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 Realistic Campfire Simulation

It’s time to put the skills we just learned about to the test; this chapter is about creating a realistic campfire simulation and learning how to create sparks in Blender! Creating fire is easy, but creating fire that looks realistic is a whole other story. You need to think about the settings for the domain, the flow object, any collisions you have, the lighting, and the materials. It takes a bit more than setting the resolution in the domain to 1,000 and hitting Bake. Remember, setting the resolution super high doesn’t necessarily mean the fire will look good; plus, we’re pretty sure Blender would crash if you did that.

Here are the following topics we will cover:

  • Creating the campfire simulation
  • Creating the fire materials
  • Creating sparks using a particle system
  • Creating the particle material
  • Adding the final details

We have a lot of things to cover in this chapter so let’s jump...