brian alvarez : fx : lighting : compositing

Found out there is a way to emit fluids from a texture without the use of particles. It’s a lot like emitting particles from a texture, but with fluids. Very handy for something like a match burning.

The problem is, it doesn’t work right out of the box. The Maya SDK comes with the source files to compile the simpleFluidEmitter plugin. But fortunately, I came across one’s that are already compiled for Windows and Linux:

Windows: simpleFluidEmitter.mll (Tested in Vista 32-bit, Maya 2009, author unknown)
Linux: simpleFluidEmitter.so (Compiled and tested in 64 bit Centos/RHEL Linux, Maya 2009, author Brian Krusic)

Place the plugin file in the /bin/plug-ins folder located in your Maya folder. Open Maya and load the plugin in the Settings/Preferences/Plug-in Manager.

1) Create the emitter: createNode simpleFluidEmitter;
2) Plug it into your surface: addDynamic fluidEmitter1 “Your Object” (no quotations)
3) Create a ramp and hook that up to the emitter by using the connection editor: ramp outColor > simpleFluidEmitter texture rate (fluid emits from white)
4) Connect the emitter to the fluid using the dynamic relationship editor and make sure the emitter emits from “Surface”.

Good luck!