PyCloid for Carrara particle system plugin - Render and discussion thread
3drendero
Posts: 2,024
Seems that there is very little discussion or renders using the free PyCloid for Carrara particle system, so I will start one and hope that others can join in.
Get the plugin itself with some samples here:
http://www.f1oat.org/pycloid/download.html
The main page has some info and example videos: http://www.f1oat.org/pycloid/index.html
Here is one of the samples that I modified a little, the Collision example but the particles are changed to water.
Needs some work since the water seems to leak.
Post edited by 3drendero on
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This is the Fluid box sample that is included with PyCloid, a little modified:
https://youtu.be/-MWw9igB4i0
Thanks for this
I try to use Pycloid for a very long time and I always have problems.
When I load a scene demo., all is well.
If I modify it (addition of objects etc), it is the crash !
I have a little hope again with this thread, thank you!
So far I have played around with the samples for about 3 hours with no crash. Running Carrara 8.5 Pro in Win7 64bit.
Just the usual slowdowns when adding too many particles and too many polygons, but the Stop button and ESC works fine.
There are some strange graphical bugs with the "fluid" when selecting "isosurface", more on that later...
Updated collision sample video:
https://youtu.be/oxCjhLyrfxU
This time the fluid remains in the container (using the "fluid" settings in PyCloid) and does not disappear, but more work is needed to create water and not thick gel that I have now.
Also the container still has some small leaks, more polygons does not seem to help, but the plane is "waterproof".
Think that I found the problem with the entire fluid getting graphics problems, if a single particle falls or flies away into the endless eternity, the simulation looks like it is crazy. A plane off screen at the bottom or after the emitter helps that.
No crash after 1-2 more hours of playing around, seems very stable.
Very cool!
Not sure if you've seen these, but just in case - as well as for future viewers:
I've put together a Playlist of Float3d's PyCloid Demo Videos to make it easy to watch all of them in a row. I love this stuff! I made the playlist a while back, yet still haven't found enough time (or a spot in my production which requires it) to mess with it. But I really have to dive in fairly soon since some of these effects will work great with some of my upcoming scenes.
Yeah, have seen them, you will get even more videos to include in the playlist if we figure out how to setup fluids.
Looking for other physics videos and software to understand how to get a better water effect.
More particles seems to be important, at least 60 000: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok8ThRR-59Q
From this video, it seems that the chimney emitter sends out 200 particles per row: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok8ThRR-59Q
The demo for NVIDIA card only is available here: http://downloads.guru3d.com/NVIDIA-Fluids-technology-Demo-download-2023.html
And here are some tips about the modding the demo scenes: http://physxinfo.com/wiki/PhysX_Fluid_Demo_(Modding)
I have the scene in Carrara, but the fluid is still too thick, more like a gel.
To be continued.
Half way there, the particles act like the nvidia demo, but once I choose isosurface (for the fluid look) it is all back to sludge again...
Hi 3DRendero !
I just try (one more time) this script...
I loaded the sample scene with the cube filled by particles, it woks fine.
I deleted the cube and put a sphere in the same place... everything become crazy, no more particles, the sphere that I resizd come back in it's original size when I play timeline, what am I doing wrong ? :question:
An other test:
In an empty scene, I create a simple plane (1 square mesh), when I apply to it a Pycloid modifier, I get an error message and Carrara freeze.
I don't understand.:coolsmirk:
Hi
If you get changes during animation, then you must double check that you are at frame 1 in the timeline at 0 sec by pressing the rewind button several times.
There is a bug in Pycloid that does not "rewind" the particles but keeps showing them as they were at the end of the animation.
Then you can add your new sphere.
You also need to keep the polygons as low as possible, about 1000 polygons and I can run the preview in realtime.
The NVIDIA demo has a 1000 polygon "collision mesh" that is hidden and only used for the particles (see the screenshot above) while the actual render has a high quality mesh that the particles do not use.
Also a good idea is to have a simple plane as a "ground level", if any particle escapes it will not fall down far which also increases calculation time. (Screenshot above has a large grey ground plane).
Not sure how you managed to get an error message, have not seen any problems yet.
The attached screenshots show the simplest scene possible.
