Large Scale Explosion

In my last tutorial in December edition, i mentioned about Thermodynamics. Well here and for any kind of fluid based fire and smoke effects or solution, it's all related to the core principle and the fundamental procedure of Thermodynamics. This explosion is stylized large scale explosion. Nevertheless this tutorial is not very different from past last tutorials from my previous edition.
Pre-Process
Okay so in order to make the simulation happen, we need to make a quick and small fluid emitter.So create a plane and give this following settings.
Part 1
Setting up Particle System
This effect has been simulated via Particle Flow. Even a small amount of particles can create great effect. It's just the matter of few tweaking.
Follow these steps carefully to achieve this effect.
- Hit "6" to open Particle flow. And create a standard flow. Now remove "Shape , Rotation" from the local event.
- Rename this event as "PFS_LSE_Engine"
- Now select your global event "PF Source 001" and go to its parameter and make this changes.
Emission Parameter....
- Logo size :- 10.0
- Icon type :- Rectangle
- Length = 20
- Width = 20
- Viewport Quantity Multiplier = 100.0%
- Render Quantity Multiplier = 100.0%
System Management Parameter....
- Upper Limit (Particle Amount) = 1000000000
- Viewport Integration steps = Half Frame
- Render Integration steps = Half Frame
Script. Leave this section alone. Well and f you can script it, you may go ahead.
- Now once you have finished adding details to your global event make sure to save the file as "LargeScale_Explosion_Start".
- Now we have to create 4 initial events which will drive our explosions.
- Moving to the local event (Event 001). Make these following changes as instructed.
- Birth Operator...
- Emit Start = 1
- Emit Stop = 2
- Amount = 2000
- Make sure Sub-frame Sampling check box is on.
Position Icon = Place your position icon to "Volume".
Speed Operator...
- Speed = 2000.0
- Variation = 500.0
- Speed Direction = Along Icon Arrow
- Reverse ON
- Divergence = 84.0
Delete Operator = By Particle Age (3 / 1).
Display = Make sure you have display operator placed in your local event 001. You can choose any display mode you want. (Dots is preferable ).
- Moving to the local event (Event 002). Make these following changes as instructed.
Birth Operator...
- Emit Start = 1
- Emit Stop = 2
- Amount = 1500
- Make sure Sub-frame Sampling check box is on.
Position Icon = Place your position icon to "Volume".
Speed Operator...
- Speed = 1000.0
- Variation = 300.0
- Speed Direction = Along Icon Arrow
- Reverse ON
- Divergence 69
- Delete Operator = By Particle Age (3 / 1).
- Display = Make sure you have display operator placed in your local event 001. You can choose any display mode you want. (Dots is preferable ).
- Moving to the local event (Event 003). Make these following changes as instructed.
Birth Operator...
- Emit Start = 1
- Emit Stop = 2
- Amount = 500
- Make sure Sub-frame Sampling check box is on.
Position Icon = Place your position icon to "Volume".
Speed Operator...
- Speed = 800.0
- Variation = 550.0
- Speed Direction = Along Icon Arrow
- Reverse ON
- Divergence = 45.0
Delete Operator = By Particle Age (1 / 2).
Display = Make sure you have display operator placed in your local event 001. You can choose any display mode you want. (Dots is preferable ).
- Moving to the local event (Event 004). Make these following changes as instructed.
Birth Operator...
- Emit Start = 1
- Emit Stop = 2
- Amount = 2000
- Make sure Sub-frame Sampling check box is on.
Position Icon = Place your position icon to "Volume".
Speed Operator...
- Speed = 1500.0
- Variation = 600.0
- Speed Direction = Along Icon Arrow
- Reverse ON
- Divergence = 55.0
Delete Operator = By Particle Age (3 / 1).
Display = Make sure you have display operator placed in your local event 001. You can choose any display mode you want.

Part 2
Setting up Fume FX Simulation
1) Now in order to set up Fume FX you need to create a container in which all effects is simulated.
2) Now let us set up Fume FX data and make it ready for visual presentation.
3) Go to the standard primitive and hit the drop down menu/sector and hit Fume FX
4)Now create the container just like you create a box from geometry. And after you create that container , go to he modifier panel to open FFX_GUI and its related parameters.
5) Now make sure which version of Fume FX you are using . I am using Fume FX 3.0.1. Since there has been major changes in latest version of Fume FX. Loading your latest files in older version may prompt you few messages.
6) This tutorial and its file can be opened into any version of Fume FX you any have.
7) I have used only the very basic techniques to acquire the result. No advance system from latest Fume FX version has been used.
8) Now Fume FX contains 4 main and important menus and 6 very important tabs.
9) Simulation Tab is the main engine of Fume FX. We'll swim more into that part.
10) Now what I'll do is , I'll make it a simpler as it can be for you to understand this section.
11) I'll break this Fume FX part into 2 sub=-sectors. One we'll add particle into our source and second we'll majorly tweak settings from FFX GUI.
Part 2.1.A
Setting up Fume FX Simulation Source
1) First of all save your file as "LargeScale_Explosion_WIP".
2) Second is go to the Helper section and hit drop down menu and hit Fume FX and select "Particle Source".
3) Select your particle flow you have created earlier into its Fume FX source stack.
4) Amend these settings as given below.
Radius = 12.692
Variation = 10.0
Velocity Multiplier = 1.65
Variation = 10.0
Fuel = (Add type , Amount = 100.0 , Variation = 10.0)
Temperature = (Add type , Amount = 2000.0 , Variation = 10.0Z)

