Badblog

Hello everyone, I'm here with another exciting tutorial. This time we are going to learn how to make clouds. This is very interesting, but still a very hard topic.
There are many ways to create clouds. Many Software packages provide their own cloud generating modules, such as Vue, Maya, Houdini, etc... but we need plugins if we are using 3ds Max. There are two or three plugins for 3ds Max that you can use to make clouds. For example, Fumefx, Afterburn or DreamScape.
As you all know, there are two types of plugins, fluid based and texture based. FumeFX is a fluid based plugin and Afterburn is texture based plugin. In this tutorial we are going to learn how we can create clouds with the help of FumeFX, which again is a fluid based plugin.
So get ready for this exciting tutorial…!!!
Editors Note: If you'd prefer to follow along using high resolution Images. You can download them below:

• High Resolution Tutorial Images

1.Create the Geometry to Generate Clouds

To generate clouds, geometry plays a very important role, because our cloud shape is totally depended on our geometry's shape & its internal motion. So to create a proper shape for the geometry, follow these steps:

Step 1

To generate the clouds, we are going to use a Geosphere with a Noise modifier (which we will animate for a certain amount of frames.)
To Create a Geosphere, go to the Create Panel > Geometry  > Standard Primitives > Geosphere.
Click on the Geosphere button and generate it in the viewport by clicking and dragging.

Step 2

Position and scale the Geosphere as follows:

Position:
X : 0.0 | Y : 0.0 | Z : 0.0
Rotation:
X : 0.0 | Y : 0.0 | Z : 0.0
Scale:
X : 150.0 | Y : 50.0 | Z : 50.0

Step 3

Now it’s time to modify the Geosphere's parameters. Select Geosphere 01 and go to the Modify Panel. Set the Radius to 150.0 and the Segments to 20.

Step 4

Now let’s add a Noise modifier. To add a Noise modifier, select the Geosphere and click on the Modifiers drop-down menu and choose the Noise modifier. Now make the following changes to it's parameters.
Noise:

• Seed: 1
• Scale: 500
• Fractal: Checked
• Roughness:1.0
• Iterations: 10.0

Strength:

• X: 18
• Y: 18
• Z: 18

Animation:

• Animate Noise – Checked
• Frequency – 0.003
• Phase – Animated*

 * We are going to animate the Phase value from frame 5 to frame 25. As soon as you turn on the Animate Noise option, you will see keys appear at frame 0 and 100. Now what you have to do is just select the first key, which is on frame 0 and move it forward on the timeline to frame 5. Now select the second key, which is on frame 100 and move it to frame 25.
Now you can see the noise animation is only happening between frame 5 and 25.

2. Copy & Arrange the Geospheres

Step 1

I know what you are thinking. “What is this copy & arrange...?”  Right..??
I'll tell you. What we are going to do is make multiple copies of our Geosphere and arrange them as per our requirements or our shot's requirements.
For example, I created a big box to arrange my scene. I placed each and every Geosphere inside the box with random positions and rotations. Not a single Geosphere crossed the boundary of this box. So what's the advantage of doing this? This technique will help you determine your scene size, whether it's big or small, and you can create your Fumefx container to match the size of the box.
My Box size is as follows:

• Length: 1000
• Width: 1300
• Height: 300

 I’ve included the 3ds Max file of my scene setup in the project files. Please have a look.. :)

3. Create the FumeFX Object Source

Step 1

We are going to use a FumeFX Object Source to create our Clouds. To Create the FFX Object Source, follow these steps : Go to the Create Panel > Helpers, click on the Dropdown menu and select FumeFX from the list.
Click on the Object Src Button and generate it in viewport by Left Clicking and dragging (you can place it anywhere in the scene.) Rename the FFX Object Src01 to "FFX Cloud Src".

4. Create the FumeFX Container

Step 1

Now it’s time to create the FumeFX Container. To create the container follow these steps:
Go to the Create Panel > Geometry and click on the Dropdown menu and select FumeFX from the list. Click on the FumeFX button and generate the FumeFX Container in the viewport by Left Clicking and dragging. Now rename it from FumeFX01 to "Cloud-Container".

