Powerful new release thinkingParticle 6.2 ~ smokeOperators & atmosphericRendering effects!
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Released August 2015, Subscription Drop 2 is instantly downloadable for our valued Subscribers of thinkingParticles 6 via their Product Manager.
Subscribers can look forward to the all-new important vfx operators for smoke VFX with in-build real time rendering and Generator Operators.
In our ongoing desire to serve the needs and expectations of our customers, cebas VISUAL TECHNOLOGY Inc. is geared towards periodic releases of new Major Versions of its software. Our user community can expect continual enhanced features and stability for thinkingParticles for your vfx production as well as our rendering software. It is strongly recommended that, in pace with technology changes, you always keep your software up to date.
New features found in thinkingParticles 6 Subscription Drop 2
thinkingParticles Subscription Drop 2 comes packed with advanced new features that expands on the ever growing possibilities of visual effects for thinkingParticles. FX artists can now explore new ways of handling compressible fluid effects like smoke and gas, as well as build amazing rule-based interaction between the fluid bodies (smoke/fumes) and rigid bodies.
In addition to simulating gas flows efficiently in a physically realistic way, thinkingParticles 6.2 is now build with an amazing feature that renders instantly such gaseous effects such as smoke, clouds and fire.
This release is not only about advanced new features, many bug-fixes and workflow enhancements have also been added as part of your tool sets.
Valued Subscribers of cebas Visual Technology get ready to enjoy fully the benefits of continuous upgrades and new features that will show up as they become realized.
Find below a list of new features in this release
New in thinkingParticles 6.2 : ultimate Smoke Operators
A whole new category, ‘Smoke’ was added to the Operator drop down menu/section:
SmokeBoundary - this new operator is dedicated to handling smoke fluid and rigid body interactions.
SmokeGroup - this is the main smoke fluid operator used to adjust and control the smoke fluid simulation.
SmokeData - like any other fluid type in thinkingParticles; the smoke fluid comes
with a full set of simulation controls. SmokeData is used to access and modify those
settings on a per particle basis.
*SmokeSolver - let there be smoke! Every fluid system needs a solver in its core,
this operator represents the actual smoke fluid solver.
**SmokeRender - what good is smoke if you can't smell it ? Or in this case - see it? This unique render node controls the rendering of the smoke fluid effect. For the
first time; thinkingParticles 6 offers a fully procedural operator node to control
a rendering effect right from within thinkingParticles, controls in real time! (Please see below, under Smoke_atmospheric_renderer for the list of render enhancements.)
SmokeTRanges - rendering complex smoke fluids like fire, gas and burning stuff in general presents many challenges. Finding and adjusting the proper color to represent the burn rate of the gas matter becomes a child’s play with this new operator node.
Now tP users have a dedicated smokeShader built-in!
New in thinkingParticles 6.2: Smoke Atmospheric Renderer
thinkingParticles 6.2 atmospheric renderer offers multiple render elements that can be
used to enhance the look of smoke and fire effects in the post processing stage - more power at your finger tips. Find below a list of supported render elements.
CombustibleRenderElement
A render element that will only show the combustible components of the smoke effect. This can be used to efficiently add glow or color grading.
FlameRenderElement
This render element stores all flame components of the smoke effect. This allows the vfx artist to add extra glow or some color grading effects.
ZDepthRenderElement
An advanced highly optimized Z-Depth render element that accurately represents the distance to the clouds’ estimated average surface. This render element is the key to advanced depth of field effects with atmospherics.
TransparencyRenderElement
A render element that writes out a separate alpha channel for the complete smoke render effects.
NormalRenderElement
This render element writes out the estimated ‘surface normal’ of the smoke effect. This render element can be efficiently used to change lighting or other surface dependent effects for the smoke component.
SmokeRenderElement
This render element stores all the smoke components of the fluid effect. Use it to adjust color or intensities in a post process.
SmokeVelocityRenderElement
Atmospheric effects and motion blur are usually a hard thing to do. Normally atmospheric effects do not come with an option to render motion blur. thinkingParticles 6.2 Smoke Render engine allows to create proper motion blur with the help of this render element, as it stores all motion vectors of the fluid in one render element in multiple formats.
subscriptionDrop 2: greater control over how body elements interact using the powerful link between solvers! In this case, the smokeSolver and the bulletPhysics solver.
A popular VFX: the helicopter atmospheric effects comes easy with Drop 2: dust particles a-washed with whatever ground color choose! shadowCasting and colorMixing all at one go!
New in thinkingParticles 6.2: Direct Particle Rendering
thinkingParticles 6.2 is the first version to offer true direct volumetric particle point rendering. The SmokeRender operator does not only work with the newly introduced smoke fluid system, it is able to render all particles without a mesh (points in space). This is a very powerful feature and opens up new creative possibilities. All of this point rendering functionality stays fully procedural within the thinkingParticles context. This amazing feature also allows for parameter controls such as distance-temperature fall off.
New in thinkingParticles 6.2: the Initiator Operator
The Initiator menu section has a new operator!
PPassString - with this latest release of thinkingParticles’ 6 Subscription Drop 2, a new particle group access workflow has been introduced. Particle groups can now be accessed across ‘hierarchy trees’ just by their name or parts of their name. This new operator alone, opens up more powerful and efficient setups than it would have been possible ever before for VFX.
New Generator Operators
LayerToParticle - a powerful, brand new operator for thinkingParticles 6 offering the ability to automatically "import" objects from the 3ds Max scene into a thinkingParticles 6 simulation. Working with the standard 3ds Max layer system, one or multiple layers can be dedicated as an ‘import’ to thinkingParticles layer. Now, whenever a new object is created or moved to this layer - it will be automatically added to thinkingParticles.
LayerToParticleData - to support the functionality of the new LayerToParticle operator, a specialized LayerToParticleData operator has also been introduced.
Enhancements in Subscription Drop 2
The Camera Map operator now has new features that allows for some truly amazing magic tricks.
CameraMap - a new feature has been added to the CameraMap operator to allow it to "freeze" or memorize UV-coordinates at a specific time. Those UV-texture coordinates are then applied to a selected group of particles, to simulate the same UV camera mapping throughout the animation based on a specific frame or time in the simulation.
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