These instructions will get you familiar with Blender by quickly creating a liquid simulation of a three-dimensional model and exporting an animation.
Excluding time to download and processing your animation, you will be able to complete this tutorial in ~10 minutes
- 0. Preface
- 1. Requirements
- 2. Installation
- 3. Basic Navigation
- 4. Applying Physics
- 5. Recording Animation
- 6. Next Steps
Blender is a popular free and open-source software used for 3D computer graphics. This powerful tool can produce 3D simulations, animations, artwork, 3D printing models, and many other creations like the .gif
of a melting chocolate bar below:
Because Blender is extremely multifunctional, it can be complex given its many features. To focus our efforts in this tutorial, we will quickly create a simple animation that would be difficult to generate elsewhere.
Any computer made in the past decade should be able to run Blender for our tutorial animation.
Blender is available for Windows, MacOS, and Linux; this tutorial uses Windows 10, but most commands should be the same between different operating systems.
Download Blender for you operating system at: https://www.blender.org/download/
This tutorial uses the "portable" Windows version of Blender to simplify installation (portable means that the software just needs to be extracted and does not need to be installed on your system).
When you first start Blender, you will be presented with a default file that has a 3D cube in it. For the purposes of this tutorial, you do not need to manipulate the Cube
object other than selecting it by clicking on it (it will be highlighed in an orange outline when selected).
With the Cube
selected, go to the Object
menu (1) and scroll down to select Quick Effects
(2) and choose Quick Liquid
(3).
This will create a new object called Liquid Domain
, it is represented by the larger orange rectangular outline around the cube.
Reselect the Cube
(1) and choose the Physics Properties
(1) and scroll down to Fluid
menu (3). Change Type
to Flow
, Flow Type
to Liquid
, and Flow Behavior
to Geometry
.
Reselect the Liquid Domain
(1), select Material Properties
(2), delete the default material (3), create a New
material (4), and leave as the default new material Material.001
(5).
Select the Physics Properties
for Liquid Domain
(1) and under Fluid
, select Mesh
.
Continue to scroll past the Fluid
submenu and under Cache
, change End
to 30
(1), change Type
to All
(2), and click on Bake All
. Blender will now simulate 30 frames of the liquid simulation on the Cube
.
After a few moments, Blender will have finished processing and we can move forward to recording an animation of the physics simulation.
Select the Toggle Camera View
(1) so you can see the recording camera's perspective. With the Liquid Domain
object selected, go to Output Properties
(2) and change End
to 30
(3) and you can change the output path if you want (4). For the Cube
object, click on Disable in Renders
(5) so it is greyed out. Under the Render
menu (7), select Render Animation
.
A new window will pop up and Blender will start rendering the animation. Note that this is a separate step from the "baking" physics simulation and is what is required to produce the final files used for animation.
After a few moments, you will have each of the 30 frames rendered as separate images in your designated output folder.
With these individual frames, you can use other software like GIMP or ScreenToGif to create a .gif
animation or even .mp4
video file!
Congratulations, you've created your first computer-generated imagery (CGI) just like in the movies!
If you're wondering how to make the melting chocolate bar like in the Preface section, you'll have to look into these concepts:
- Using different models:
File
→Import
(See "Free 3D Models") - Backgrounds:
World
→Color
→Environment Texture
(See "Free HDRI Backgrounds") - Manipulating camera: In
Camera View
, pan, move, and zoom to the perfect angle for recording - Surface colors and appearances: Revisit
Material Properties
from the Applying Physics step and look into properties likeBase Color
,Metallic
,Roughness
, etc. - Changing properties during animation: Change
Material Properties
and utilize Keyframes throughout the rendering (e.g., surface becomes more mirror polished and color turns lighter)
Description | URL Link |
---|---|
GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) | https://www.gimp.org/ |
ScreenToGif | https://www.screentogif.com/ |
Free 3D Models | https://www.thingiverse.com/ |
Free HDRI Backgrounds | https://polyhaven.com/ |
Issue | Solution |
---|---|
"It's not working!" | This concise tutorial has distilled hours of sweat, tears, and troubleshooting; it can't not work |
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