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

Simulating the dynamic paint

As mentioned previously, since hair particles aren’t technically a mesh, we can’t use them as a Brush in the dynamic paint simulation. You may remember in the previous chapter that brushes have an option to use Particle System as Source.

Figure 13.15 – Particle System Source

Figure 13.15 – Particle System Source

This, however, does not work. This method only works for emitter particle systems and not hair particle systems, so we have to get a little creative. What we are going to do is add a cube object and instance that cube on every single hair particle. And that cube is going to be Brush in the dynamic paint simulation.

Instancing the cube

Before we add the cube, make sure the cursor is at the center of the grid. This is important because if you add a cube anywhere but the center, it will not line up with the hair when we instance it. You can snap the cursor back to the center by pressing Shift + C. Then follow these steps:

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