Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 69 - Artsy burnout

Started by Magnus Skogsfjord, February 09, 2020, 08:26:41 AM

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Magnus Skogsfjord

Hi guys,

Spent a nerdy Saturday trying to figure out smoke simulation in Blender to create a tire burnout on a Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 69 model, motivation being this weeks Render Weekly collaboraing with Liam (@ldmartin on instagram). Now I'm not a huge car enthusiast, but I admit it sure is fun once in a while.

The VDB map could probably do some additional minor tweaks, but I'll consider myself happy with this one for now. Guess the artsy setup can forgive a little.

Cheers,

TGS808

As always, Magnus, it is smashing.  :)

Now on to the question portion...  Am I misunderstanding or were you able to export a smoke sim out of Blender and use it as a VDB in KS? I didn't think Blender could export VDB. Can you shed some light on how you did this? I'm sure I'm not the only one who's going to want to know.

INNEO_MWo



Magnus Skogsfjord

Quote from: TGS808 on February 09, 2020, 09:27:09 PM
As always, Magnus, it is smashing.  :)

Now on to the question portion...  Am I misunderstanding or were you able to export a smoke sim out of Blender and use it as a VDB in KS? I didn't think Blender could export VDB. Can you shed some light on how you did this? I'm sure I'm not the only one who's going to want to know.

Thank you! Really appreciate hearing it :)

Looks like Marco gave you the answer here. Pretty neat to bake out a simulation and just pick the frame you're most satisfied with. Just let me know if you need additional info than what Liam presents here.

TGS808

Thanks, Magnus.  :D I haven't gotten a chance to watch Liam's video yet but I will for sure before the day is over. I'm definitely excited to check it out and see what he's cooked up. Thanks for the offer of additional help. If I need it, I will be taking you up on it.  ;D

Zeltronic

Superb Magnus, vdb work rather well in keyshot, on the other hand keyshot becomes less comfortable when several VDB overlap it is a shame because the superposition of several different vdb would have allowed interesting effects.
Blender is a superb tool and is becoming more and more mature, for my part I really like houdini to generate VDB because the possibility of control is very extensive. :)

Magnus Skogsfjord

#7
Quote from: TGS808 on February 10, 2020, 10:37:51 AM
Thanks, Magnus.  :D I haven't gotten a chance to watch Liam's video yet but I will for sure before the day is over. I'm definitely excited to check it out and see what he's cooked up. Thanks for the offer of additional help. If I need it, I will be taking you up on it.  ;D
Yes, please do! As a disclaimer, I am by no means an authority in Blender. It's simply a software I visit now and again to play around with. It's quite the beast though.
Quote
Superb Magnus, vdb work rather well in keyshot, on the other hand keyshot becomes less comfortable when several VDB overlap it is a shame because the superposition of several different vdb would have allowed interesting effects.
Blender is a superb tool and is becoming more and more mature, for my part I really like houdini to generate VDB because the possibility of control is very extensive. :)
It's funny that you point that out, because I tried the exact same thing in this setup by mashing up a second VDB below the main one. But as you describe, impossible due to not being able to superposition them. Not sure how easy/difficult it would be to implement such either. What I miss the most, though, is a way to efficiently position the calculated VDB's. In this example, i struggled a bit too much to manually find the position/size from the sim. But who knows, maybe I've overlooked something in that sense.

