FumeFX 6 is multiphysics plug-in for 3ds max that integrates fluid dynamics with node-based system that includes particles, rope, rigid body dynamics, cloth, soft body dynamics, inflatable softbody, voxel grid manipulation, node based access to FumeFX simulation and sources, character animation control and other.
With over 140 ready to use nodes artists can create a completely new range of visual effects directly inside the FumeFX package more efficiently and cost-effective than ever before. Controlling FumeFX simulation or modifying existing caches by using a modern node based workflow opens up endless possibilities.
Artist will benefit from direct support of Arnold points, splines, instances, volumes, custom channels and procedurals.


FumeFX 6.0 new features

FumeFX 6.0 new features

Copyright Sitni Sati 2023.


Feature film and games reel

Over the past 17 years of development and innovations FumeFX has become an integral part of major studio production pipelines. It has been used to create visual effects for many blockbuster films such as Dr. Strange, Thor, Roland Emmerich’s 2012, Hugo, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, Priest, Skyline, Suckerpunch, Spiderman 3, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Superman Returns, Iron Man and more. Computer game cinematics like Blizzard's StarCraft II, Assassin's Creed Revelations, The Warhammer Series and many others have relied on FumeFX software to achieve stunning visuals.

FumeFX feature film and games reel

Video clips are courtesy of Blur Studio, Iloura, Hydraulx, Luma Pictures, Mr. X, Pixomondo, Mr. Ruairi Robinson and Uncharted Territory.


Fluid Dynamics

The FumeFX simulation core has been constantly improved and refined to deliver high level of realism with minimal simulation times. With over 17 years of successful usage in film production, video games, the advertisement industry and other areas that require realistic fire and smoke have helped in shaping the fluid simulation package that users can rely on. Whether making a candle dancing on the wind or destroying a whole city block in 2012 movie style, FumeFX can help you deliver the shot on time and within budget.

Realistic explosion in 3ds Max

The Solver

The QCG solver in FumeFX is optimized for speed and robustness. It has complete control over the realism vs speed balance.
Burning candle in Autodesk 3ds Max

Combustion with Oxygen

The Fire model within FumeFX adds Oxygen to the equation. This new component brings forth various new ways to creatively control the burn process.
FumeFX vorticity

Vorticity

With the addition of various vorticity models you can choose from visually different curl types giving your FumeFX simulations a more unique look and feel.
Tornado with FumeFX and 3ds Max

Render Warps

Whether you want to create a special effect or need to tweak a final animation, with Render Warps there are many more possibilities. With just a few mouse clicks users can warp their cached simulation and watch the resulting deformation directly inside the 3ds Max Viewport, or in rendered images.
FumeFX Effectors

Effectors

Gain creative control over almost every simulation parameter and field. With Effectors it is simple to control vorticity by velocity or to generate smoke based on any other channel value. Effectors take channel data to the next step.
3ds Max simulation retiming

Post Processing

The Post Processing lets you retime caches, bake Render Warps, convert between various formats, or improve cache fetch and save disk space by excluding channels that are no longer needed in your workflow.
Dragon breath fire fluid simulation

N-Sim

It is a great time saving solution. This allows the user to simulate multiple overlapping grids simultaneously while all fields propagate between the overlapping grid boundaries automatically.
Pyroclastic cloud

Wavelet Turbulence

It's never been easier to add more detail to an existing FumeFX simulation. It is a fast, memory efficient and predictable way to increase grid resolution.
FumeFX GPU accelerated viewport

GPU Viewport

The GPU accelerated viewport produces render-comparable images to give instant feedback on appearance and behavior of the simulation. Among many advantages, it supports viewport .png export during the simulation.

NodeWorks

NodeWorks is a completely new node based multiphysics developed for FumeFX 6 release. It includes over 140 ready to use nodes arranged into 15 functional groups like Dynamics, FumeFX and Voxels, Fibers, PhysX, Splines, Shapes, Math to name a few.

NodeWorks - a node based multiphysics

Testimonials


  • FumeFX has been an essential part of our pipeline since it was first released. We rely on FumeFX to create everything from the most demanding fire and smoke simulations to more subtle atmospheric effects such as dust and sand. We have completely integrated FumeFX 2.0 which adds great new features and functionality to an already robust and stable VFX solution.

