Beyond the lesson

In this lesson you created an nParticle system and used Maya Fields to influence the behavior of the particles to create a smoke simulation effect. In addition, you learned how to:

• Use a volume emitter with an nParticle system.
• Use a Volume Axis field to create a disturbance in the path of your nParticles.

  You can also add other Maya fields, such as Turbulence, Radial, or Vortex fields to affect the behavior of nParticles.

• Adjust nParticle lifespan so that nParticles die off at the appropriate moment of your simulation.
• Use the Radius Scale ramp to map per-particle radius to nParticle age.
• Use the Opacity and Color attributes to define the color and thickness of the smoke.

  You can further optimize the color and thickness of the smoke by continuing to adjust the Opacity Scale and Color ramps.

• Create an Axial Magnitude ramp to control how a field’s Magnitude affects nParticles as they travel through the field's volume.

  You can fine tune your smoke simulation by adjusting the markers on the curve to produce the desired effect of turbulence as the smoke rises.

• Add Nucleus Wind to your nParticle effect. You can experiment with the Nucleus solver’s Wind Speed, Wind Density, and Wind Direction attributes to change the direction of the rising smoke.

For more information and related techniques about nParticles and Maya Fields, refer to the Maya Help.