Phil Radford shows how to create a smoke rings effect in Maya using Aero.

One of the newer additions to Bifrost, Maya’s guild-based dynamics system is Aero. The Aero solver is an aerodynamic FLIP solver that was added to Maya Bifrost to handle any air-based effect, including things like fire, smoke, fog, apparent wind, and clouds. The Maya Guy, Phil Radford often shares some insights into working with the Aero solver to create smoke effects. His latest tutorial looks into creating smoke rings.

“Aero is quicker than Maya fluids in this instance,” Radford says. There are times when Maya fluids work better, but in this case, Aero is a much better solution. Radford offers up the scene file for people to download and tinker. Check out the Smoke Rings Maya File here.