Animation Question

[h15c0r3r]

Good morning,

I wonder if someone could offer me some advice? I appreciate the below animation isn't really what KeyShot is designed to do but has anyone attempted to create something like this (the flow) and if so was it successful and what was the approach?

Unfortunately the analysis has been done in a package where I can't export a high quality animation.

http://frankvanderwalle.nl/headphone-air-flow-animation/

Many thanks in advance.
Mark

[designgestalt]

hello h15c0r3r,
(is that your name or your password? just kidding ...)
as you already said, this is not possible in KS!
you could do it in Blender i.e.
it is a somewhat simple particle simulation, the disturbtion could be achieved with a force field. Blender is free to use, particle simulation tutorials are on youtube...
you cannot import a particle simulation into KS, so you need to convert the particles into a mesh first in Blender and than export an alembic file.
this is probably not exactly what you wanted to hear, but I believe within a day scanning through tutorials etc. you should be able to do this in Blender.
if you are having problems, you can also PM me, maybe I can help you somehow...

cheers
designgestalt

[h15c0r3r]

Many thanks for your reply, it is much appreciated.

I'll take a look at Blender and see how I get on, thanks once again.

[TGS808]

so you need to convert the particles into a mesh first in Blender and than export an alembic file.

Have you done this successfully? I've never seen it done. Exporting particles from Blender as an alembic file (and then bringing them into KS) has never worked for me and in fact, I can find no info or steps anywhere on the web to achieve it. If you know the steps to making this happen could you share them? I've been able to convert them to mesh and bring them in as still objects, but never with any animation intact. Maybe I'm missing a step in Blender.

[designgestalt]

hello TGS808,
well, now you say it, it rang a bell ....
I haven´t had any issues lately, but this had to do with the kind of particle animations I did, which is why I forgot how much of a pain it sometimes can be ...

it is propably not as easy as it may read here, but it can be done ...
if you do it the way I mentioned, you tend to use the "convert" button in the particle system modifier tab, which ends in, as you mentioned, a single frame, so you ar e doing nothing wrong, it simply does not work that way ...

there are  a few options you have:
- particle instance: there is a modifier called "particle instance" which basically means, you copy the particle system you created onto a new part (mesh). so you choose the new mesh, add the modifier and choose the particle system you created before. you control the instance with the "old" particle setups. sound crazy, but that works for whatever reason...

- basically the first method with converting to mesh works as well, but you would need to have that done with each single frame. you can only achieve this (to my (limited) knowledge) with a script. if you need a script, let me know. this can take ages, depending on how many particles you have, but it actually works pretty good... the filesize is also much smaller and so easier to handle than with the particle instance modifier.

- funnily enough explosions work really nicely to export to KS ! if you use faces as the emitter source and dont use any objects in the render tab (these you would have to convert again...). you can still do quite a bit with these kind of particles with the right settings, i.e. this video here:
https://vimeo.com/411551456
was done like this ...

I hope that helped you a little...

cheers
designgestalt

[designgestalt]

@h15c0r3r

... and for what it´s worth, I spent a few minutes in Blender for a real quick´n dirty setup, which might help you getting started at least ...

[TGS808]

Thanks for the response . This isn't something I need to do often but has been on my "would be nice to be able to do this" list for a while. When I get a chance to try these options out, I'll let you know how is goes. (or doesn't go lol)

[TGS808]

I would be waiting to know about the results

As I mentioned, it's not something I have to do often and as such haven't really had time to give it a try. But if you're eager to find out, you could always try it yourself with the directions that were provided. Blender is free and I assume you have KeyShot so, give it a try and let us know how it works out for you. I'd be interested in hearing the results.