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The difference a new computer makes for 3D rendering
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[QUOTE="Janus, post: 6440658, member: 4"] While exploring some of the new features of the most recent version of Blender, I came across this cool additional option for one of the physics modifiers. The modifier is the "cloth" modifier, which allows you to simulate the behavior of cloth. It can be used to create a waving flag, or a table cloth draped over a table, etc. The new option is "pressure". To explain what this does, we'll start with a simple cube [ATTACH type="full" alt="cube.png"]275759[/ATTACH] Though you can't see it here, this one has it sides divided up into 20x20 arrays of "faces". You need to subdivide the object up like this in order to give the cloth modifier something to work with in terms of deforming the cube. I also have already applied the cloth modifier, but again, you don't see this, as the cube has nothing to interact with. If I were to add a collision plane below the cube, and then let the animation run a bit, the cube would collaspe onto the plane as if it were an empty cube shaped bag made of cloth. But the new option allows you to give the "bag" an internal "pressure", as if it were pumped full of air, and you can vary the value of this pressure. So, if I take our cloth cube, and raise the pressure value up, you can get this: [ATTACH type="full" alt="cube_inflate.png"]275760[/ATTACH] The cube bulges against the internal pressure (there are ways to make this better, such as starting with a cube that has rounded edges and corners ( even if just slightly), but this is just a simple example. If I were to allow this object to fall onto the plane, it would give a bit, and maybe partially collapse (depending on the pressure value). This opens up a slew of possible things to play around with. The first thing that occurred to me was suggested by the fact that the pressure setting can be controlled within an animation, which inspired me to try this: [ATTACH type="full" alt="balloon2.gif"]275758[/ATTACH] Surprisingly, it didn't take a lot of time to get something that looked halfway decent. The "balloon letters" were made by starting with a text object. Extruding it to make it 3 dimensional, then adding a rounded bevel to remove straight edges and corners. Convert the text object into a mesh object (the cube we used earlier was also a mesh object). Apply a re-mesh modifier ( This more or less rearranges how the object's faces are arranged. This is important, because the assigned faces created in the text to mesh conversion would give really odd creases and folds in our "cloth". ) Create some "pin points". These are parts of the mesh that will remain fixed, and non-moving in the animation and act as "anchors" for our letters. Assign the cloth modifier, with "pinning" enabled and your selected points assigned as pins. Put a collision plane under the mesh. Now, on to animating: Make sure pressure is set to 0 in the cloth settings. Let the animation run for a number of frames, to allow the cloth letters to settle down onto the plane. Stop the animation. With pressure still at 0, you assign a "key frame" to the pressure value. ( this assures that the pressure value remains 0 up until this point. Move ahead in the animation by the amount of time over which you want the letters to inflate. Turn up the pressure value (I used 180) And set a new key frame. (between the last key frame and this one, the pressure value will ramp up from 0 to 180, 'inflating' the letters. ) Now, we need one more thing. Left like this, the letters will inflate, but they won't fully stand up. So I added a "wind" force field. This, as the name suggests, simulates a blowing wind. In this case, I orient it so that the wind blows upward. You set key frames up for it so that you have zero wind while our letters settle to the plane, and the the wind picks up when the letters inflate. The upward acting "wind" makes the letters stand upright. Choosing the right pressure and wind values is by trial and error. Pick a setting, see how the animation behaves, adjust the value, see how it changes, ... Now we just render the animation by selecting to only render those frames from just before inflation starts to somewhat after full inflation. I did give the letters a metallic, Mylar like material, So I used a HDRI as the background to give them something varied to reflect. And that about covers it. There are some other details I didn't include, but I didn't want to put everyone to sleep. [/QUOTE]
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