Frequently Asked Questions

Required:

• Autodesk – 3ds Max 2010 & up
• Cebas – Thinking Particles 4 or 5

Recommended but NOT required:

• Chaos Group – V-Ray
• Sitni Sati – FumeFX
• Rayfire
• The Foundry – Nuke
• Adobe – After Effects

Not necessarily

You can honestly run these effects on a smaller, non-expensive machine. Unlike most other FX tools, Thinking Particles doesn’t rely on a massive amount of memory, multiple processors, or an expensive video card. What is does utilize is processor speed. So if you only have a few threads with a high frequency (2.9GHz – 3.3GHz is recommended) you’ll be fine.

When getting into atmospherics and fluid dynamics though, you will need a good amount of memory (24GB is recommended) and enough storage space (500GB is recommended).

Here are the specs of the machine used in the training, which is relatively higher end:

• Processor: i7 – 3960X 3.3GHz
• Memory: 24GB
• Video Card: Quadro 4000
• Storage Space: 1TB

Anyone with a passion to learn Rigid Body Dynamics & Destruction using Cebas Thinking Particles.

Knowing visual effects in particular isn’t necessary, but having a basic knowledge of 3D and 3ds Max is recommended.