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

Using Rigid Body constraints

Rigid body constraints allow you to connect two rigid bodies and create a “joint” between them. This joint can constrict the movement of the rigid body. For example, one of the constraints you can create is a hinge. This could be very useful for creating things such as a door or a lever.

For this to work, you need to have two rigid bodies selected and then go to the Rigid Body Object Menu area and click Connect. This will create an Empty object between these objects; this is the controller for the constraint. Empty is an object with a single coordinate in a 3D space. This object has no geometry or surface, so it won’t be rendered. These objects act as handles for many different purposes:

Figure 10.26 – Empty object constraint

Figure 10.26 – Empty object constraint

You can have one of the rigid body objects be the constraint controller by going to the Physics panel and selecting Rigid Body Constraint:

Figure 10.27 – Rigid Body Constraint

Figure...