Step 2

Position the Cloud Container at the following location:

• X: 123.879
• Y: -35.522
• Z: -127.91

Place this container in the same position as the "big box" we already created.

5. Edit the FumefX Container

There are Five important sections in the FumefX Container we are going to modify:

• A.    Gen – General
• B.    Sim – Simulation
• C.    Rend – Rendering
• D.    Illum - Illumination
• E.    Obj/Src - Objects & Sources

 Step 1

Open FumeFX, go to the Gen tab and set the following parameters for each section.
A.    Gen Tab:
General Parameters:

• Spacing: 1.25
• Width: 1459.034
• Length: 1147.799
• Height: 307.224
• Adaptive: On

Output:

• Start: 0
• End Frame: 150
• Exporting Channels: Smoke.
• Output Path: Click on the small button next to Output path, make a New Folder on your Storage Drive and save your cache file (fxd) as "Cloud_test_" in that Folder.

 Playback:

• Play From: 0
• Play To: 150
• Start Frame: -40

Step 2

Go to the Sim tab and set the following parameters for each section.
B.    Sim Tab:
Simulation:

• Quality: 5
• Maximum Iterations: 200
• CFL Conditions: 5.0
• Maximum Simulation Steps: 1
• Advection Stride: 0.5
• Time Scale: 1.0*

*We are going to animate the Time Scale, because we don’t want any motion after a certain  frame. So what we’ll do is keep the Time Scale set at 1.0 from frame 0 to 30, and on frame 35, we’ll set the Time Scale to 0.01.
System:

• Gravity: 0.0
• Vorticity: 1.0
• X Turbulence: 0.51

Turbulence Noise:

• Scale: 0.57
• Frames: 10.0
• Detail: 5.0

Blocking Sides:
X : None | Y : None| Z : None
Simulate Fuel:
Turn Off Simulate Fuel.
Note - Don’t Change any parameters for the Smoke or Temperature, keep them Default.

Step 3

C.    Rend Tab:
Rendering Parameters:
We are not changing anything under this tab.
Fire:
We are not changing anything under this tab either.
Smoke:

• Ambient: R : 0 | G : 0 | B : 0
• Smoke Colour: R : 196 | G : 199 | B : 203
• Opacity: 0.1
• Cast Shadows: Checked
• Receive Shadows: Checked

 Note: Keep all other parameter as default.

Step 4

D.    Illum Tab:
Before start working on this tab, we need to add some lights. We will use one Omni Light.
Create an Omni Light by going to Create > Lights > Standard Lights > Omni and clicking in the viewport. And position the light at the following coordinates:
X : -34.785 | Y : -703.98 | Z : 909.777

Step 5

Next, go to the Modify panel and adjust the Light's settings:

• Turn On Shadows.
• Go to the Shadow Parameters rollout and turn On Atmosphere Shadows.
• Multiplier: 0.71
• Light Color: R: 255 | G: 255 | B: 255

 Note - Keep everything else at default.

Step 6

Back in FumeFX, go to the Illum tab and add the Omni light to the Lights list by by picking it, then change the following values:

• Turn On Multiple Scattering.
• Maximum Depth: 7
• Fire: 1.0
• Smoke Strength: 1.0
• Falloff: 6.0

Step 7

D.    Obj/Src Tab:
Note - This is Final Step before you hit the Simulation button.
Add the FFX Cloud Src to the Objects tab. When you select the FFX Cloud Src, another tab will appear called Simple Source Parameters. Nowadd all the Geospheres to the Objects list.
Next, change the Parameters as follows:
Fuel:
Amount: 100.0
Temperature:
Amount: 0.0
Smoke:
Amount: 10.0
Velocity: We change the velocity parameter, because it’ll affect the motion of the smoke as per the Geosphere animation.
Object’s: 10.0
Extra: 10.0

6. Start the Simulation

Step 1

Hit the Simulation Button. It may take around 6 or 7 Hours for this 100 Frame Simulation.
I want to share one important thing with you. If you want to work with plugins like FumeFX or RealFlow, you'll need a very high-end Machine because if you are working on big scenes and you don’t have such a machine. The software will crash every time and you won't be able to deliver the project on time, or deliver it at all.
I’m using a Intel Core i7 - 2700K CPU @ 3.50GHz with 16GB Ram, and it still takes 3 to 4 minutes to simulate a single frame of this cloud.

