FumeFX to VrayVolumeGrid
Sep 18, 2015 by CGP Staff
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Author: Michael Stark
Software used: 3DS Max, V-Ray (Max version), FumeFX (Max version), Phoenix
Subjects: Import/Export
A tutorial by Michael Stark on how to export .field3d data from FumeFX and load it into a VrayVolumeGrid for rendering. V-Ray’s volumetric effect provides faster rendering and is more flexible, allowing to light using GI lights and receive bounce lighting. You can see a comparison of the two methods in a video of a large scale explosion made recently by Polish artist Michał Grądziel. Watch Michael Stark’s tutorial on Vimeo.
the .field3d format is old and slow. Using this in vray volume grid isn’t great at all. Trying to control it is a pain and again it’s so slow not worth the effort.
In Fume it’s the best option there is. I find it far easier to control than Fume. I’d rather do it this way and have more time to iterate. I’m going to to convert using Stoke to .VDB and see how that fares. And I don’t know where you are getting that it isn’t great at all when the results are clearly evident that it’s faster…Just because it’s not working for you the way you want, doesn’t mean it’s the same for everyone else.
I’ve got to say that this is 100% the way to go if you’re rendering with VRay. I’d always given up on multiple scattering in FumeFX when deadlines were looming as it takes so long to render. This method is great because not only are the final renders going to be faster, but being able to iterate so quickly affords you the time to get the perfect result.
The only problem that I’ve run into – and I’m not sure if it’s something I’m doing wrong – but when I have multiple volume grids in the same scene, rendering becomes unworkable. When I render a frame with 1 volume grid at 1920×1080 it’s rendering in 4-5 minutes. Duplicating the same volume grid causes rendering times to hit over 5 hours! Any ideas why?
Also FYI, FumeFX 4.0 now exports to .VDB
I can’t get the VRay Volume Grid to render the FumeFX .f3d file. I get an Error message saying it cannot load the Phoenix Shader…any one know anything about this?
How to match v-ray volume grid position to the same, which was in my fumefx simulation? So when i open VDB sequence in volume grid it will take same place in scene where was original fumefx sim. How to do that??? Thanks!