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 paint simulation

Creating a basic Dynamic Paint simulation is a little tricky to set up, so let’s create one together and go over the process! To make things easier to understand, I recommend downloading the Paint Startup.blend file here: https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Blender-Simulations/tree/main/Chapter%2012%20Project%20Files.

This file includes a basic animation of a sphere following a curve on a plane:

Figure 12.9 – The Paint Startup.blend example

Figure 12.9 – The Paint Startup.blend example

Let’s start out by adding a Dynamic Paint simulation to the plane and the sphere object!

  1. Select the Plane object and head over to the Physics panel. Select Dynamic Paint, make sure Type is set to Canvas, and then click on Add Canvas:
Figure 12.10 – Adding the Canvas object

Figure 12.10 – Adding the Canvas object

  1. Let’s do the same thing for the Sphere object, except let’s set Type to Brush and click Add Brush!
  2. Even though we have a brush...