book

Bounce, Tumble, and Splash!: Simulating the Physical World with Blender 3D

Name: Bounce, Tumble, and Splash!: Simulating the Physical World with Blender 3D
ISBN: 9780470192801

by Tony Mullen, Erwin Coumans

June 2008

Intermediate to advanced

400 pages

10h 40m

English

Sybex

Read now

Unlock full access

Copyright
Dear Reader,
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Foreword
Introduction
Who Should Read This BookWhat You Will Learn from This BookHow to Use This BookHardware and Software ConsiderationsHow This Book Is OrganizedWhat's on the CDHow to Contact the Author
1. Re-creating the World: An Overview
1.1. Re-creating the Physical World with Blender1.1.1. Blender's Physical Simulation Functionality1.1.2. The Science of Simulation1.1.3. Nonsimulation Tools and Techniques1.2. Using Materials and Textures1.2.1. Hot Lava with Material Nodes1.2.2. Transparency and Subsurface Scattering1.2.2.1. Transparent Shadows1.2.2.2. Subsurface Scattering1.2.3. Sky Maps1.3. Faking Physics with General Tools1.3.1. Modeling Bodies of Water by Using Modifiers and Textures1.3.2. Faking a Cloth Flag by Using a Displacement Modifier1.3.3. Creating a Poseable Spring by Using an Array Modifier, Shape Keys, and PyDrivers1.3.3.1. Modeling the Spring Mesh1.3.3.2. Setting Up the Shape Keys1.3.3.3. Rigging the Spring1.3.3.4. Setting Up a PyDriver
2. The Nitty-Gritty on Particles
2.1. Introducing Particles2.1.1. Setting Particle Parameters2.1.1.1. Particle System Tab2.1.1.2. Baking2.1.2. Using the Physics Tab2.1.2.1. Newtonian Physics2.1.2.2. Keyed Physics2.1.2.3. Other Physics Options2.1.3. Setting Visualization Options2.1.4. Using the Extras Tab2.1.5. Using Force Fields and Deflection2.1.5.1. Force Fields2.1.5.2. Deflection2.2. Working with Dynamic Particles2.2.1. Creating Fire and Smoke2.2.2. The BB vs. the Crystal Ball: Using the Explode Modifier2.3. Boids!2.3.1. Setting Up the Boids System2.3.2. Working with Goals and Predators2.3.3. Creating a Simple Flying Bird
3. Getting Flexible with Soft Bodies and Cloth
3.1. Getting the Hard Facts on Soft Bodies3.1.1. Understanding Soft Body Basics3.1.2. Baking3.1.3. Animating a Spring with Soft Bodies3.1.4. Using Force Fields and Collision3.1.5. Working with Soft Bodies and Curves3.1.6. Using Stress-Mapped Textures for Rubbery Surfaces3.2. Getting Jiggly with Lattices3.3. Simulating Cloth and Clothing3.3.1. Putting Some Clothes on Mancandy3.3.2. Learning More about Cloth3.4. Demolition!
4. Hair Essentials: The Long and Short of Strand Particless
4.1. Introducing Blender Hair4.1.1. Setting Up a Hair Simulation4.1.2. Creating Clumping, Roughness, and Kink4.1.3. Texture Mapping4.1.4. Lighting and Rendering4.2. A Trip to the Beauty Salon4.2.1. Preparing the Mesh4.2.2. Editing Hair Particles4.2.3. Releasing Your Inner Hairdresser4.2.4. More Tips and Tricks for Controlling Hair4.2.4.1. Controlling Particle Attributes with Textures4.2.4.2. X-Axis Mirroring4.2.4.3. Parting Hair with Mesh Seams4.2.5. Soft Bodies and Hair4.3. Other Uses for "Hair" Particles