    Dave Hare, Tigar Hare Studios

  • In our production, we are using Fume FX since version 1.0 and we found it to be highly reliable and optimized fluid simulation software. Not to mention that it's highly versatile and really enjoyable tool to work with. Its simplicity yet complexity and compatibility with other 3dsmax plugins we use (Thinking Particles, final Render) makes it greatly malleable tool in a production pipeline for making amazing dynamic scenes for feature films . Sitni Sati plugins helped 3ds max to a great extent to become popular as it is now.

    Rif Dagher, Cg Supervisor, Pixel Magic, CG fluids Inc.

  • FumeFX is an amazing plugin for fire and gas simulations. It works perfectly for us at the Calgary Fire Department. Alot of the fire fighters here have noticed how much more realisticly the fire and smoke moves and how well it reacts to environments in comparison to other animations they have seen.

    Ryan Chamberlain, Graphic Modeling Designer, Calgary Fire Department

  • Fume FX is already the industry standard in Hollywood for recreating realistic pyrotechnics such as fire, smoke and explosions and other atmospheric FX. It is used by many of the leading visual fx houses around the world for movie and game production. With Fume FX 2.0's amazing new features such as Wavelet Turbulence, Retimer & Post Processing, the possibilities are endless! Not only with its abilities to exceed more simulation detail than ever deemed necessary, but also its flexibility and capabilities for speeding up production work flow. Recently used on many film productions I've been tied to, as well as in my CG Society Workshops I have developed, it has always exceeded expectations and sometimes been the key reason for many of the larger non Windows based studios I've worked with to look at 3D Studio Max as their CG fire solution. Fume FX is the backbone of my studio pipeline and I solely rely on its advanced integration into 3D Studio Max & Particle Flow to achieve results necessary for producing many of today's Blockbuster visual FX shots.

    Allan McKay, Catastrophic FX - Blur - Industrial Light + Magic

  • Using FumeFX since version 1, I have watched it grow from something great to something truly amazing. Every project I use it on it proves itself more and more to be hands down the fastest and most economical fire/smoke solver out on the market. Companies are really starting to take note to FumeFX and working it into their pipelines, and with the new features in 2.0 like the "Retimer and "Wavelet simming", I suspect even more companies will gain interest. It has proved to be the essential tool to get the job done in time for deadline on "2012", "Alice in Wonderland", X:men Wolverine", and most recently "The Sorcerer's Apprentice". Every company needs atleast one box with FumeFX on it....it might save your project.

    Andy Byrne, Sr. FX artist, Hydraulx - Asylumfx - Cafefx

  • FumeFX's speed, usability and quality made it out tool of choice while working on "Thor". It's cross platform API allowed us to create a suite of tools to visualize and render our simulations within Maya. This flexibility allowed us to utilize our existing lighting pipeline while integrating Fume into our studio. We continue to collaborate with Afterworks to expand on our initial Fume in Maya success and look forward to using FumeFX on future shows.

    Richard Sutherland, CG Supervisor, Luma Pictures

  • FumeFX 2.0 is a huge step forward. The new post-processing features enable artists to re-time and add extra detail through wavelet turbulence greatly reducing the time needed to create simulation iterations. Also, the new per particle control on fume particle sources enables artists to maximize control over their simulations in conjunction with powerful particle systems like Thinking Particles. FumeFX 2.0 improves on a tool that was already best-in-class.

    Ari Sachter-Zeltzer, CG Effects Supervisor "2012" & owner of Shadowplay Studio

  • Fume FX is our goto package for all of our atmospheric needs. Fume's quality and speed are unparalleled in any other package. Our cinematics rely on Fume's ability to provide amazingly realistic, highly detailed, fantastic simulations which help bring Blizzard's worlds to life. Without it, our Director's vision would often be unachievable in any reasonable time frame. We're confident that whatever effect is demanded of us, Fume will be there to help us make it happen.