7. Adding the Background Image

Step 1

After the simulation completes, let’s create a background image.
Create a Plane and place it in the background. We'll apply a cloud texture to this plane.
I’ve attached the cloud image I'm using. You can use it, or another image of your choice. I’ve already created the scene file with the Camera and Plane setup, so just have a look in the project files that accompany this tutorial.:)

8. Rendering

Step 1

After the simulation is complete and the scene is setup. Go to the Render Setup by pressing F10, or by going to Rendering > Render Setup.... Render the animation as a image sequence using a HD resolution of 1280x720.

9. Compositing

Step 1

Open After Effects and load the image sequence you rendered from 3D Studio Max. Add your real Cloud image in as the background. And then add your cloud layer (your rendered image sequence) over top.
You can now apply a few simple effects to the cloud layer. For example:

1. Brightness & Contrast
2. Color Balance
3. Sharpen

Step 2

You can also try adding an Adjustment Layer on top and applying these effects to take it further.

1. Photo Filter
2. Brightness & Contrast
3. Color Balance

Conclusion

There are two ways to create such clouds. in 3D Studio max. The first is what I've covered here, and the second is creating small geometry setups and using multiple FumeFX containers and placing them as per your requirements.
 I did these Clouds using FumeFX, but soon I'll be showing how to make them using Afterburn with a similar, or maybe even better output, so keep watching and good luck… keep working...

In this tutorial you'll learn how to create a shower of sparks using 3ds Max and Particle Flow.

1. Particle Flow Setup

Step 1

First, create a Particle Flowsystem. Go to Create > Particle Systems > PF Source and draw out a PF Source icon in the Perspective viewport, and position it a bit above the ground grid.

Step 2

Now press 6 (or click on Particle View) to open the Particle View window.

Step 2

With the Birth Operator selected, enter a value of 0 for Emit Start, and 100 for Emit Stop and set the Amount to 2000. This means the particles will start from frame 0and stop at frame 100 and the total amount of the particles/ frame will be 2000. You can edit the values as per your needs.

Step 4

Now with the Speedoperator selected, set the values for Speedto 1500, Variation to 20 and Divergence to 50.

Step 5

With the Display operator selected, turn the Type to Geometry. Now the particles will look like cubes based on the Shapeoperator settings.

Step 6

The cubic shape of the particles looks quite big. So with the Shape operator selected, decrease the Size value to something quite low.

Step 7

Now go to Space Warps > Forces > Gravity and drag a Gravityicon out in the Perspective viewport.

Step 8

Back in the Particle View window, add a Forceoperator into the event by dragging it out of the Depot and dropping it between the Rotation and Shape operators. With the Forceoperator selected, click on Add and select the Gravity icon from the viewport. This will add the Gravity into the Force Space Warps list.

Step 9

The spark particles should collide with the ground and bounce a bit before dying, so we need to add a deflector into the scene. So go to Space Warps > Deflectors > Deflectorand drag out a Deflector icon in the Perspective viewport.

Step 10

Add a Collisionoperator into the event. With the Collisionoperator selected, click on Add and then select the Deflector icon in the viewport. This adds the Deflectorinto the Deflectors list.

Step 11

You can see now that the particles collide with the deflector and bounce continuously. We don't want the particles to bounce continuously after the collision. Practically, they should bounce only twice and then adhere to the ground. So turn on Collide Multiple Times with a value of 2. We want the particles to stop after two collisions, so select Stop for the Speed.

Step 12

The particles are still bouncing a lot. So with the Deflector icon selected, decrease the Bounce value to something like 0.05 and change the rest of the parameters to match what is shown in the following image. These values may vary in your case.

