Realflow, or how to get closer to my Boat

Yesterday, my dad bought a boat. A tiny one, to go fishing on the river next to our house, the Seine (in France). I was happy for him, and then he told me: "Just saying, but it seems I got my boat before you." Enjoy it, father, enjoy it... because one day, I'll get a Battleship! By the way, have you seen the movie? I did, and I loved it. I'm pretty sure they used Realflow in it (see how I'm coming back to the subject? subtle and all...)

 Anyway, for a few months I've tried to learn the software Realflow. My friend and former Professor Ben Bays gave me the opportunity to make a few VFX shots in his soon to come fake trailer Space Station Caveman. The trailer is just an excuse to throw a bunch of awesome VFX ideas in one minute. Plus he gets to play a caveman, which is pretty cool considering his awesome beard and hairs.

In some of the trailer shots, there is supposed to be water involved, and I was given those shots. I've never made anything with water before (the sea in the pirate project is just Maya ocean), so it was a good opportunities to learn about it. After a few tries with Maya, I realized it wouldn't work. I needed a software dedicated to water simulations. That's how I discovered Realflow. My first try with it was a liquid title splashing to the ground. I was pretty happy with the result, even if the render time sucked (everything with a watery shader takes forever to render...).



Then, following a tutorial, I covered a title with cream.

 

 After that, I tried a more viscous version of the same effect. However, my substeps were not high enough, and unfortunately some particles are flying in the scene. But I like the viscous part.

 

 It was time to come back to water, with the classic "water poured into a glass" video. Again, something went wrong, and the water doesn't fill as fast as it should. Probably an internal or external pressure issue.

 

 And finally, the even more classic glass of wine falling to the ground. I've used DMM for breaking the glass, and I think it's slowed down the simulation. It took several days to simulate, mesh and render it, all that to realize that there was a problem with the liquid simulation, which was meshed into too tiny pieces. But I like the video anyway.

 

 The next Realflow videos I'll be posting will be the ones from Space Station Caveman project. It should be a tower falling from the sky and splashing into the ocean, and a spaceship under water taking off. I really hope they will look cool enough, because I'm running into so many problems right now that I can't be sure of anything anymore.