    Mike Kelleher, FX Supervisor, Blizzard Entertainment

Particles

NodeWorks particles are organized into groups and clusters and they're the very foundation for the cloth, soft body dynamics, rigid body dynamics, fractures and other simulations within the NodeWorks. Particle custom channels can be used with Arnold renderer's user data textures which makes it easy to use particle attributes for shading.

Object disintegration on the face level

Face Shatter

Use various activation methods to gradually disintegate objects on a face/polygon level.
Voronoi fracture in 3ds max

Voronoi Fracture

Fast and robust geometry fracturing using various built-in patterns, particle group and custom fracture contact points.
FumeFX fish school and flock simulation

Swarm

Simulate realistic behavior of fish schools, flocking of birds or swarms with direct control over physical parameters.
Generate splines and render when as Arnold curves

Splines

Connect particles with splines in various ways and render as geometry or procedurally as Arnold curves.
Separate particles so they don't overlap

Rigid Body Dynamics

NodeWorks uses nVidia PhysX for rigid body dynamics as well as cloth and soft body collisions.
3ds max particle meshing in FumeFX

ISurf

Fast particle mesher that include Zhu-Bridson and Anisotropic meshing model. It lets you to mesh particles and FumeFX voxels.
Use particles to voxelize fire and smoke simulation.

Voxelize

Convert any shape of even fluid simulation into cubes..
Separate particles so they don't overlap

Animation

Extensive support for node based shape animation - play, stop or switch animation based on other events.
FumeFX GPU accelerated viewport

Rendering

Full support for: Arnold renderer points, curves, instances, procedurals , user data and FStorm instances.

Voxels

Voxel related nodes allow integration with FumeFX simulation, cache manipulation and custom voxel field creation. The content of each voxel can be directly accessed and modified which opens up endless possibilities.

Realistic explosion in 3ds Max

Custom Force Fields

Complete node based freedom in sculpting your own force field that can be cached and used with particles or fluid simulations.
Burning candle in Autodesk 3ds Max

FumeFX Sources and Collisions

Sources integration with particles, cloth, rigid body dynamics, splines and all other NodeWorks features provides ultimate emission control.
FumeFX vorticity

Particle Advection

Built-in particle advection node allows user to move millions of particles over the existing FumeFX simulation caches.

Interviews


  • FumeFX interview with Bottleship VFX

    Hristo Velev from Bottleship VFX made his name creating destruction and particle dynamics on spectacles like ‘2012’, ‘Sucker Punch’, ‘Iron Man 3’, among others. Very active in the animation community, authored several training packages. One of the founders of Bottleship in 2013, positioned as FX lead and general co-manager.


    Click here to read the whole interview.

  • FumeFX interview with Anselm Seherr-Thoss

    Anselm von Seherr-Thoss has been a 3D VFX artist for many years and he's been award winning Visual Effects Technical Director and VES (Visual Effects Society) member with emphasis on particle based effects as well as Fluid Simulations, Shading and Post Production. He worked on movies like James Cameron's "Avatar", Transformers 4, Star Trek - Into Darkness, COSMOS: A Spacetime Odyssey, The Expendables 3, Northmen - A Viking Saga, G.I. Joe-Rise of Cobra, The A-Team, Ridley Scott's "Robin Hood", Priest, SuckerPunch(Previz) and many more.


    Click here to read the whole interview.

  • FumeFX interview with Luma Pictures on Thor movie

    This time we're presenting you an interview with Luma Pictures, a full service visual effects facility located in Santa Monica, California. In last ten years there have contributed to more than 60 films, including blockbusters such as Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, The Green Hornet, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and all four films in the Underworld series.


    Click here to read the whole interview.

  • FumeFX interview with Blur Studios

    Sitni Sati brings you exclusive interview with Kirby Miller, FX Supervisor at Blur Studio. Blur Studio is an award-winning production company based in Culver City, California. Established in 1995, Blur is built upon a solid foundation of artistic excellence and technical ingenuity. Producing stunning live action, animation, visual effects and design for any media platform is the heart and soul of our culture...


    Click here to read the whole interview.

  • FumeFX Green Lantern interview

    We present you an interview with Will Shepherd, a producer at Spatial Harmonics Group from Los Angeles. They have produced FX since 2009 for over 20 clients ranging from tradeshow floor graphics to feature film work.


