Liquids, Fur, Hair, Steam, Smoke, Fog, Fire, and Magical Effects: Creating Realistic Particles in Nomad Sculpt
01. Create the Brushes
To make the alpha texture, use a 2D painting package like Procreate. Make a square document and fill it with black, then find a fairly large brush with a nice falloff. Paint a nice smoke-type effect with lots of white in the centre, only using greyscale.
02. Polygon and UV Maps
Jump into Nomad Sculpt and add a plane to the scene. Change the polygon count from the middle menu, putting Wireframe on if needed. At the bottom, hit Inspect and you’ll see that the plane was automatically UV unwrapped, as are all primitives in the latest version of Nomad. Now you can see the UV coordinates in the background. Next, add an Opacity map to the sphere.
03. Add the Alpha to the Opacity Channel
In the Material panel, you’ll see all kinds of channels at the bottom. Look for the Opacity channel and then click to add the image you created. If everything has worked correctly, you’ll see that on the plane, anywhere in the scene that was black is now transparent and anything white is fully opaque. The fog is white because there’s no color or texture applied, just an alpha.
04. Position and Color Your New Effect
To color the smoke or fog, you can use the Paintbrush and add the colors you like onto the plane. Here I used a green effect. As the Opacity map is active, you’ll only see the color where the white was. I used a character I’d made, duplicated it, and layered the planes one in front of the other to build up the desired smoky effect.
Conclusion
In this tutorial, we learned how to create a realistic smoke effect in Nomad Sculpt using a 2D painting package and the Opacity map. By using a greyscale gradient and a brush with a nice falloff, we can create a realistic smoke effect that can be used in your scenes.
FAQs
Q: What 3D software is best for creating particles?
A: Desktop software like Houdini, Blender, and Cinema 4D have built-in particle systems, but for mobile devices, you can use a 2D painting package like Procreate to create a similar effect.
Q: How do I create a realistic smoke effect?
A: Use a greyscale gradient and a brush with a nice falloff to create a realistic smoke effect. You can also use a character and duplicate it to build up the desired smoky effect.
Q: What is the best way to color my smoke effect?
A: Use the Paintbrush and add the colors you like onto the plane. As the Opacity map is active, you’ll only see the color where the white was.
