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Create an object on a grid.
In this example we will use teapot object from the
Platonic Solid tool on the shelf. The grid is necessary so you have something to cast shadows on.
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Dive into the teapot object and append an
Iso Offset node. -
Change the Output Type parameter to Fog Volume and increase the Uniform Sampling.
In this example we will increase the Uniform Sampling to
50.
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Drag a volume material from the Material Palette onto the teapot. In this example we will use Billowy Smoke.
Note
Volume primitives need to have volume materials applied to them before you render. There are several volume materials on the Material Palette such as:Basic Flame, Basic Liquid, Basic Smoke, Billowy Smoke, Constant Smoke, Fluid Fire, and Wispy Smoke.
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You can improve the quality by modifying the material’s parameters. For example, you can lower the Frequency to 1.
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To create shadows, navigate to the Shadows tab on your light object, and change the Shadow Type to Depth Map Shadows.
Improving the render
To improve the look of your render, try modifying the following parameters.
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Increase the Pixel Samples on the Shadows tab of your light object and the Uniform Sampling Divs on the
Iso Offset node.In this example we increased the Pixel Samples to 2 and the Uniform Sampling Divs to 75.
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Click
the Iso Offset node and divide the largest Size by the largest Volume Resolution. This should give you the proper value to use for the Volume Step Size parameter on the Sampling tab of the 
mantra output node.
In this example the value for the Volume Step Size should be
0.02797373, which is the value you get when you divide2.09803by75. -
If you are using motion blur, you might see black artifacts are around the edge of your object. Make sure the Depth Map Motion Blur checkbox is turned off on the Shadows tab of your light.