SOFTWARE: BLENDER
Paul Hatton replies
In Blender, smoke simulations are a subset of the Fluid system. They generate animated voxel textures that represent the smoke, and can subsequently be used for rendering the final results.
To create a smoke simulation, you need both a Flow object and a Domain object. The Flow object acts as the emitter and the Domain object contains the smoke particles. It’s important to keep in mind that the smoke can’t escape out of the Domain. When it reaches the boundary of the Domain it will either collide with the boundary or disappear, depending on your settings. It can be tempting to think that a huge Domain is therefore the answer, but the bigger the Domain the higher the resolution required and therefore the longer the bake time.
To answer this question we’re going to use the popular Quick Smoke object. This automatically creates a Domain object with a basic smoke material included and is by far the quickest way to get a smoke simulation set up.
There are two additional points we’ll explore in the answer that, if extended, can create some truly incredible results. The first will be to introduce Blocker objects. These will act as blockages to the smoke simulation and will cause the smoke to have to go around it to find its new path. These blockers can even be animated for a truly dynamic result.
The second addition will be to create a Force Field that influences the simulation. In our instance we’ll create some turbulence, but you could equally introduce some wind or drag, for example.
Beyond the scope of this question and answer is the development of shaders for your smoke. You can use the Principled Volume shader and set the Colour and Density properties for a basic material.
Once you have the basics set up, creating the simulation is simply a case of clicking Play Animation in the Timeline panel. The speed at which the simulation is generated will depend upon the resolution of the output, as well as the complexity of the setup. The best advice for figuring out all the settings is to adjust one and then see how the simulation reacts. To do this efficiently, make sure you use a low Resolution Divisions number.
STEP BY STEP CREATE A SMOKE SIMULATION
01 GET SET UP