Step 13

We can also place an object beneath the shower of sparks and the particles will collide with that object. For example, here I have added a Sphere beneath the particles.

Step 14

To make the particles collide with the sphere, we need to define the sphere as a collision object. So, go to Space Warps > Deflectors > UDeflector and drag out a UDeflector icon in the Perspectiveviewport.

Step 15

With the UDefeletoricon selected, click on the Modify tab, and then click on Pick Object and then pick the Sphere in the viewport. Now the sphere has become the collision/ deflector object. 

Step 16

Press 6 to open the Particle View once again. Here make a new event with the Delete and Display operators only. Connect the string of the Collision operator from Event 001 to the Event 002.

Step 17

With the Delete operator selected, turn on the By Particle Age option and leave it with the default values. This means all the particles which have lived for 60 frames will be deleted .

Step 18

With the Displayoperator selected, turn the Type into Geometry.

2. Material Setup

Step 1

Press M to open the Material Editor. Select an empty slot and click on the Diffuse channel. This opens the Material/ Map Browser window. Here select the Particle Age material and click on OK.

Step 2

In the Color#1 slot, enter the following values R: 255 ,G: 215and B: 135 respectively.

Step 3

In the Color#2 slot, enter values of R: 255, G: 125 and B: 50 respectively.

Step 4

In the Color#3 slot, enter these values R: 255, G: 100 and B: 35.

Step 5

Copy the same Particle Age material from the Diffuse channel to the Self Illumination channel as an Instance.

Step 6

Here I just put a concrete texture on the sphere to make it look better, and also added an Omni light to the scene.

Step 7

Press 6 to open the Particle View window, and Insert a Material Static operator into Event 001.

Step 8

Drag and copy the Particle Age material to the Assign Materialtab of the Material Static operator.

Step 9

Copy the same Material Static operator into Event 002also.

Step 10

With the particle material slot selected, assign a Material ID of 1.This unique material ID will help the particles achieve their glowing effect.

3. Applying Effects

Step 1

Now, Right Click on the Event 002 bar and select Properties. This opens the Object Properties window. Here enable Motion Blur with Object mode.

Step 2

Go to Rendering > Effects to open the Effectswindow. Here add Lens Effects.

Step 3

Apply a Glow effect as well and set the values for Size to 0.01, Intensity to 145and Source Color to 90. And then change the Radial Color to be a bit orange.

Step 4

Now click on the Options tab. Here set the Material ID to 1. This is the same material ID which has been assigned to the particle material.

Step 5

Render the scene and you will see something like this.

Conclusion

You can also animate the particle flow emitter randomly a bit, so you get different results. Play with the particle, force and deflectors values and you will really get awesome results. Hope you guys have enjoyed this tutorial!

n this tutorial, we are going to learn how to create explosions. This is a very interesting subject, because we can’t define one certain process to create an explosion. As much as you will use your creativity and tools, you will find different types of explosions every time. So it very much depends on your own understanding of the tools and techniques.

Introduction 

In this tutorial, I'll show you how I created the explosion shown in the preview above using 3ds Max and the FumeFX plugin. There are different types of techniques to achieve this effect in FumeFX, but we are going to use particles to create this explosion.
For that purpose we are going to use three Particle Flow systems, a FumeFX Particle Source, three standard lights (a Target Spot and two Omni lights), and the default Scanline Renderer. So get ready for this exciting tutorial!
Editors Note: If you'd prefer to follow along using high resolution Images. You can download them below:

• High Resolution Tutorial Images

1. Create the Particle Flow Systems & Gravity

Step 1

To create an explosion, particles are a very good option, because we can control the particle's motion easily and particles will generate fire and smoke based on their birth timing. Also the particle count and speed will determine how big and fast the explosion is. So to create a proper Particle Flow simulation follow these steps:
There are two ways to open the Particle Flow window:

1. Press 6 on the keyboard.
2. Go to Graph Editors > Particle View.

To create a Standard flow, follow these steps: Right Click on the center part of the Particle Flowwindow and go to New > Particle System > Standard Flow.

