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

Setting up the render

In the last part of this tutorial, we will set up some Eevee settings and really make our animation stand out and look good:

  1. Head over to the Render panel and turn on Ambient Occlusion. This will add shadows to the corners of your objects and make them look much better. Factor controls the strength; let’s set this value to 2.00 so that we get darker shadows.
Figure 11.32 – Ambient Occlusion

Figure 11.32 – Ambient Occlusion

The difference that Ambient Occlusion makes to the render is significant and can really help improve the look!

Figure 11.33 – Ambient Occlusion

Figure 11.33 – Ambient Occlusion

  1. Enable Screen Space Reflections to get nice reflections in the glossy objects.
  2. Check Motion Blur as well. If you think the motion blur is a bit too strong, set the Shutter value lower.
Figure 11.34 – The Motion Blur settings

Figure 11.34 – The Motion Blur settings

And that is it! From here, we can render the animation! Head over to...