The different passes required us to run tests to get optimal settings but otherwise used RealFlow's native / built-in secondary grid solver tools, except for the spray. Each pass uses the Hybrido core water as a source so once that is done, the other passes can be run in parallel on separate machines.

Each of these passes created multi millions particles and took days of simulation time per pass. Our team then added numerous passes of internal bubbles, surface foam, foam maps, and finally spray. The 600-frame simulation of the Red Sea parting took 4 days to run on a fast machine! Graphs are highly multi-threaded so while gaining control, you don't lose simulation speed and for heavy grid simulations that is a crucial point. The Graphs feature is a node-based visual programming tool allowing users to do a variety of things, but in particular it permits various custom controls on Hybrido simulations such as custom force fields. The choreography of the action was done by working closely with Engine Room's team to make sure the CG action would work with the in-camera action.įusion's team created the action of the core part of the water as a 20-million-particle simulation driven by a custom force field using RealFlow's 'Graphs'. By ‘stacking’ the sea pieces, we multiply the amount of detail in the shot and that in itself helps achieve a sense of scale. This achieved a sea-scale visual that would feel like a single giant simulation asset parting smoothly from Moses to the far shore. To make it work, Fusion's team carefully designed a simulation of one section of the parting sea and painstakingly timed the action so the simulation section could be duplicated with offsets in time along the axis of the parting. But even though Hybrido is well-suited to large scale effects, it still cannot achieve a sea-parting in a giant splash all in one single simulation. We chose RealFlow, and in particular RealFlow's relatively new grid solver called 'Hybrido' as it’s designed to achieve large scale water effects. So to ‘sell’ this effect, the sims to be highly detailed (the highest res possible). We’re all accustomed to seeing water, and the amount of detail we discern goes up directly with the scale.

Most important is a high level of detail. The challenge here is scale, we’re parting a sea-sized volume of water! The feeling of big scale comes partially from the speed of movement, but also from a sense of mass of the huge amount of water. In this case, Fusion partnered with Engine Room to complete the shots – Fusion created the ocean sims, lit & rendered and Engine Room comp’d & finished. But Fusion's particular model of specializing in dynamics allows us to achieve big-sized results. Fusion parts The Red Sea! for Morgan Freeman (and Engine Room, Hollywood) in National Geographic's 'The Story of God' - Power of Miracles.īig-scale effects like parting the Red Sea are a major challenge for vfx studios, so big fx are most typically done by big studios.

Realflow water settings