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

Creating a Rigid Body Physics Course

Now that we have a good understanding of how the rigid body simulation works in Blender, let’s take everything we learned in the last chapter and apply it to a real project!

In this chapter, we will be learning how to use the rigid body simulation to create a full physics-based animation.

We will start by learning how to create a wrecking ball and a domino effect. Then, we will move on to animating materials, creating an elevator using constraints, using animated rigid bodies, adding hinge constraints, and finally, we will be destroying a tower of cubes to finish off the animation.

The goal of this chapter is to understand how to use the rigid body simulation in a practical way to create a nice satisfying animation! Here are the topics we will cover:

  • Creating the simulation
  • Adding the camera animation
  • Setting up the render