Part 2.2.B
Setting up Fume FX GUI
1) Now what i'll do is i'll jot down each and every value from every tab. Rather than tweaking values from tabs in between can create confusion for you guys.
2) We'll start from FFX General tab. Now the general tab contains 4 sub-tabs mainly General Parameters , Output , Playblast , 3ds max script.
General Parameters sub-tab changes.
1) Spacing = 2.5
2) Width = 1500.0
3) Length = 2500.0
4) Height = 3000.0
5) Adaptive CHECKBOX ON
6) Sensitivity = MIXED
7) Threshold = 0.01
8) Size = 600 x 1000 x 1200
9) Simulation upto 31586 and Render upto 17583 are my values for final result. You may choose your own desired value. But remember do not low you spacing too much.
10) Output sub-tab changes.
11) Start Frame = 0
12) End Frame = 100
13) Viewport Update = 1
14) Exported Channels = Fuel , Smoke , Temperature , Velocity.
15) Make sure that you set your default path to one folder for caching out the entire simulation.
Playback sub-tab changes.
1) Play From = 0
2) Play To = 100
3) Start Frame = 0, while the rest remains the same
4)Now let's deepen inside Sim sub tab.

Simulation Sim sub-tab parameters.
- Solver = Conjugate Solver (Architectural Solver has not yet been included in Fume FX)
- Quality = 9
- Maximum Iteration = 120
- CFL Condition = 5.0
- Maximum Simulation Steps = 1.0
- Advection Stride = 2.5 (Produces smaller curls)
- Time Scale = 0.85
- System sim sub-tab parameters.
- Gravity = 1.0
- Vorticity = 1.0
- Rest remains unchanged.
Turbulence Noise.
- Scale = 1.0
- Frame = 12.0
- Details = 5.0
- Offset = 0.0
Blocking Sides system.
- X Axis = NONE
- Y Axis = NONE
- Z Axis = -Z Axis.
Now let's move towards Fuel Sub-Tab from SimTab. Once of the most important tab
Ignition Temperature = 100.0
Burn Rate = 5.0
Burn Rate Variation = 0.5
Heat Production = 10.0
Expansion = 3.0
Fuel create smoke CHECK BOX ON
Smoke Density = 5.0 (Much Denser smoke)
Rest of all sub-tabs remains unchanged.
Check the snapshot below.

- Alright done till here , let's move to Render Tab, we do not want any extra details like Fluid mapping and Wavelet turbulent.
- RenderTab contains again main sub-tabs , now we'll focus only the workable tabs.
RenderTab Rendering Parameters SubTab changes.
- StepSize = 5.0%
- While rest remains unchanged.
Fire SubTab changes.
- Fire Color = 0.6
- Fire Opacity = 1.0
- For shader plz look at the screenshot provided below.
Smoke SubTab chages.
1) Ambient Color = R,G,B = 26,26,26
2) Opacity = 22.0
3) For shader plz look at the screenshot provided below.
Smoke Shader Values and RGB Color
1) Key 1 = Position (0.00) = R = 7 , G = 3 , B = 3
2) Key 2 = Position (48.38) = R = 137 , G = 120 , B = 120
3) Key 3 = Position (100.00) = R = 27 , G = 27 , B = 27
4) Fire Shader Values and RGB Colors.
5) Key 0 = Position (0.00) = R = 58 , G = 21 , B = 3
6) Key 5 = Position (2.10) = R = 255 , G = 108 , B = 0
7) Key 1 = Position (4.57) = R = 91 , G = 0 , B = 0
8) Key 3 = Position (7.43) = R = 144 , G = 76 , B = 3
9) Key 2 = Position (9.33) = R = 34 , G = 11 , B = 0
10) Key 4 = Position (52.00) = R = 0 , G = 0 , B = 0
11) Key 1 = Position (100.00) = R = 0 , G = 0 , B = 0
12) OK make a habit of saving the file.
13) Alright now taking final step. Go to last tab "obj/src" , there you'll find an empty stack . Add Particle Src you have created earlier. Also you'll notice that once you load that source in FFX GUI , a newly empty stack will be highlighted below. Add you Pf Source inside that Fume FX Particle source.
14)See the screenshot below.
15)OK now let's save our file.
16) If you notice my next screenshot. I have implemented lights and camera.

- Now before you start you simulation , save you file and if you hit simulation button , it won't simulate. So the proper order is to save simulation file first.
- Go to the Genera tab and inside output sub-tab you'll find output path. Just next to that there will be a small channelbox . Hit that box. It will open and will ask us to save our cache file. Save the file as "FFX_Scanline_Plumer_.fxd". Now ".fxd" defines fumefx data, which is the cache file been calculated on the overall values we have amended in FFX GUI.
- Lets save our file as "Scanline_Plumer_Finished" and simulate out file.


