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

Adding the Camera animation

For the Camera animation, we basically want to follow the progress of the simulation: starting out with the wrecking ball, moving up the elevator, following the Sphere around the half circle, and finally zooming out to see all the cubes collapse.

There are two main ways to move the camera around:

  • You can select it and press G to move the camera manually.
  • You can open the Properties panel by pressing N, and in the View tab, check Camera to View. This will allow you to move the camera around just as you would move around the viewport.
Figure 11.30 – Camera to View

Figure 11.30 – Camera to View

You can use whatever method you prefer!

Now, let’s start animating the camera:

  1. Let’s start by going into the camera view by pressing 0 on the numpad or by going to View | Cameras | Active Camera.
  2. Next, select the camera and head over to the Object Data panel. Here, we can set Focal Length and what object to focus...