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

Summary

We have now finished this tutorial and created a paintbrush animation using dynamic paint in Blender. Hopefully, now you have an even greater understanding of this powerful simulation and all the fun and unique things that can be achieved. Just like always, let’s recap so everything sinks in.

First, we learned how to have an object follow a curve using the Follow Path constraint. After that, we created the hair particles and gave them physics, so they bend and deform. Then we instanced a long cube on each hair particle and used that as the brush in the dynamic paint simulation. We created the canvas, set up all the settings, and made an image sequence. With that image sequence, we imported it into the material and then learned how to customize the colors easily. We also discussed the hair particle material and created a nice gradient. Finally, we set up the camera and rendered the animation!

I hope you are ready because in the next chapter, we will be moving away...