Step 2

Position the first Particle Flow source (PF Source 01) at the following location:
Position: X : 0.0 | Y : 0.0 | Z : 6.543
Rotation: X : 0.0 | Y : -5.358 | Z : 0.0

Step 3

Create a second Standard Flow (PF Source 02) following the above steps and position it as follows:
Position: X : 0.0 | Y : 0.0 | Z : 6.543
Rotation: X : 0.0 | Y : 0.0 | Z : 0.0

Step 4

Finally create a third Standard Flow (PF Source 03) and position it:
Position: X : 0.0 | Y : 0.0 | Z : 6.543
Rotation: X : 0.0 | Y : 13.213 | Z : 0.0

Step 5

 Now create the Gravity Space Warp. To create the Gravity Space Warp, go to the Create Panel > Space Warps > Forces, click on the Gravity button and generate it in viewport by clicking and dragging.
 And then position it as follows:
Position: X : 50.0 | Y : 0.0 | Z : 0.0
Rotation: X : -180.0 | Y : 0.0 | Z : 0.0

Step 6

Select the Gravity space warp and go to the Modify panel and make the following changes to its parameters.
Under Force, set the Strength to 1.0 and the Decay to 0.0.

2. Edit the Particle Flow Systems

Step 1

Now let’s modify each of the Particle Flow systems.
Select PF Source 01, go to the Modify panel and make the following changes to its parameters.
Emission:

• Logo Size: 10.0
• Icon Type: Circle
• Diameter: 20.0

Quantity Multiplier:

• Viewport 100.0%
• Render 100.0%

Tip: If you keep the Viewport value at 50.0%, it will only show 50% of the particles in the viewport and because of that FumefX, will only generate smoke from that 50% of Particles. So always keep it at 100%.
System Management:

• Upper Limit: Keep it at the Maximum.
• Viewport (Integration Step): Frame
• Render (Integration Step): Frame

Tip: A smaller integration step can improve accuracy, at the cost of calculation time. But I am not worried about it here, because our particle system is not very complicated.
Script: Keep as it is. (Frankly speaking, this is not my cup of tea.) ;)

Step 2

Press 6 to open the Particle View window and make these changes.
Birth 01:

• Emit Start: 2
• Emit Stop: 3
• Amount: 11
• Subframe Sampling: Keep it Ticked.

Position Icon 001: Keep it as is.
Speed 01:

• Speed: 300.0
• Variation: 50.0
• Direction: Along Icon Arrow
• Reverse: Checked
• Divergence: 21.0

Add a Force and Delete operator into the event by dragging and dropping them from the depot. Adjust the parameters as follows:
Force 01:
Under Force Space Warps, click the By List button and pick Gravity001 from the list. Set the Influence% value to 200.
Delete 01:

• Remove: By Particle Age
• Life Span: 30
• Variation: 35

Display 001:

• Type: Ticks

Step 3

Select PF Source 02, go to the Modify Panel and edit the parameters to match the settings we used for PF Source 01.
Now Press 6 to open the Particle View window and make the following changes:
Birth 02:

• Emit Start: 2
• Emit Stop: 3
• Amount: 9
• Subframe Sampling: Keep it Ticked.

Position Icon 02: Keep it as is.
Speed 02:

• Speed: 320.0
• Variation: 100.0
• Direction: Along Icon Arrow
• Reverse: Checked
• Divergence: 16.0

Force 02:

• Force Space Warps: Add the Gravity.
• Influence: 200

Delete 02

• Remove: By Particle Age
• Life Span: 30
• Variation: 50

Display 02:

• Type – Ticks

Step 4

Select PF Source 03, go to the Modify panel and again edit the parameters to be the same as PF Source 01.
Now press 6 to open the Particle View window, and make these changes:
Birth 03:

• Emit Start: 2
• Emit Stop: 3
• Amount: 8
• Subframe Sampling: Keep it Ticked.

