Intro to the Fluid Simulator – Round 2

by Jonathan Williamson

In this Blender 2.5 video tutorial we take another look at the fluid simulator, going on to demonstrate how to use fluid particles to improve your simulation.

Our first intro to the fluid simulator can be found HERE

Intro to Fluid Simulation>

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Discussion

65 Responses to “Intro to the Fluid Simulator – Round 2”
  1. bob
    Posts: 40

    cool.

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    1
     May 17, 2011 at 7:11 pm
  2. riftmaster
    Posts: 32

    are you planning to do an advanced fluid tutorial, ie. Tsunami/Flood?
    BTW, great tutorial

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    2
     May 17, 2011 at 7:43 pm
    • jeff shepardson
      Posts: 16

      Agree, I’d really love to see some tutorials featuring the other options as well (control, outflow, inflow) I’m glad particle was covered here, it seems no one else is covering these topics.
      A tsunami/flood would be great to cover as well as a faucet or pouring a drink from a pitcher to a glass. which I believe will cover the outflow option though I still can not figure it out.

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      2.1
       May 17, 2011 at 8:45 pm
      • John D Smith II
        Posts: 234

        +2 on the advanced fluids!! Nice tut! And I also would really like to see more on Cycles soon too, and you seem really interested in it, so, by all means! It is already looking great and seems to be the future BI. Maybe an in-depth look at what it is and how it works. I’ve read some articles and forums and am confused (or in denial) about what features work on what systems right now. I’m very happy with my ATI Radeon HD 4200 but what I’ve read indicates that Cycles is made to perform with Nvidia. What is Cuda?? CPU vs GPU?? It would be nice if you could clear this stuff up for guys like me who are playing catchup with tech. It would break my heart to find out I can’t even use Cycles…I’m totally jealous of these awesome little renders you’re making with it! lol

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        2.1.1
         May 17, 2011 at 10:18 pm
      • Juan Pablo Amorocho Duran
        Posts: 10

        Yeah, a Tsunami/Flood simulation would be for a great tutorial!

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        2.1.2
         May 18, 2011 at 5:49 am
  3. Richard Damian
    Posts: 47

    Another topic I have been waiting for. Thanks again.
    Dick

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    3
     May 17, 2011 at 10:49 pm
  4. rascen
    Posts: 2

    I also like to see tutorials of tsunamis/floods/waterfalls. And a long time ago saw a rain simulation with dynamic paint, would be nice a tutorial

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    4
     May 18, 2011 at 4:42 am
  5. russel96
    Posts: 11

    awesome, i had problems on how to make it more
    realistic and wanting to get some splashes,
    thanks jonathan

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    5
     May 18, 2011 at 6:01 am
  6. Max Berends
    Posts: 169

    Yes I am intrested in learning more about cycles:)

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    6
     May 18, 2011 at 9:36 am
  7. Greg
    Posts: 2

    Great introduction Jonathan, thanks a lot! Would also love to see some advanced tut, especially on using “control” value from fluid type options. One question though, just out of curiosity at this point: with fluid settings what is this “start” parameter for if you only need to type in the real world time for simulation in the “end” field? Thanks!

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    7
     May 18, 2011 at 10:50 am
  8. DimitrisC
    Posts: 11

    I’ve asked before but it would be nice to see a videotutorial for the node based material making in cycles.

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    8
     May 18, 2011 at 11:35 am
  9. PL
    Posts: 9

    http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.5/Py/Scripts/Mesh/Wetted_Mesh
    quote from the script’s author:
    “Warning: 2.57b has buggy icosphere normals. Using this Blender version you need to fix up the normals for the icosphere or use an other mesh primitive.”

    Blender Foundation’s next chapter will be probably accelerating particles, cloth and fluid simulations and for what I know particles using BGE are under heavy developement:)

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    9
     May 18, 2011 at 1:56 pm
  10. Luke
    Posts: 3

    nice tut. btw, oil has a lower density than water. people often confuse density with viscosity. oil is more viscous, but it has lower density (it floats in water). cheers.

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    10
     May 18, 2011 at 5:48 pm
  11. mr. MR.
    Posts: 1

    Thx for yet another great Tut, One of many :)
    I like “playing around” with the “fluidsim” but I have run in to a problem that has stopped me from being able to “use it like a tool” and create something that looks the way I intend it to.
    My problem is that I can’t work in high enough resolution when I’m “setting the scene up” since that would take to much time to be realistic. But when i have a scene that “looks right” and I raise the resolution for the “final result”, the “”volume of the generated fluid”" seems to decrease quite significantly. The change is often so extensive and changes both the “look” and “interaction” of the simulation so much that I often have to do the whole “setup+tweaking” all over again.
    This happens with such regularity that I feel like its almost a waste of time working in lower domain resolutions than I want in the final result …;(
    Have You had any such problems, and if so what “strategy” do You use to come to grips with it ???..

