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

What are rigid bodies?

Rigid Body adds physics to your objects and allows them to fall, collide with each other, and bounce around. This simulation is great for creating things such as a pile of rocks, something mashing through a wall, or any kind of realistic physics without deformations. Rigid bodies are also used often in films and games to create physics-based effects.

To create a rigid body simulation, you need to have a mesh object selected. Then, you can go to the Physics panel and select Rigid Body or go to the Object menu, then go to Rigid Body, and select either Add Passive or Add Active:

Figure 10.1 – Rigid Body menu

Figure 10.1 – Rigid Body menu

Active and Passive are the two types of rigid bodies you can add in Blender. Active means that it will have physics and react to gravity, collisions, and even force fields. Passive means it will stay static and not move but it will still interact with the active objects if one collides with it:

Figure 10.2 – Active and Passive objects
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