Position Icon 03: Keep it as is.
Speed 03:

• Speed: 300.0
• Variation: 200.0
• Direction: Along Icon Arrow
• Reverse: Checked
• Divergence: 8.5

Force 03:

• Force Space Warps: Add the Gravity.
• Influence: 100

Delete 03:

• Remove: By Particle Age
• Life Span: 30
• Variation: 50

Display 03:

• Type – Ticks

3. Create the FumeFX Particle Source

Step 1

We are going to use a FumeFX Particle Source to create the Explosion.
To Create the FFX Particle Source, go to the Create panel, click on Helpers and select FumeFX from the dropdown list.
Click on the Particle Src button and generate it in the viewport by clicking and dragging. And then rename it from FFX Particle Scr01 to "FFX Explosion Src".

Step 2

Position it at the following location:
Position: X : 0.0 | Y : 0.0 | Z : 0.0
Rotation: X : 0.0 | Y : 0.0 | Z : 0.0

4. Create the FumeFX Container

Step 1

Now it’s time to make the Fumefx Container. To create the container go to the Create panel, click on the Geometry tab and select FumeFX from the dropdown menu.
Click on the FumeFX and generate the container by clicking and dragging in the viewport. Now rename the container from FumeFX01 to "Explosion-Container".

Step 2

Position the Explosion-Container at this location:

• X: -20.559
• Y: -12.908
• Z: 0.0

5. Edit Fumefx Container

There are Five Important Sections in the FumeFX Container we are going to modify.

• A. Gen – General
• B. Sim – Simulation
• C. Rend – Rendering
• D. Illum - Illumination
• E. Obj/Src - Objects & Sources

Step 1

Open FumeFX, go to the Gen tab and set the following parameters for each section.
General Parameters:

• Spacing: 0.7
• Width: 500.0
• Length: 500.0
• Height: 500.0
• Adaptive: On

Output:

• Start: 0
• End Frame: 100
• Exporting Channels: Fuel, Smoke.
• Output Path: Click on the small button next to Output path, make a New Folderon your Storage Driveand save your cache file (fxd) as "Explosion_test_" in that Folder.

Playback:

• Play From: 0
• Play to: 100
• Start Frame: 0

Step 2

Go to the Sim tab and set the following parameters for each section.
Simulation:

• Quality: 5
• Maximum Iteration: 200
• CFL Conditions: 5.0
• Maximum Simulation Steps: 1
• Advection Stride: 0.5
• Time Scale: 1.0

System:

• Gravity: 0.05
• Vorticity: 0.7
• X Turbulence: Animated*

NOTE: We are going to animate the Turbulencebecause we want to slow down the turbulence after Frame 20.So what we’ll do is keep the Turbulenceset at 2.0from Frame 0to 14, and on frame 17, we’ll set the Turbulenceto 0.5.And on frame 20,we’ll make the Turbulence0.1.
 Turbulence Noise:

• Scale: 3.0
• Frames: 2.0
• Detail: 5.0

 Blocking Sides:

• X : None | Y : None| Z : Both

 Simulate Fuel:

• Fuel Buoyancy: -0.1
• Ignition: 100
• Burn Rate: 18.1
• Burn Rate Variation: 1.0
• Heat Production: 10.0
• Expansion: 1.5
• Fire Creates Smoke: Unchecked

Note: Don’t Change any Parameter from Smoke or Temperature, keep them Default.

Step 3

Go to the Rend tab and set the following parameters.
Rendering Parameters:
We are not changing anything under this tab.
Fire:

• Color: Gradient
• Opacity: 1.0

 Editor Note: You can download the Color Gradient file from the Attachments section at the top of this page.
Smoke:

• Ambient: R: 0 | G: 0 | B: 0
• Smoke Color: R: 66 | G: 66 | B: 66
• Opacity: 0.2
• Cast Shadows: Checked
• Receive Shadows: Checked

Note: Keep all other parameters at default.

