Page 1106 - Kitab3DsMax

Part X: Dynamic Animation
Water
The Water reactor object creates a realistic surface that acts and behaves like a liquid. For water, you can
specify its size in X- and Y-coordinate values and its subdivisions. Be aware that with inadequate subdivi-
sions, the water does not work realistically. The Landscape option lets you select a surround object that acts
like an object with which the water interacts.
You can also set the Wave Speed, Minimum and Maximum Ripple sizes, Density, Viscosity, and Depth. If
the Depth option is disabled, then the water has only surface effects.
reactor water is applied as a Space Warp. Space Warps aren’t rendered, so to see the water surface, you
need to create a Plane object and bind it to the Space Warp using the Bind to Space Warp icon on the main
toolbar.
Tutorial: Working with water
One of the coolest features of reactor is its ability to create and simulate the effects of water. Before you can
use water, you must have a model that can hold water.
To use reactor to create a body of water, follow these steps:
1. Open the Pool of water.max file from the Chap 43 directory on the DVD.
This file includes a pool to hold water created from primitives, along with three spheres of differ-
ent mass.
2. Select Animation ➪ reactor ➪ Create Objects ➪ Rigid Body Collection, and click in the Front view-
port. In the RB Collection Properties rollout, click the Add button and select all the Box and
Sphere objects. Then right-click to exit Rigid Body Collector mode.
3. Select Animation ➪ reactor ➪ Create Objects ➪ Water, and click and drag in the Top viewport to
create the water plane that fills the box. Then drag the water plane upward in the Left viewport to
move the water level toward the top of the box.
4. Select the left sphere in the Front viewport, and open the Property Editor with the
Animation ➪ reactor ➪ Open Property Editor menu command. Set the Mass value to 3 kg. Select
the middle sphere, and set its Mass to 100 kg, and then set the right sphere to 5000 kg.
5. Check the animation in the Preview window by selecting Animation ➪ reactor ➪ Preview
Animation. Press P to start the animation.
6. Record the animation keys with the Animation ➪ reactor ➪ Create Animation menu command.
7. Select Create ➪ Standard Primitives ➪ Plane, and drag in the Top viewport to create a Plane object
that is the same size and density as the Water plane. Then click the Bind to Space Warp button
on the main toolbar, and drag from the Plane to the Water Space Warp. Open the Material Editor,
and create a material that is light blue with an Opacity value of 20 and a Specular value of 75.
Drag this material to the Plane object.
Figure 43.8 shows the simulation in the Preview window. Notice how the mass values determine whether
the sphere floats or sinks.

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