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    11
     May 18, 2011 at 6:16 pm
    • Josiah Howey
      Posts: 6

      I would recommend getting the Official Support thing down at the bottom of the page. You will get an answer from experts (i.e. People who use blender for a living).

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      11.1
       May 20, 2011 at 7:15 pm
    • John D Smith II
      Posts: 234

      I def know what you mean. It is the same with fire particles. Personally I only use the low res settings to test the particle’s behavior. Once it seems to be behaving realistically, I’m done with the low res. I crank the resolution WAY up to final res and then bake and render the animation. As each frame comes up I take note of any adjustments that need to be made or make them real time if I can. I have a fairly strong triple core and it takes me two days to bake and render 200 frames of really high res simulation, so… I guess it doesn’t really bother me if it takes a while to get the settings right because it’s gonna take a while anyway! But ya, I agree, in my experience it’s better to skip straight to high res as soon as you can and take your time with it for good results. Peace.

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      11.2
       May 22, 2011 at 10:35 am
  12. gabe
    Posts: 4

    A tutorial of a boat on a lake or ocean would be a good fluid demonstration.

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    12
     May 18, 2011 at 7:30 pm
  13. Rutu
    Posts: 1

    Hey can you teach how to use the option control in another tutorial.

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    13
     May 18, 2011 at 11:05 pm
  14. Brian Lockett
    Posts: 38

    That was helpful! Yeah, I’m definitely going to play around with the fluid simulator! Good tutorial! Thanks!

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    14
     May 19, 2011 at 3:49 am
  15. verticies
    Posts: 228

    Here’s one with 2.49 a long time ago, don’t recall using anything to make more particles except turning up the resolution.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=127RtIuaSzw

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    15
     May 19, 2011 at 8:39 am
  16. Andreu Cabre
    Posts: 8

    Great tutorial! I appreciate your clarity and preparation. I noticed you were trying to disable the preview of the fluid simulation by clicking on the eye icon, but it did not work. I think it’s a bug, but I’ve noticed that if you click twice more on the eye icon, then it works like it’s supposed to—that is, the simulation is hidden n the viewport.

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    16
     May 19, 2011 at 10:50 am
    • Jonathan Williamson
      Posts: 2957

      Good to know!

      -Jonathan

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      16.1
       May 19, 2011 at 12:07 pm
      • Jacob Peterson
        Posts: 7

        Hey Jonathan, whenever i press domain for my cube, it gets a ton smaller and is more like a rounded cube, and then after i press bake fluid simulation, after about 5 seconds after the fluid starts moving, a cube covering the liquid appears. PLZ HELP!!!

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        16.1.1
         Feb 1, 2012 at 6:13 pm
      • Jonathan Williamson
        Posts: 2957

        Hi Jacob,

        The domain changing to a fluid is correct. What’s happening is the fluid system is reading the stored data from a previous simulation. If you look at the directory for the Bake you should find all the fluid sim data. I believe this is also what’s happening when the cube reappears. Your current sim probably only runs for five seconds and then Blender starts reading from the old data. To fix this you just need to go to that directory for the bake and delete the old data.

        #
         Feb 1, 2012 at 6:29 pm
  17. Matthew Morris
    Posts: 91

    MORE CYCLES!! LOL

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    17
     May 19, 2011 at 4:22 pm
  18. spender
    Posts: 39

    Hi Jonathan

    You mention nothing about from where I got this AddOn (A) that you show at your fluid tutorial .
    At my Preferences – AddOns – 3D View Blender 2.5.7 64 bits there is not any of this addOn.
    Can you advice me.
    Thank you.

    http://i1023.photobucket.com/albums/af353/Spender19/Skrmavbild2011-05-21kl102437.jpg

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    18
     May 21, 2011 at 3:39 am
  19. ryan
    Posts: 2

    this seems to be a very slow proses i want to know how hard it would be to maybe have a 10s vid of fluid being poured out of a glass into another glass (also a comparison between luxrender and cycles regarding render times with video would help a lot)(i plan on using luxrender)

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    19
     May 21, 2011 at 9:26 am
  20. Neil Adam
    Posts: 2

    I wanted to make a wine glass and drop some water in it. But it is always going through. Is there any other way to stop that then making it thicker? Please help.