    Click here to read the whole interview.

  • FumeFX interview with Luma Pictures on Captain America movie

    Over the last 2 years Luma Pictures has worked on several Marvel Films, which heavily relied on FumeFX and its toolset. Luma, after having collaborated with Sitni Sati on the FumeFX for Maya version during Thor, and the FumeFX Arnold Shader, put all that tech through its paces on Marvel’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”™ and “Ant-Man”™ films.


    Click here to read the whole interview.

  • FumeFX interview with Allan McKay

    Allan McKay has been in the VFX industry for 18 years and awarded as an Autodesk Max Master by Autodesk, Emmy award winning and also worked on many Oscar winning movies. During his career he’s been working on shows like Star Trek 2, God of War, Superman, Transformers 3, Looper, Flight, The Last Airbender, Priest, Daybreakers, Blade Trinity. He has also released numerous FumeFX training material on DVDs...


    Click here to read the whole interview.

  • FumeFX and interview with Iloura on Ghost Rider movie VFX

    Iloura is a creative studio. A collective of artists and technologists that make and enhance creative content for film and television productions, commercials and the ever-evolving world of experiential and interactive media. They have specialised in 3D and character animation, 2D VFX, and on-set VFX supervision and motion design.


    Click here to read the whole interview.

Cloth and Soft Body

NodeWorks' particle based cloth and soft body dynamics can create a vast range of visual effects that interact with FumeFX fluid simulations. Effects such as tear and plasticity are fully supported.

Cloth and smoke interaction

FumeFX Interaction

One of the most important aspects of NodeWorks is the integration with FumeFX simulation. Artists now have a unique solution to use cloth and softy body objects as FumeFX sourcs or obstacles.
Cloth simulation in 3ds max

Cloth

Cloth is formed by creating three different fiber types on the object's surface: stretch, shear and bend. Those fibers can be stretched, torn or undergo permanent deformations (plasicity).
Soft body simulation in 3ds max

Soft Body

Soft body objects contain fibers that are created throughout the object's interior providing additional structural support.
Dragon breath fire fluid simulation

Inflatable Soft Body

This soft body type allows object to be gradually inflated and float in air by using the buoyancy option.
Soft body plasticity in 3ds max

Plasticity

A solid material can undergo permanent deformations as a respone to external forces. It is observed in most materials and it is essential asset to achieve realistic cloth and soft body simulations.
Pyroclastic cloud

Tear

The node based workflow allows artist to select and tweak each individual fiber in the system as well as to precisely time and position fiber tear.

Rendering

FumeFX for 3ds Max has various levels of support for 3ds Max Scanline, Arnold , Redshift, Corona render and FStorm. Other renderers like Octane and VRay can render FumeFX caches by using the OpenVDB file format.

3ds max smoke rendering with Arnold

Arnold

FumeFX and NodeWorks are deeply integrated with Arnold renderer including direct support for rendering volumes, points, splines, instances, procedurals and user data.
3ds max smoke rendering with Redshift and Corona

Redshift and Corona

Those two renderers have direct support for rendering FumeFX volumes where user does not need to export caches to .vdb file and use volume grids.
3ds max instances rendering with FStorm renderer

FStorm

FStorm supports rendering of NodeWorks shape instances.

References


Pricing

$595 2 year subscription
FumeFX Workstation
$95 1 year subscription
FumeFX Simulation

Licensing

Make sure to extend your subscription on time as we are not automatically charge credit cards to extend subscription.
Once your FumeFX 6 subscription expires you will be able to load and render caches but you cannot run simulation, acess or change any parameter inside the user interface. The same rules apply for FumeFX and NodeWorks while ISurf requires license for rendering.
Your FumeFX 5 perpetual license will be valid regardless of FumeFX 6 subscription and may continue to use it. However, FumeFX 5 is an obsolete version now and will not be updated.
We do offer educational license at $95 for one year subscription. It is available for high school or colledge students, staff members, schools and other educational or non-profit organisations. Contact us if you wish to order educational license. Volume discounts are available.