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 Paintbrush Effect

At this point, you should have a good understanding of dynamic paint and how it works in Blender. Now, let’s put those skills to the test by creating a paintbrush effect using this simulation! We will be learning how to animate a paintbrush along a curve, create hair particles for the bristles, and have the particles paint on a plane object. From there, we will import the color information into the material so that it can be easily customized. After that, we will set up the camera and render the animation. The goal of this chapter is to give you a practical understanding of how to use dynamic paint while also creating something cool in the process!

Here are the topics we will cover:

  • Animating the brush
  • Creating the hair particles
  • Simulating the dynamic paint
  • Adding the materials
  • Rendering the animation