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    20
     Sep 3, 2011 at 4:46 am
    • Neil Adam
      Posts: 2

      Found it out myself. Just changed the “Volume Initialization” from “Volume” to “Shell”.

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      20.1
       Sep 3, 2011 at 5:53 am
  21. Eduardo
    Posts: 1

    I have been searching for fluid sim tuts all over the web but it seems everybody just does the same thing. Domain, Fluid, done. Could you please do a tutorial series that is entirely about the Fluid Sim? I’d love to see a more advanced tutorial that covers all that the Fluid Sim has to offer. I’m trying to workout out a shot which is similar to water shooting out of a hose with bullet time effect camera movement. Is that doable? can the Fluid Sim be paused while the camera continues to move through it? I really enjoyed this tutorial but I have to ask if you could please take this topic to the next level. Thanks in advance and keep doing all the great things you’ve been doing.

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    21
     Oct 8, 2011 at 12:53 pm
  22. Barney
    Posts: 4

    PLEASE HELP whenever I click F6 it doesn’t do what I want !!!!

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    22
     Oct 8, 2011 at 7:02 pm
    • Jonathan Williamson
      Posts: 2957

      If you’re on a Mac then try pressing FN + F6.

      -Jonathan

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      22.1
       Oct 8, 2011 at 8:26 pm
      • Barney
        Posts: 4

        It still doesn’t work, I’m on blender 2.57 if that helps

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        22.1.1
         Oct 19, 2011 at 2:46 am
  23. lone_wolf1595
    Posts: 1

    pressing the p-key doesn’t do what it does in the video
    p.s i’m using blender 2.6

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    23
     Oct 28, 2011 at 4:37 pm
  24. chris opall
    Posts: 47

    Anyone have a suggestion on how to create a continuous horizontal stream of fluid? I modeled an impact water sprinkler and would now like to add a jet of water. The fluid simulator seems more geared towards creating a body of fluid that can then be manipulated with obstacles. Maybe using a particle system would be better for my purposes. Suggestions?

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    24
     Oct 31, 2011 at 7:50 am
  25. Gary Parkin
    Posts: 109

    I was hoping to see what material you added to it, also how to “shoot it” like a fountain.

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    25
     Nov 5, 2011 at 9:07 am
  26. bishop knight
    Posts: 82

    I’m surprised that they didn’t go with the GPU for calculating fluid simulations. nVidia Geforce cards can be used as physics cards for games. Seems like it should work for this since it works with cycles.

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    26
     Nov 7, 2011 at 4:10 pm
  27. Chris Krause
    Posts: 5

    Very nice tutorial, great job.

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    27
     Nov 25, 2011 at 2:06 pm
  28. Berat Tatlici
    Posts: 49

    Dear Jonathan,

    How To Save The Render Animation? What İs The File Type On Render Animation?

    _________________

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    28
     Dec 15, 2011 at 7:12 am
    • Jonathan Williamson
      Posts: 2957

      You can either save it out an image sequence or you can save it as a .MOV or similar.

      -Jonathan

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      28.1
       Dec 15, 2011 at 8:03 am
  29. Berat Tatlici
    Posts: 49

    Jonathan,
    First thank you and :

    I make a video.I edit the video using the Blender but i do not save :( When i save,video is original,How to save video on after the edit?

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    29
     Jan 7, 2012 at 1:17 pm
    • Jonathan Williamson
      Posts: 2957

      Hi Berat, are you editing the video with the Video Sequence Editor? If so then you need to make sure that “Sequence” is enabled in the render properties and then set your output to the desired format, followed by pressing “Animation”.

      -Jonathan

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      29.1
       Jan 7, 2012 at 9:30 pm
  30. Berat Tatlici
    Posts: 49

    Yes i edit video the Vİdeo Sequence Editor And i save the video.Thank you but ı change speed effect on video,video is slower than original but lost the video’s last scenes…

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    30
     Jan 8, 2012 at 4:44 am
  31. Stefan Maerz
    Posts: 8

    Jonathan,

    Great Tutorial. The first one worked perfectly. I started playing with it after the first tutorial however.

    I have a bit of an issue. I think it is related to the blender bake files. Apparently every time you press Bake, a bake file is generated. ( http://www10.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/~sinithue/blender/wikimirror/wikibu060815_fluidsim.html )

    This is causing me issues, because I am getting previous bake settings mixed into my current scene (I’ve opened new blender scenes). For instance one of my simulations, the liquid sphere just randomly turns into a liquid cube half way through. (See http://dl.dropbox.com/u/720261/Personal/fluid%20sim.avi )

    I’ve tried deleting all the bake files. No luck. I’ve tried changing the directory that blender uses for the bake files – This ends up copying all the bake files into the new directory I’ve specified.

