Guide: Phoenix FD for 3ds Max

Select the sphere and click the Create a Fire/Smoke Simulator button in the toolbar. Draw out the grid around the sphere.

In the Grid rollout, adjust the simulator X / Y / Z size to 188 x 188 x 150.

Move the sphere up to the center of the simulator, as shown below.

Create a source by clicking on the Fire/Smoke Source button in the toolbar, and draw the object into the scene.

With the Source selected, go into its properties in the Modify tab, click the Add button, and select the sphere to add it as a Source.

Notice that the Emit Mode is set to Surface Force by default. This means that the surface of the emitter, the sphere, will be used to discharge fluid along the geometry normals.

Set the Outgoing Velocity, also known as the discharge, to 5.

Turn on Auto Key. Move to Frame 51 in the timeline, and change the Outgoing Velocity to 0.0. Then step back to Frame 50, and set the Outgoing Velocity to 5.0. This will animate the discharge so that it stays at a value of 5.0 from frame 0 to 50, then turns off at frame 51. Turn Auto Key off.

Start the simulation to see the particles emitting from the surface of the sphere. Stop the sim after the first few frames.

Select the simulator, open the Dynamics rollout, and turn Gravity to 0.0 to prevent the smoke from rising.

We only want to produce smoke for this simulation, so select the Source and turn off Temperature.

Start the simulation again again, and notice that only Smoke is created on the surface. Stop the simulation.

  After a few frames the sphere is covered in smoke.

Let’s break up the regularity of the smoke with a mask. Select the Fire Source and under Outgoing Velocity, click None next to Mask(Texmap). In the menu that appears, type Noise in the text box and double-click the Noise texture.