determines the mesh's level of quality, and better settings will create more but 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 achieve you should take a look at "Smooth":

  • "Smooth" controls how strong the individual spheres will be blended together. 
  • A starting value around 4 or 5 is good. Higher values will remove more detail from the mesh.

 

The mesh from above with higher "Resolution" and smoothing.

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.

 

The same mesh shows more details with "Thinning" and "Relax".

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)".

Modifying the Mesh

Cinema 4D's defomers ("Bend", "Bulge", "Twist", "Taper", etc.) can be applied to a "Mesher". To use them, the meshes do not have to made editable.

For still images we recommend making the mesh editable. Then it is possible to work on the mesh's topology and modify its structure.

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