    Any help?

    Thanks,
    -Stefan

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    31
     Jan 19, 2012 at 10:59 pm
    • Jonathan Williamson
      Posts: 2957

      Hi Stefan,

      You’re right that it is using the previous bake files since they are actually stored on your drive somewhere. Deleting them should work, just double check that you are deleting from the correct directory and only have the one fluid sim in your scene that you’re trying to work with. Keep in mind, too, that if your previous bake had more frames than your new one, where the new one cuts off it will switch to the old one since those frames will not have been overwritten in the bake directory.

      #
      31.1
       Jan 20, 2012 at 8:55 am
      • Stefan Maerz
        Posts: 8

        Thanks Jonathan. I figured it out last night about an hour or two after the post. I am not sure if it is a big issue for other users, but it may be useful to include a breif bake file management explanation in any subsequent fluid sim tutorials.

        What I ended up doing is deleting everything (blender related) from /tmp, and creating a project directory for each fluid sim I ran. I specify that I want my project directory to house the bake files. Then everything is organized and it is easy to find and delete if a problem arises.

        I was also a little confused by the sheer number of bake files that were generated.

        Thanks again, this is a very useful tutorial.

        #
        31.1.1
         Jan 20, 2012 at 10:31 am
  32. Berat Tatlici
    Posts: 49

    Jonathan,

    I create a video and i save but video is a empty.I can see video on Sequence Editor but I can’t see video on normal.How to see the video?

    Thanks…

    #
    32
     Jan 25, 2012 at 8:48 am
  33. Noah
    Posts: 11

    In the blender short, Sintel, The wizard guy gave the girl some stuff to drink . . . how would you make it so the fluid isn’t all splashy and instead is already settled like it was in Sintel.

    #
    33
     Jan 28, 2012 at 3:57 pm
    • Stefan Maerz
      Posts: 8

      Noah,

      Increasing viscosity will change the characteristics of the water. As an example higher viscosity (or more viscous) fluids include motor oil or honey.

      This will make your fluid less “Splashy,” but may not be what you want.

      What I would try is making a fluid that starts out in the bottom of a container. Try modeling your water object to be the same shape, but slightly smaller (so it fits inside) than your container object. I think that would solve your issue.

      #
      33.1
       Jan 28, 2012 at 6:39 pm
      • Noah
        Posts: 11

        Thanks for the tip. I’ll try that!

        #
        33.1.1
         Jan 29, 2012 at 6:10 pm
  34. Ray Cefola
    Posts: 1

    Thanks for the tut Jonathan! This explained EXACTLY what was puzzling
    regarding the bowl. Keep those tuts coming!

    #
    34
     Mar 16, 2012 at 6:11 am
  35. Jukka Martama
    Posts: 1

    Can’t seem to get the particles working? After adding the plane and defining it to fluid particles (and tracer particles for domain), no particles are visible when I bake. Any ideas? I’m using 2.62.

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    35
     Apr 22, 2012 at 11:48 pm
  36. Adriano
    Posts: 1

    very nice tutorial, thanks!

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    36
     May 1, 2012 at 9:10 pm
  37. Paul Jackson
    Posts: 6

    Hey can i make and render a Hight Res Fluid simulation in Blender?
    Specs:

    AMD Athlon II X2 215
    2.17 Ghz
    1,75 RAM Memory
    Graphics:ATI Radeon HD 5600 Series

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    37
     Jul 1, 2012 at 9:41 am
  38. Will E
    Posts: 5

    I am experiencing a problem in blender 2.63.0, I have matched what jonathan is doing in the video in the first 6 minutes exactly, but when i bake with the obstacle, it does not function as a bowl, but as a box. Also, there is a buggy plane that extends from my bowl the the edge of my domain, which also blocks the flow of my fluid. it is extremely frustrating, and any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

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    38
     Jul 16, 2012 at 1:20 pm
  40. delazouch
    Posts: 15

    Hi all this was my try at this
    http://cgcookie.com/blender/images/water-play/

    Didnt want to copy it like for like, 1st blender project try took me 4 hours

    I could use help on nodes very easy to get lost in the node editor

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    40
     Aug 18, 2012 at 8:39 am
  41. Kama Gójska
    Posts: 1

    I want to do fluid in phial. The phial will be a glass and when i move phial the fluid will be move but I don’t know how to do this.

    #
    41
     Apr 14, 2013 at 12:45 pm

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