I also agree with you on the Houdini on VDB. From what I see it looks outstanding. However, I can't afford a software like that..yet ;)

Zeltronic

#8
I reassure you magnus you are not the only one having difficulties adjusting a VDB, some files I also look for a long time for the right size and you often have to play with the position of the vdb in keyshot to find the right placement, I also notice that very often when importing, VDB is completely out of scope, otherwise I also hope that the next versions of keyshot will allow VBD overlay that would be really cool and useful.  ;D

Magnus Skogsfjord

#9
Quote from: Zeltronic on February 11, 2020, 08:03:03 AM
I reassure you magnus you are not the only one having difficulties adjusting a VDB, some files I also look for a long time for the right size and you often have to play with the position of the vdb in keyshot to find the right placement, I also notice that very often when importing, VDB is completely out of scope, otherwise I also hope that the next versions of keyshot will allow VBD overlay that would be really cool and useful.  ;D
Well that's good to know!:) I used an adaptive domain on the smoke sim, and exported domains belonging to their respective sim frame as an fbx. My hope was that the VDB would snap in place as such, but alas no. It seems like the size of the domain in which you place your VDB has a certain impact on the looks too, But I haven't dug deep enough to understand how that works.

+1 on the overlay!

TGS808

Quote from: Magnus Skogsfjord on February 11, 2020, 04:53:44 AM
Yes, please do! As a disclaimer, I am by no means an authority in Blender. It's simply a software I visit now and again to play around with. It's quite the beast though.

I got a chance to watch Liam's video last night and I really like what he came up with. I'm looking forward to playing around a bit on the weekend. Based on what he said in his video about Blender "filling a gap", I seem to use it the same way that you and he do. I kind of treat Blender as a big "plug-in" for when I need a cloth sim or fluid sim. I didn't realize you could get a VDB out of it so, this is cool!

Side note: I have also been recently been trying out the sculpting mode and it's pretty cool for making organic objects that would be a pain in CAD. I'm sure that some of you guys have already seen the new cloth brush that the Blender community is buzzing about. It's only in an alpha build right now but I downloaded it to give it a try and it's really cool. Perfect timing for it with the addition of RealCloth and Fuzz in KS9. If you haven't seen it, search "Blender cloth brush" in YouTube and you'll find a bunch of stuff.

Zeltronic

Quote from: Magnus Skogsfjord on February 11, 2020, 08:16:12 AM
Quote from: Zeltronic on February 11, 2020, 08:03:03 AM
I reassure you magnus you are not the only one having difficulties adjusting a VDB, some files I also look for a long time for the right size and you often have to play with the position of the vdb in keyshot to find the right placement, I also notice that very often when importing, VDB is completely out of scope, otherwise I also hope that the next versions of keyshot will allow VBD overlay that would be really cool and useful.  ;D
Well that's good to know!:) I used an adaptive domain on the smoke sim, and exported domains belonging to their respective sim frame as an fbx. My hope was that the VDB would snap in place as such, but alas no. It seems like the size of the domain in which you place your VDB has a certain impact on the looks too, But I haven't dug deep enough to understand how that works.

+1 on the overlay!

I did few tests with different tools and I did not have the impression that even with a tigh management of domain gives perfect results in keyshot without being forced to tinker, same observation with exports of clouds from Vue, I am like you I may have missed something but anyway so far I still have a lot of work of adjustment and plating before achieve the desired effect with VDBs generated in houdini, Vue ....Have to try blender too. ;)

Magnus Skogsfjord

#12
Quote from: TGS808 on February 11, 2020, 08:26:09 AM
I got a chance to watch Liam's video last night and I really like what he came up with. I'm looking forward to playing around a bit on the weekend. Based on what he said in his video about Blender "filling a gap", I seem to use it the same way that you and he do. I kind of treat Blender as a big "plug-in" for when I need a cloth sim or fluid sim. I didn't realize you could get a VDB out of it so, this is cool!

