Learn Blender Simulations the Right Way

Learn Blender Simulations the Right Way

by Stephen Pearson
Released November 2022
Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
ISBN: 9781803234151

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Book description

An in-depth guide to using the power of Mantaflow, rigid body, soft body, cloth simulations, and Dynamic Paint in Blender 3.3 to create campfires, waterfalls, explosions, flags, and much more

Key Features

  • Understand Mantaflow to create fire and smoke simulations
  • Learn to design satisfying animations using soft bodies and the cloth simulation
  • Construct realistic physics animations with rigid bodies

Book Description

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.

What you will learn

  • Discover what Mantaflow is and how to use it effectively
  • Understand domains, flows, and effectors, and why they are important
  • Create realistic fire, smoke, and fluid simulations
  • Produce satisfying soft and rigid body simulations with ease
  • Use the cloth simulation to bring animated fabric to life
  • Explore canvas and brush objects in Dynamic Paint to create eye-catching animations

Who this book is for

If you’re a VFX artist, 3D artist, game designer, or any Blender user who wants to learn about Mantaflow and physics simulations, then this book is for you. You’re expected to have basic knowledge of the Blender interface and how to use it.

Table of contents

  1. Learn Blender Simulations the Right Way
  2. Contributors
  3. About the author
  4. About the reviewers
  5. Preface
    1. Who this book is for
    2. What this book covers
    3. To get the most out of this book
    4. Download the supporting files
    5. Download the color images
    6. Conventions used
    7. Get in touch
    8. Share Your Thoughts
    9. Download a free PDF copy of this book
  6. Part 1: Using Mantaflow for Fire, Smoke, and Fluids
  7. Chapter 1: An Introduction to Mantaflow
    1. Technical requirements
    2. What is Mantaflow?
    3. Gas and liquid simulations
      1. Gas simulations
      2. Liquid simulations
    4. What you need to create a simulation
      1. Domain objects
      2. Flow objects
      3. Effectors
    5. Creating your first simulation
      1. Adding the objects
      2. Creating the simulation
      3. Creating the material
      4. Setting up the camera
      5. Rendering the animation
    6. Summary
  8. Chapter 2: Understanding Domains, Flows, and Effectors
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Domains
      1. Settings
      2. Cache
      3. Gas domains
      4. Liquid domains
    3. Flow objects
    4. Effectors
    5. Summary
  9. Chapter 3: Creating a Realistic Campfire Simulation
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Creating the campfire simulation
      1. Setting up the domain
      2. Setting up the inflows
      3. Adding effectors
    3. Creating the fire materials
    4. Creating sparks using a particle system
    5. Creating the particle material
    6. Adding the final details
    7. Summary
    8. Exercise
  10. Chapter 4: Creating a Waterfall Using Mantaflow
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Setting up the simulation
    3. Adding inflow and effectors
    4. Adding Foam particles
    5. Creating materials
    6. Adding vector blur
    7. Rendering animations
    8. Summary
  11. Chapter 5: Creating a Realistic Explosion
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Creating the particle system
    3. Creating the simulation
      1. Setting up the domain
      2. Adding the inflows
    4. Creating the material
      1. Creating the smoke
      2. Creating the fire
    5. Rendering the explosion in Cycles and Eevee
      1. Rendering in Eevee
    6. Summary
  12. Part 2: Simulating Physics with Soft Bodies and Cloth
  13. Chapter 6: Getting Started with Soft Bodies
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Introduction to soft body simulations
    3. Understanding collision objects
    4. Understanding soft body settings and values
      1. Object settings
      2. Cache
      3. Soft Body Goal
      4. Edges
      5. Self Collision
      6. Solver
      7. Field Weights
    5. Interacting multiple soft bodies
    6. Summary
  14. Chapter 7: Creating a Soft Body Obstacle Course
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Creating the simulation
      1. Adding the soft body
      2. Adding collisions
      3. Creating the cloth simulation
    3. Using the Soft Body Goal
    4. Creating a glass material in Eevee
    5. Setting up the camera tracking
    6. Summary
  15. Chapter 8: Introduction to Cloth Simulations
    1. Technical requirements
    2. What is a cloth simulation?
    3. Understanding collision objects
    4. Understanding cloth simulation settings and values
      1. Physical Properties
      2. Cache
      3. Shape
      4. Collisions
      5. Property Weights
      6. Field Weights
    5. Summary
  16. Chapter 9: Creating a Realistic Flag
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Adding the objects
      1. Creating the flag
      2. Creating the flagpole
      3. Creating the rope
      4. Creating the hooks
    3. Creating the simulation
    4. Making the materials
      1. Creating the flag material
      2. Creating the hook material
      3. Creating the flagpole material
    5. Rendering the animation
    6. Summary
  17. Part 3: Diving into Rigid Bodies
  18. Chapter 10: An Introduction to Rigid Bodies
    1. Technical requirements
    2. What are rigid bodies?
    3. Understanding the Rigid Body settings
      1. Settings
      2. Collisions
      3. Dynamics
    4. Rigid Body World
    5. Rigid Body Object Menu
    6. Using Rigid Body constraints
      1. Constraint settings and types
    7. Summary
  19. Chapter 11: Creating a Rigid Body Physics Course
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Creating the simulation
      1. Creating the wrecking ball
      2. Creating the domino effect
      3. Simulating the elevator
      4. Animated rigid bodies
      5. Creating the hinges
      6. Collapsing the cubes
    3. Adding the Camera animation
    4. Setting up the render
    5. Summary
  20. Part 4: Understanding Dynamic Paint in Blender
  21. Chapter 12: Introduction to Dynamic Paint
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Getting started with Dynamic Paint
    3. Creating a paint simulation
    4. Understanding the Canvas
      1. Settings
      2. Surfaces
      3. Cache and Output
    5. Using brushes
      1. Settings
      2. Source
      3. Velocity
      4. Waves
    6. Summary
  22. Chapter 13: Creating a Paintbrush Effect
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Animating the brush
    3. Creating the hair particles
    4. Simulating the dynamic paint
      1. Instancing the cube
      2. Creating the simulation
    5. Adding the materials
      1. Creating the canvas material
      2. Creating the hair material
    6. Setting up the render
    7. Summary
  23. Chapter 14: Creating a Raindrop Effect
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Setting up the scene
    3. Creating the rain particles
    4. Simulating the waves
    5. Creating the water material
    6. Setting up the render
    7. Summary
  24. Index
    1. Why subscribe?
  25. Other Books You May Enjoy
    1. Packt is searching for authors like you
    2. Download a free PDF copy of this book

Product information

  • Title: Learn Blender Simulations the Right Way
  • Author(s): Stephen Pearson
  • Release date: November 2022
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781803234151