5. Making a Splash with Fluids
5.1. Using the Blender Fluid Simulator5.1.1. Getting Started with Fluids5.1.1.1. Multiple Fluid Objects5.1.1.2. Init Volume, Init Shell, and Init Both5.1.1.3. Viscosity, Stickiness, and Compressibility5.1.2. Inflow and Outflow5.1.3. Time, Size, and Resolution5.1.3.1. Starting and Ending5.1.3.2. Real-World Size5.1.3.3. Resolution5.1.4. Particles5.1.4.1. Particle Splash5.1.4.2. Particle Haze5.1.5. Obstacles and Animation5.1.6. Animated Obstacles5.1.7. Getting the Shot5.1.8. Strawberries and Milk5.1.8.1. Materials and Textures5.1.8.2. Fluid Settings5.1.9. Bottle of Pop5.1.10. Rushing Creek5.2. Delving Further into Fluids5.2.1. Ipo Animation5.2.2. Scripts and Exporting5.3. Exploring Further Resources
6. Bullet Physics and the Blender Game Engine
6.1. The Blender Game Engine6.1.1. Getting Started with BGE6.1.2. Using Ipos and Actions in BGE6.2. Rigid Body Simulation and Ipos6.2.1. Baking Game Ipos6.2.2. Frame Rate and Simulation Speed6.2.3. Ctrl+Alt+Shift+P6.2.4. Actor Parameters, Boundaries, and Hull Types6.2.5. Collision Boundary Types6.2.5.1. Example: Glass and Ball6.2.6. General Tips on Working with Bullet6.2.7. Adjusting Simulation Quality with Python6.2.7.1. Using Physics Visualization6.3. Joints, Ragdolls, and Robots6.3.1. Using Rigid Body Joint Constraints6.3.2. Using Generic (6DoF) Joints6.3.3. Setting Up a Ragdoll Armature6.3.4. Controlling an Armature6.3.5. A Passive-Walking Robot6.4. Further Resources
7. Imitation of Life: Simulating Trees and Plants
7.1. The Blender Greenhouse: Creating Foliage with L-Systems and ngPlant7.1.1. L-Systems7.1.1.1. Setting Parameters7.1.1.2. Creating a Tree7.1.2. ngPlant7.1.2.1. Interface Overview7.1.2.2. Creating a Palm Tree in ngPlant7.1.3. Other Software7.2. An Open Source Ivy Generator7.3. A Few More Points to Mention7.3.1. Tips for Creating an Outdoor Scene7.3.2. The Importance of Observation
A. About the Companion CD
A.1. What You'll Find on the CDA.1.1. Chapter FilesA.1.2. Blender 2.46 SoftwareA.2. System RequirementsA.3. Using the CDA.4. TroubleshootingA.4.1. Customer Care

Content preview from Bounce, Tumble, and Splash!: Simulating the Physical World with Blender 3D

Chapter 7. Imitation of Life: Simulating Trees and Plants

With a few exceptions, this book has been mainly concerned with simulating the physical behavior of nonliving things. In this chapter, we'll take a step up the food chain and look at a few tools that can be useful for creating trees and vegetation for your scene. These tools exploit the fact that plant growth can be simulated by adjusting parameters in some simple algorithms, which can save you a lot of work in modeling scenery. Although the exercises in this chapter represent only a small example of the uses of these tools, you should get a good sense of the possibilities available to you.

Chapter Contents

The Blender greenhouse: creating foliage with L-Systems and ngPlant
An open source ...

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.

Read now

Unlock full access

More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly

O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.

Julian F.

Head of Cybersecurity

I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.

Addison B.

Field Engineer

I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.

Amir M.

Data Platform Tech Lead

I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.

Mark W.

Embedded Software Engineer

Character Rigging and Advanced Animation: Bring Your Character to Life Using Autodesk 3ds Max

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9780470192801Purchase book

Cloud Computing

Data Engineering

Data Science

AI & ML

Programming Languages

Software Architecture

IT/Ops

Security

Design

Business

Soft Skills

Bounce, Tumble, and Splash!: Simulating the Physical World with Blender 3D

by Tony Mullen, Erwin Coumans

Chapter 7. Imitation of Life: Simulating Trees and Plants

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.