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Fog, smoke, dust, and silt
Atmosphere
Change the visual effect of fog, smoke, or dust
Simulate fog, smoke, or dust
To simulate fog, smoke,
dust, or other atmospheric effects with Maya software rendering,
you create a volumetric primitive (shape) and assign one of Maya’s
volumetric materials to the shape.
ImportantEnvironment fog cannot cast shadows. If you
want to cast shadows, use Light Fog.
To
create environment fog
- In
the Render Options section of the Maya
Software tab of the Render Settings window,
click the map button beside the Environment Fog attribute. Maya
automatically creates an environment fog node and an environment
fog light node (an ambient light).
- Choose
between Simple Fog or Physical
Fog. For more information on each of these fog types,
see
Environment Fog.
- Place
the environment fog as desired. To position the environment fog interactively,
press the hotkey t to display the camera/light manipulators. Alternatively,
you can choose
Display > Rendering > Camera/Light
Manipulator and select among different types of light
manipulators.
For more information regarding manipulators,
see
Show, hide, or resize a light manipulator.
To
adjust the depth range for environment fog
- To
make environment fog fill a specific region (between two distances from
the camera), set Distance Clip Planes to Fog
Near/Far and adjust the Fog Near Distance and Fog
Far Distance attributes.
To adjust the vertical range for environment fog
- To make environment fog fill a specific
vertical region, turn on Use Height and
adjust the Min Height and Max
Height attributes. To make the edges of the region gradually
blend, adjust the Blend Range attribute.
To
create variations in environment fog’s density and color
- To create variations in the density and color
of environment fog across the camera’s view, turn on Use
Layer and assign a texture to the Layer attribute.
(You may need to limit the Blend Range,
and increase Volume Samples for the environment
fog shape to see the effect.)