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

Now that everything is set up, we are basically ready to render the animation. Before we do that, let’s quickly go over some Eevee settings to really make our animation pop:

  1. Head over to the Render panel and turn on Ambient Occlusion. This will darken the corners of the rocks and give us a better-looking render.
  2. Next, let’s enable Screen Space Reflections! This will allow the water to reflect the rocks. Make sure to also uncheck Half Res Trace, as this will lower the quality of the reflections.
Figure 14.29 – Screen Space Reflections

Figure 14.29 – Screen Space Reflections

  1. I would also recommend setting Edge Fading to 0.000 in the Screen Space Reflections tab, as this will sometimes give you unwanted reflections on the edges, as shown in the following figure:
Figure 14.30 – Edge Fading

Figure 14.30 – Edge Fading

  1. To give the rain the look of motion, let’s enable Motion Blur! The Shutter value sets how strong...