Turn human character into water?

mavante

Okay, bear with me a minute: I'm working on an animation project where I'd like to have the hero of the piece (based on Lucas 8, but somewhat cartoonized) transmogrify into consisting entirely of water (retaining human shape), then liquefy and flow down some steps into the ocean.

Why I'd want to do something like this is neither here nor there, and not something I can say anyway, except that it's for a music video—so please move along, the usual "Why would you want to ..." denizens.

I know that I already will have to do the transition in post; I'm planning to make that happen in FCPX with crossfading if I can render a complete animation totally in (clothed) human form, and then recreate the exact animation with the character as a waterform.

Do any DS mavens have any suggestions on how I might go about such madness for the "water form" part? Is it possible to change out all the skin, hair, and clothing textures with a water texture or shader, and use the "animate textures" script to give the water form some internal motion?

If I can pull off that part, I think I might be able to use Fluidos then to create the part where the character liquefies entirely and flows down the steps into the sea.

If you got this far, thanks for sticking with it, and any and all suggestions will be welcomed.

Alberto

mavante said:

Is it possible to change out all the skin, hair, and clothing textures with a water texture or shader, and use the "animate textures" script to give the water form some internal motion?

Yes, it is possible. Apply a water shader to all the figure's surfaces.

This is a Fluidos' example. This was done in Carrara, but the procedure is the same.

I used the original texture, but you can use a water shader instead.

Enclose the figure in a Fluidos domain. Mark it as a Fluid mass. Use high resolution (the Fluidos' included scripts or Fluidos Companion can help to set the proper cell size parameter). The anisotropic reconstruction (main settings of Domain) is better, although slower to run.

Using viscosity will slow the liquefaction.

Set the shader you wish on the mesher. I assume you want a water shader. For the figure itself, you can apply the same shader

mavante

Alberto said:

mavante said:

Yes, it is possible. Apply a water shader to all the figure's surfaces.

Thanks very much for your comprehensive reply, Alvin. This gives me hope, at least—although I am a long way from your expertise in all things 3D, and of course in your amazing plug-in.

I'm working now on trying to get the right water shader on all of a character's surfaces so he appears as pure water. Fiddling with trying to get it correctly translucent, reflective, and refractive is so far a bit of a challenge.

Once I get to the Fluidos stage—when he's completed his motion animation and is in a pose to have him fully "liquefy"—your instructions have helped me understand how I can accomplish that part by marking the figure as a fluid mass.

Thanks very much indeed! 

Alberto

mavante said:

Alberto said:

mavante said:

Yes, it is possible. Apply a water shader to all the figure's surfaces.

Thanks very much for your comprehensive reply, Alvin. This gives me hope, at least—although I am a long way from your expertise in all things 3D, and of course in your amazing plug-in.

I'm working now on trying to get the right water shader on all of a character's surfaces so he appears as pure water. Fiddling with trying to get it correctly translucent, reflective, and refractive is so far a bit of a challenge.

Once I get to the Fluidos stage—when he's completed his motion animation and is in a pose to have him fully "liquefy"—your instructions have helped me understand how I can accomplish that part by marking the figure as a fluid mass.

Thanks very much indeed! 

You're welcome!

mavante

Alvin, if you're still strolling these parts: I seemed to have managed to get this to work, mostly, so far—except when the fluid hits the "floor" the character is standing on, it spreads out in all directions, hitting the invisible "walls" of the domain, left, right, and back. Only some of it flows down the steps in front of the character. I have a cuboid "sink" at the bottom of the stairs, within the Fluidos domain, and just under the surface of the surrounding water, but it isn't "attracting" the fluid.

I have read and reread what's avaialable about "forces" in the existing documentation, and I'm sorry, but it just isn't sufficient to give my addled brain any idea of how to use them or how to set their settings. Is there a force I can use that will "pull" most of the fluid, when it hits the floor, forward, so it flows down the "stone" steps and into the surrounding water (or perhaps more specifically, into the "sink" that's under the surcface of the water)? Any tips or help you can give me if you get a chance would be most appreciated.

EDITED TO ADD: Well, I threw caution to the wind and may have answered my own question; I added a Directional force starting at the character's feet, aimed it generally down the steps, and so far it seems to have worked. Probably. Maybe.

Running a render now, which will take several hours on my Model A computer, but the preview seemed to have things all flowing down the steps as needed and wanted.

P.S. Just for anyone who is interested: when I put water shaders on the Fluidos mesher, the character was always too transparent. I tried several, but then as a lark I decided to try a glass shader. I used one of the shaders that comes with DAZ Studio—can't get to it now because of the rendering, but I think it was something like Solid Glass Light Green Tinted (with some kind of dispersive quality). I changed the base color and the transmittal color to something a little more vibrant and blue, and so far the results are surprisingly akin to what I envisioned.

Alberto

mavante said:

Alvin, if you're still strolling these parts: I seemed to have managed to get this to work, mostly, so far—except when the fluid hits the "floor" the character is standing on, it spreads out in all directions, hitting the invisible "walls" of the domain, left, right, and back. Only some of it flows down the steps in front of the character. I have a cuboid "sink" at the bottom of the stairs, within the Fluidos domain, and just under the surface of the surrounding water, but it isn't "attracting" the fluid.