Step 4

Before starting work in the Illum tab, we need to add some lights to the scene. We will use the following three lights:

1. Target Spot
2. Omni
3. Omni

Create a Target Spot by going to Create > Lights > Standard Lights > Target Spot.Click and drag in the viewport to create the light, then position it at the following coordinates:
Light Position: X: 642.252 | Y : -486.928 | Z: 932.155
Target Position: X: -13.825 | Y: 0.0 | Z: 200.066

Step 5

Next, go to the Modifypanel and adjust the light's settings:

• Turn On Shadows.
• Go to the Shadow Parameters rollout and turn On Atmosphere Shadows.
• Multiplier: 0.6
• Light Color: R: 255 | G: 255 | B: 255

Note -Keep everything else default.

Step 6

Create an Omnilight by going to Create > Lights > Standard Lights > Omni, and click in the viewport to create the light, then position it at the following coordinates: 
Position: X: 657.659 | Y: -557.434 | Z: 178.75

Step 7

Next, go to the Modifypanel and adjust the light's settings:

• Turn On Shadows.
• Go to the Shadow Parameters rollout and turn On Atmosphere Shadows.
• Multiplier: 0.3
• Light Color: R: 255 | G: 255 | B: 255

Note -Keep everything else default.

 Step 8

Create a second Omni light and position it at the following coordinates:
Position: X: 425.011 | Y: -677.873 | Z: 130.717

Step 9

Again, go to the Modify panel and adjust the light's settings:

• Turn On Shadows.
• Go to the Shadow Parameters rollout and turn On Atmosphere Shadows.
• Multiplier: 0.15
• Light Color: R: 255 | G: 255 | B: 255

Note -Keep the rest of the light's settings default.

Step 10

Back in FumeFX, go to the Illum tab and add the lights to the Lightslist by picking them, then change the following values: 

• Turn On Multiple Scattering.
• Maximum Depth: 6
• Fire: 1.0
• Smoke Strength: 1.0
• Falloff: 8.0

Step 11

The final step before we hit the simulation button is setting up the Obj/Src Tab.
Add the FFX Explosion Srcto the Objectslist. When you select the FFX Explosion Src, another tab will appear called Particle Source Parameters. Now add all the Particle Flow Systemsinto the Particleslist. And change the parameters as follows:
Radius:

• Radius: 4.187
• Variation: 643.572*

You can see the Particle RadiusButton, exactly below the VarText. Right Clickon it and choose Enable. Now you can see that the parameter text window has been Activated, change the parameter to 0.0.
If you use this option, the particle radius will animate automatically. You’ll see that from emission to deletion, the particle radius size will animate from big to small.
Velocity Multiplier:

• Amount: 1.0
• Variation: 10.0

Fuel:

• Amount: 100.0
• Variation: 10

Temperature:

• Amount: 300.0
• Variation: 10.0

Smoke:

• Amount: 10.0
• Variation: 10

6. Start the Simulation

Hit the Simulation Button. It will take around 10 to 12 Hours for the 100 frame simulation to complete.
I want to share one important thing with you. If you want to work with plugins like FumeFX and RealFlow, you need a very high end machine, because if you are working on a big scene and you don't have such a machine, the software will crash every time and you won't be able to deliver the project on time, or maybe not at all.
I'm using an Intel Core i7 - 2700K CPU @ 3.50GHz and 16GBs of Ram, and it still takes 10 to 12 minutes to simulate a single frame of this explosion.

7. Rendering

After the simulation finishes and you setup your scene, go to Render Setup (F10). Add the FumeFX Fire & FumeFX Smoke Elements in the Render Elements Section, and render the sequences at a HD resolution (1280 x 720).

8. Basic Compositing

Step 1

Open After Effects and load the image sequences you rendered from 3D Studio Max. 
You can add the following effects to the Fire layer.

1. Color Balance
2. Sharpen
3. Glow (Sapphire_Glow)

Step 2

Add the Smoke Layer and apply these effects to it.

1. Brightness & Contrast
2. Sharpen

Conclusion

The most important thing to remember when creating such effects, is always try different parameters again and again. First, try this tutorial, but then try your own ideas. Use more than one particle system, add simple sources, change the parameters and see what happens. I would like to see your tests when you finish this tutorial, but not the same as I have made. I want to see your own effects.
So good luck… keep working.