phoenix fd 3.0 for maya
| | PRICE £132-£980 COMPANY Chaos Group website www.chaosgroup.com/phoenix-fd/maya
Check out this smoke and explosion-simulating plug-in
Chaos Group’s user-friendly particle simulation plug-in, Phoenix FD has the tag line ‘Fluid Dynamics for Artists.’ As I’ve struggled with many simulation plug-ins throughout my career, this sounds like music to my ears, and I wanted to know if it really works.
I was recently involved with a project that was Bifrost heavy, and it was my role to create various ocean-based simulations. I like Bifrost – it’s a very powerful tool. But to be honest, sometimes it can feel like a chore to use, especially if you are new to it and don’t understand the way it handles units or scale.
As Bifrost is a direct competitor of Phoenix FD for Maya, I thought the ultimate test would be to pit them both against each other. At the end of the day, Bifrost comes with Maya, so if that does the job, then why bother paying extra for a similar plug-in?
frosty test
For my test, I set up a simple scene – a spherical emitter pouring water into a glass vessel – and gave myself a 30-minute limit to see how much I could do in that time.
First, having had some experience with it, I applied a Bifrost simulation. I immediately had an issue with the scene scale and the vessel leaking, but after about half an hour of tinkering I managed to get a workable simulation. It certainly wasn’t perfect, but I had managed to hit my time limit.
It was now time to see what Phoenix FD could do. Within five minutes I had a simulation that, to me, looked far superior. This half an hour also included the time it took to familiarise myself with the tools. This was just a quick test, but my initial impression of Phoenix FD was very promising.
Of course, liquids are just one of the many simulations on offer with Phoenix FD. You can create realistic fire, smoke, explosions, splashes and spray to name but a few.
All these effects can also be achieved quickly through the quick preset shelf. Select a source model, click the explosion button, for example, play the simulation and you have an explosion. It’s as simple as that. You also get a lowresolution Gpu-based preview right in the viewport.
I like Phoenix FD 3.0. It is smart, intuitive and takes the strain out of creating complex simulations; so if time is money, then you should consider purchasing this software.