1. Ground plane for the particles to bounce on (grey)
2. Emitter plane, a separate plane the throws out the particles (blue). Possible to skip this to keep it even simpler.
3. Pycloid Generator, the "machine" that creates the particles and also emits them unless using the separate emitter, like the following example shows.
The second screenshot shows the PyCloid settings, which are the default ones, except the Geometry Source Surface: Emitter plane.
Good luck!
It's exactly the same scene without the ground plane and when I want to add a Pycloid modifier, "an error was occured..." and no other solution than "Ctrl/Alt/Del" to come out from Carrara !
I think it's a plugin based on Python script (like Pyswarm) and my version is 2.6.6 but the samples scenes are working fine...
Frederic Ribble don't work anymore on this plugin (nearly nobody is interrested to use it), perhaps Philemo could continue ???
I must add that I tried it on three different computers (XP32 + W7/32 and 64) without success, GRRR !!!
Don't have any Python installed so it is not the problem.
Are you choosing Insert -> "Pycloid Generator"?
It is not open source as far as I can see, so only Frederic can continue...
No, I go to "Modifier/ Pycloid: Generator", where is "Insert" ?
Sorry, I found it (very tired today...).
I try it, thanks !
He, that works my friend !
What is it in the modifier tab ?
Voilà, I found the source of my problems: Carrara must be in english language version and not in French ( it's a racist plugin !).
The same problem appeared with Pyswarm of Fractal Dimensia and by reading again an email of Frederic Ribble who writes that Pycloid is based on his plugin Pycarrara (like Pyswarm), I thought of that.
I can begin my tests now.
Pycloid seems to be very lighter than the Carrara particles system.
Thank you 3Rendero to have launched this thread, share your experiments !:-)
It's quite funny because Frédéric is French.
You can check the sample called Magnet to see how the Magnet modifier works and that it is applied to the Sphere geometry object.
Also explained a little here: http://www.f1oat.org/pycloid/page22.html
Another sample called Alignment shows the Track modifier and how that works, some info here too: http://www.f1oat.org/pycloid/page23.html
Have not been playing with those functions yet, busy trying to re-create water as shown here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS_Ua-yGn_E
That is out of my league.
If you get it work, please share some tips or tricks...
Isosurface looks like metaballs, only apply a water shader on it.
Hi all, I have tried loading the Pycloid for Carrara particle system but keep getting an error message saying it failed to load/open.
I have Carrara 8.5 on Windows 7 64bit system.
I have tried extracting Pycloid to C:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\Carrara8.5/Extensions.
This is the first time I have tried extracting a zip file to Carrara. Is this the right path to extract to, or am I doing this wrong.
Sorry, I am rather inexperienced when it comes to zip files.
Thank you for any help!!!!:red:
It's hard to say for sure if that is the right path since the exact spot will vary a bit with different setups. On my system it is D:\DAZ 3D\Carrara8.5\Extensions. Check the Extensions folder you put it in and see if some of the default extensions are in there already (for example 3DSFileFormat.dat. If you see a bunch of .dat and .mcx files already there it is probably the right spot.
Make sure you are putting the PyCloid.dat, PyCloid.mcx and PyCloid.txt files from the ZIP directly into the Extensions folder - if you put them in a sub-folder sometimes things don't work right. Then restart Carrara and create a new scene. You should be able to add a PyCloid:Generator from the Insert menu.
I tried to make school of fish which follows animated object with this plugin, but no solution ever came to mind, native particle system is useless about this as well...
The thing is, it works OK as long as I use "sand" particles, and as soon as I replace them with real 3d mesh of fish it goes nuts, very sad :-/
Another fluid video sample here, looks closer to paint than water still:
http://youtu.be/bwM7lLRX1M8
Extract the 3 files from the C8_x64/Extensions folder in the Zip file to the Carrara/Extensions folder, usually as shown in the screenshot.
The samples folder you can extract elsewere, like My Documents and load some samples to test if it works.
Well, I am fresh out of fish and nuts, but I have bananas and Pycloid seems to be able to gobble them up without going bananas.
Using the Magnet sample included in the 0.2 beta zip file, which I think is similar to what you are trying to do.
Maybe if you work a little on your fish model, fewer polys, simpler shaders, less object sublevels...