How to create blowing snow using 3ds Max, TyFlow, EmberGen, and Nvidia USD Composer - Tutorial
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In this tutorial I'll show you how to create blowing snow using 3ds Max, TyFlow, EmberGen, and render it in Nvidia Omniverse USD Composer (formerly Nvidia Omniverse Create). First I created a ground plane in 3ds Max with a noise modifier. I then used a TyFlow simulation to generate rocks, and baked the simulation to geometry using a TyMesher object set to "Input Geometry". I then created a second TyFlow simulation for the blowing snow particles. I used a plane with a texture map to birth particles based on an animated black and white image - this creates more variety in the wind movement to better mimic blowing snow. I also used a couple collision operators to spawn snow particles that collided with the rocks. Afterwards I used another TyFlow simulation to blanket the rocks and ground plane with snow, and meshed the particles as a blob mesh using another TyMesher object. Instead of using a shape operator - I exported these blowing snow particles using the "Export Particles" operator set to alembic export (houdini particles). This animated point data will be meshed using Geoprims in Nvidia Omniverse later on - which is a great way to keep your exported file sizes small. Once all of the scene 3D meshes were exported as USD's (eg. the rocks, ground, & snow cover) - I moved into EmberGen to simulate volumes for the blowing snow. First, I started with an EmberGen preset, and used a low poly snow mesh I exported out of 3ds Max as a collider. I then had the real time smoke simulation emit particles from this snow ground mesh, and used a force node to blow the smoke/snow up the mountain. This EmberGen simulation was then exported as an animated VDB sequence. In the last part of this tutorial, I'll show you how to import your USD exports into Nvidia Omniverse USD Composer for final rendering. I started with the animated VDB sequence, and then imported the rocks, ground, and TyFlow blowing snow particles (.abc). Added materials and tweaked the lighting, and animated simple camera movement, and finally rendered it out of Omniverse as an EXR sequence for compositing the final 3D animation in After Effects. And that's how to create a blowing snow simulation using 3ds Max, TyFlow, EmberGen, and Nvidia USD Composer.
For more information on animated VDB sequences in Nvidia Omniverse Create - I recommend watching this tutorial:
• NVIDIA Omniverse: Animated VDB Sequence Tu...
The code used in this video can be referenced here:
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USDA CODE:
asset inputs:volume_density_texture.timeSamples = {
0:@../EmberGen/EmberGenSnow_0000.vdb@,
1:@../EmberGen/EmberGenSnow_0001.vdb@,
2:@../EmberGen/EmberGenSnow_0002.vdb@,
3:@../EmberGen/EmberGenSnow_0003.vdb@,
4:@../EmberGen/EmberGenSnow_0004.vdb@,
5:@../EmberGen/EmberGenSnow_0005.vdb@,
}
PYTHON CODE:
import os
path_of_the_directory = 'XXXX'
object = os.scandir(path_of_the_directory)
vdb_dir= "@../EmberGen/"
print("Files and Directories in '% s':" % path_of_the_directory)
x=0
with open("c:/temp/output.txt", "a") as o:
print(x)
for n in object :
if n.is_dir() or n.is_file():
nstr = (f'{x}'+ ":" + vdb_dir + n.name + "@,\n")
print (nstr)
o.write(nstr)
x=x+1
object.close()
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For more 3ds Max, TyFlow, and Houdini content, please visit:
https://edstudios.ca/