This tutorial will guide you through creating a fluid dynamic simulation of swir

ling water inside a glass

sphere. Next Limit RealFlow 4 and AutoDesk 3DS Max are used in the tutorial.
The goal of this tutorial is to animate a small body of water inside a spherical
container using Next
Limitâ s fluids engine, RealFlow. The water inside the container will be generated by
the RealFlowâ s
particle system and fluid motion acheived using a combination of fluid dynamic s
ettings and force fields
native to the RealFlow simulation tool. The completed animation will be rendered
within a 3D graphics
application such as 3D Studio Max.
RealFlow is unique in that it is the first commercially available product to mar
ry two previously
functionally distinct approaches to real-world graphics simulation: particle sys
tems and physics
engines.
The RealFlow fluid simulation engine permits the realistic simulation of complex
interactions between
fluids and solids by merging a particle and physics engine to more accurately in
tegrate and control the
behavior of fluidic mass and surfaces with that of rigid and soft bodies.
As a physical simulator, RealFlowâ s true value lies in returning ultimate control of
the physics simulation
process back to the user via a wide selection of simple modifiers that control f
luid behavior and
interaction, thus allowing fine-tuning of the physical characteristics of the el
ements within a simulation
according to a set of user-defined parameters.
The integration of RealFlow with other 3D platforms depends on a two-way transfe
r of scene data
between it and third party 3D applications like 3DStudio MAX, Maya, LightWave, X
SI or Cinema 4D.
These various applications employ different methods for transferring data in and
out of RealFlow.
In this tutorial, scene data representing the objects we want in our animation w
ill be exported from 3D
Studio Max into RealFlow where it will used in the fluid simulation. The resulti
ng animation will be
imported back into 3D Studio Max as part of our scene and rendered. The tutorial
is divided into three
sections.
Setting up the scene data within our third party 3D application and exporting it
t