Side note: I have also been recently been trying out the sculpting mode and it's pretty cool for making organic objects that would be a pain in CAD. I'm sure that some of you guys have already seen the new cloth brush that the Blender community is buzzing about. It's only in an alpha build right now but I downloaded it to give it a try and it's really cool. Perfect timing for it with the addition of RealCloth and Fuzz in KS9. If you haven't seen it, search "Blender cloth brush" in YouTube and you'll find a bunch of stuff.
Yes you're really pinpointing exactly how I'm using it myself. However, this software - even though the UI has been given a facelift - gives me friggin aneurysms sometimes, so I try to steer clear when I can. But alas, sometimes I just have to turn to Blender to reach those organic tweaks. I've recently gotten a huge love for Marvelous Designer when it comes to soft body modeling though. MD is a software I can put away for a month or two, and still be comfortable picking up again. Unlike Blender where I have to relearn all the basics each time I open it up. I'm just not frequent enough in it to ever be super comfortable. However, I do use it to refine and sculpt the soft bodies, and i have seen the new brushes! Really want to take those for a spin asap.

ALSO: Blender has gotten a STEP importer plugin now! Have a mate who's over the moon for that addon.

Quote from: Zeltronic on February 11, 2020, 08:34:03 AM
I did few tests with different tools and I did not have the impression that even with a tigh management of domain gives perfect results in keyshot without being forced to tinker, same observation with exports of clouds from Vue, I am like you I may have missed something but anyway so far I still have a lot of work of adjustment and plating before achieve the desired effect with VDBs generated in houdini, Vue ....Have to try blender too. ;)
Nah, that's exactly what I struggle a little bit with too. I noticed it helps a little to turn the transparency distance to minimum for positioning though! I also think Houdini is a bit more powerful in the smoke sim, purely based on examples I've seen. But again, I lack the experience to say anything for certain.

TGS808

Quote from: Magnus Skogsfjord on February 11, 2020, 08:49:03 AM
Yes you're really pinpointing exactly how I'm using it myself. However, this software - even though the UI has been given a facelift - gives me friggin aneurysms sometimes, so I try to steer clear when I can. But alas, sometimes I just have to turn to Blender to reach those organic tweaks. I've recently gotten a huge love for Marvelous Designer when it comes to soft body modeling though. MD is a software I can put away for a month or two, and still be comfortable picking up again. Unlike Blender where I have to relearn all the basics each time I open it up. I'm just not frequent enough in it to ever be super comfortable. However, I do use it to refine and sculpt the soft bodies, and i have seen the new brushes! Really want to take those for a spin asap.

ALSO: Blender has gotten a STEP importer plugin now! Have a mate who's over the moon for that addon.


Agree on that. The 2.8 interface is light years better than previous versions but every time I venture into Blender it goes something like this: Need to make "X" / Can't figure out how Blender does this / Go to YouTube and look for "How to make 'X' in Blender".  ;D The good news is that "how to make 'X' in Blender" video is always there. Definitely going to look into that STEP importer. Didn't know about that.

Eric Summers

Quote from: TGS808 on February 11, 2020, 09:24:47 AM
Quote from: Magnus Skogsfjord on February 11, 2020, 08:49:03 AM
Yes you're really pinpointing exactly how I'm using it myself. However, this software - even though the UI has been given a facelift - gives me friggin aneurysms sometimes, so I try to steer clear when I can. But alas, sometimes I just have to turn to Blender to reach those organic tweaks. I've recently gotten a huge love for Marvelous Designer when it comes to soft body modeling though. MD is a software I can put away for a month or two, and still be comfortable picking up again. Unlike Blender where I have to relearn all the basics each time I open it up. I'm just not frequent enough in it to ever be super comfortable. However, I do use it to refine and sculpt the soft bodies, and i have seen the new brushes! Really want to take those for a spin asap.

ALSO: Blender has gotten a STEP importer plugin now! Have a mate who's over the moon for that addon.


Agree on that. The 2.8 interface is light years better than previous versions but every time I venture into Blender it goes something like this: Need to make "X" / Can't figure out how Blender does this / Go to YouTube and look for "How to make 'X' in Blender".  ;D The good news is that "how to make 'X' in Blender" video is always there. Definitely going to look into that STEP importer. Didn't know about that.

Haha, this sounds just like me! ;D  I didn't know you could make a VDB in Blender either; guess I'm off to "learn" how to make a VDB...  :P