Book Image

Learn Blender Simulations the Right Way

By : Stephen Pearson
2 (2)
Book Image

Learn Blender Simulations the Right Way

2 (2)
By: Stephen Pearson

Overview of this book

Blender is a free, open source 3D software that allows you to create stunning visual graphics, animation, VFX, and much more! This book is an in-depth guide to creating realistic and eye-catching simulations, understanding the various settings and options around their creation, and learning how to troubleshoot solutions to your own Blender problems. In addition, this book can also be used to simulate the behavior of certain physics effects, such as fire, fluid, soft bodies, and rigid bodies. You’ll learn how to use Mantaflow, an open source framework within Blender software, to create fire, smoke, and fluid simulations. As you progress, you’ll understand how to easily produce satisfying rigid and soft body simulations, along with cloth simulations. Finally, you’ll use Dynamic Paint, Blender’s modifier, and the physics system to create eye-catching animations. By the end of this Blender book, you’ll have created a number of animations on your own, such as a campfire, waterfalls, and explosions. You’ll also have gained a deeper understanding of all the simulation options in Blender, which you can use to create portfolio-ready animations.
Table of Contents (21 chapters)
1
Part 1: Using Mantaflow for Fire, Smoke, and Fluids
7
Part 2: Simulating Physics with Soft Bodies and Cloth
12
Part 3: Diving into Rigid Bodies
15
Part 4: Understanding Dynamic Paint in Blender

Rendering the animation

Our scene is coming along great, but for this last section of the chapter, we will be going over some final tweaks and touchups to make our render look good:

  1. Let’s start by working on the flag. To smooth out the wrinkles and give it an overall better look, let’s add a Subdivision Surface modifier. Head over to the Modifier panel, click Add Modifier, and select Subdivision Surface. Set both the Viewport and Render levels to 2.
  2. Right now, our flag is completely thin, which isn’t very realistic, so let’s add a Solidify modifier to give it just a little bit of thickness. Set Thickness to something much lower, such as 0.002.
  3. As for the lighting, I recommend using an HDR (High Dynamic Range) for the most realistic results. You can get very high-quality HDRs for free at polyhaven.com. Once you have found an HDR that you like, head over to the World panel, click the yellow dot next to Color, select Environment Texture, and...