I have read and reread what's avaialable about "forces" in the existing documentation, and I'm sorry, but it just isn't sufficient to give my addled brain any idea of how to use them or how to set their settings. Is there a force I can use that will "pull" most of the fluid, when it hits the floor, forward, so it flows down the "stone" steps and into the surrounding water (or perhaps more specifically, into the "sink" that's under the surcface of the water)? Any tips or help you can give me if you get a chance would be most appreciated.

EDITED TO ADD: Well, I threw caution to the wind and may have answered my own question; I added a Directional force starting at the character's feet, aimed it generally down the steps, and so far it seems to have worked. Probably. Maybe.

Running a render now, which will take several hours on my Model A computer, but the preview seemed to have things all flowing down the steps as needed and wanted.

P.S. Just for anyone who is interested: when I put water shaders on the Fluidos mesher, the character was always too transparent. I tried several, but then as a lark I decided to try a glass shader. I used one of the shaders that comes with DAZ Studio—can't get to it now because of the rendering, but I think it was something like Solid Glass Light Green Tinted (with some kind of dispersive quality). I changed the base color and the transmittal color to something a little more vibrant and blue, and so far the results are surprisingly akin to what I envisioned.

Hi, Mavante,

As you have found, the Fluidos sinks aren't "attractors", they only take away the fluid that enters in their space., but don't exert any force on the fluid. On the other hand, Fluidos forces can do that, as you saw using a Directional force. The linear forces are more local forces and could direct the flow more precisely.

I wish I could give more precise guidance but I'm not sure how is your scene setup and how is the intended flow path. Could you show me an image?

mavante

Alberto said:

Hi, Mavante,

As you have found, the Fluidos sinks aren't "attractors", they only take away the fluid that enters in their space., but don't exert any force on the fluid. On the other hand, Fluidos forces can do that, as you saw using a Directional force. The linear forces are more local forces and could direct the flow more precisely.

I wish I could give more precise guidance but I'm not sure how is your scene setup and how is the intended flow path. Could you show me an image?

Hi Alvin,
Yes, I learned pretty quickly that sinks are not "attractors." 

I checked with the person I'm doing this animation for, and he asked that I not post any images from it here, so I have to honor my NDA. If it's allowed by the forum, he said I could post a link to the finished video when it's done. If I can do that, I will be acknowledging all the DAZ products used in its creation, and Fluidos will definitely be among them.

I got it to work in a way that we'll just say was "good enough for the animation." Once I got over my trepidations about using the Fluidos forces, and applied the Directional force, the water from the "mass" of the character went essentially where I wanted it  to--down the steps. The only real problem I encountered is that it "collapsed" so darn fast. Because of deadline factors, I simply couldn't get into a lot of fiddling around and experimentation with viscosity settings, so I just let 'er rip, and rendered it at 30 fps, then 15 fps, then 10 fps. The last one, 10 fps, looks closest to what I envisioned, has about the right "timing" for the music video section, and doesn't look "jerky," so that's the one I am likely going to use (or maybe a faster one, and retime it in FCP).

Thanks again very much for your interest and input.

 

Alberto

mavante said:

Alberto said:

Hi, Mavante,

As you have found, the Fluidos sinks aren't "attractors", they only take away the fluid that enters in their space., but don't exert any force on the fluid. On the other hand, Fluidos forces can do that, as you saw using a Directional force. The linear forces are more local forces and could direct the flow more precisely.

I wish I could give more precise guidance but I'm not sure how is your scene setup and how is the intended flow path. Could you show me an image?

Hi Alvin,
Yes, I learned pretty quickly that sinks are not "attractors." 

I checked with the person I'm doing this animation for, and he asked that I not post any images from it here, so I have to honor my NDA. If it's allowed by the forum, he said I could post a link to the finished video when it's done. If I can do that, I will be acknowledging all the DAZ products used in its creation, and Fluidos will definitely be among them.

I got it to work in a way that we'll just say was "good enough for the animation." Once I got over my trepidations about using the Fluidos forces, and applied the Directional force, the water from the "mass" of the character went essentially where I wanted it  to--down the steps. The only real problem I encountered is that it "collapsed" so darn fast. Because of deadline factors, I simply couldn't get into a lot of fiddling around and experimentation with viscosity settings, so I just let 'er rip, and rendered it at 30 fps, then 15 fps, then 10 fps. The last one, 10 fps, looks closest to what I envisioned, has about the right "timing" for the music video section, and doesn't look "jerky," so that's the one I am likely going to use (or maybe a faster one, and retime it in FCP).

Thanks again very much for your interest and input.

 

You're welcome.

OK, this information is enough to figure out.

To reduce the rate of collapsing, reduce the strength of all the forces. This includes your directional force and the Body forces at Domain's main settings (change the -9.81 to -1.0 or so). 

 

mavante

Alberto said:

To reduce the rate of collapsing, reduce the strength of all the forces. This includes your directional force and the Body forces at Domain's main settings (change the -9.81 to -1.0 or so). 

Doh! Well, I don't think I'm going to re-render the anim again (never say "never"), but this is very helpful info to have for any future similar projects. It is truly an amazing product you have created, and I heartily recommend it. Thank you again for your interest and help.