Before we go any further, let me just say OH MY GOD I LOVE THIS CHEAT SHEET. If you enjoy it half as much as I do, you'll really like it too.
There's quite a lot to go through, since we're breaking down the basics of 3D simulation - cloth, fluid, rigid body, soft body - you name it, we cover it. What makes it so fun is that you can play with the simulations right there on the website.
Of course, fun isn't enough, the end goal is useful - all the parameters and concepts that we cover here map out 1:1 in Blender or Houdini or whatever software you're using to make things go boom.
3D simulation can be a complex and confusing world, but the pay off can be huge. In a world of single click AI generation, it can be hard to muster up the energy to dig into complex 3D solutions - but of course, you can use 3D renders to give you precise control over your AI generations, so there's no wasted time in learning.
What's Inside
• The basics - what a simulation actually is, the solver loop, timestep, and cache, plus how matter gets represented as geometry, particles, or voxels.
• Rigid & break - rigid body physics with active and passive objects, and Voronoi fracturing you can trigger yourself.
• Soft & flow - soft bodies, cloth, and liquids, each with a live simulation to play with, not just a diagram.
• Pyro & particles - smoke, fire, and particle systems, and how they build on the same fluid fundamentals.
• Practice - workflow and tools, so you know where each concept actually lives in Blender or Houdini.