The Process

A: Scene Data Setup & Export.

1. Open 3DS Max and open the start_tutorial.max scene.
2. Click the Time Configuration button.
3. Change the Frame Rate to ‘Custom’ and enter 12 FPS. Ensure that frame count is at least 40 frames.
   

4. Now to create the scene object(s) that we will export to RealFlow. Create two spheres of radius 7.5 and 8.0 units respectively.

   RealFlow integrates mesh objects into its particle/fluid simulation on the sub-object level. RealFlow will use mesh sub-object data to ‘recognize’ the physical surface dimensions of a mesh in relation to the thousands of fluid particles involved in a simulation. The mesh recognition occurs at the polygon sub-object level with an additional requirement known as triangulation: all polygons must be three-sided. Different applications use different methods to create triangulated meshes. In 3DS Max, the tessellate modifier will convert a four-sided polygon sub-object in a mesh to triangular polygons. In this tutorial, particles will not interact directly with an external mesh, so we do not need to be too concerned with the triangulation requirement. However, it is recommended that all exported meshes should be triangulated as a rule of thumb.

   

5. The spheres should be centered within the camera’s field of view and aligned with each other.
   
6. Select the innermost sphere with the 7.5 unit radius. Under the Utilities panel, click the ‘More’ button and select the Scene Data Saver utility.
   
7. Open SD Saver Settings and ensure that the selected sphere object is selected. Click the SET button to open the Sequence Interval Dialog and save the sequence as ‘water_sphere_tutorial.sd’. Remember where the scene data file is saved as you will need it in the next section.
   
8. At this point, you can close Max if you want. Resave your file before closing Max. You may view the 3DS Max scene at this point by opening the ‘Section_A.max’ file.