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

Domains

We learned a little bit about domains in Chapter 1, An Introduction to Mantaflow, in the What you need to create a simulation section, but let’s do a quick refresher!

A domain object is the container for the entire simulation, in which no fluid or smoke can leave the boundaries. The shape of this container is always going to be a cube. Even if you use an object that is not a cube, Blender will use the bounding box of the object as the domain size.

Another thing to keep in mind is the size of the domain. The bigger it is, the higher the resolution you will need to make the simulation look good. This results in longer bake times, bigger file sizes, and more computation power.

There are two types of domains: gas and liquid. Gas is used for fire and smoke simulations, whereas liquid is used for fluid simulations. Inside the domain, many settings and values will affect the look of the simulation. Most of these panels and settings are the same for both the gas and...