So the thing I needed to learn that I thought would sell the animation the most was simulations, specifically liquid simulations
I had no idea but I found a course on Skillshare that showed the liquid simulations.
This was probably the hardest part of the whole project. I basically created a cube and from there I made it into a domain, which is where the liquid sits. From there, I could experiment with the particles and and animated the can and the peaches dropping into the water.
I this was a really heavy scene. After baking the data, the mesh and the particles it made navigating the scene very difficult. It is not until more recently that I realise that the animation of the peach in the water could have been better. They do eventually move upwards but I was concentrating so much on the look of the liquid sim that I didn’t really check.
Particle Simulation
Floating scene
I added some particle simulations in there too. I first added a cube and added a emitter. I changed the output object to the peach and I did the same for the aubergine. This took a long time to get right and I just tweaked the settings so I could get a slow moving sim. I then animated the cans and added a low depth of field.
Can Pouring
So I really wanted to do an animation of the juice pouring out the can. I felt like the first liquid sim didn’t go so well but I was really determined to try again. After all, the advert is about juice. I really felt like this was an important shot. I experimented with the liquid simulation again. I placed a UV Sphere inside the can and added a fluid sim to this, changing it from domain to Flow.
This is what it looked like in Blender…
I really didn’t like the way it looked so I went looking for more tutorials. I found a video there a guy did this effect and quickly mentioned that he did it with a particle sim rather than a physics sim.
So I placed a plane inside the opening, to use as the emitter object then used Meta balls as the emitter. After scaling the balls and adding UV Spheres as the bubbles, changing the shading to a glass shader, then changed the IOR to 1.33 (which is water) this happened….
I was way happier with the results. To me it looked more dynamic and even though it is exaggerated, to me it looked more appealing that the fluid created by the physics sim.
Splash Sim
I really wanted to try one more time with the fluid sim and have a splash. I liked the other elements in the project but it was really important to me to have a few fluid scenes. So I used the Physics sim again by placing plains behind the cans and by changing the velocity of the emission and the directions, I was able to make the water come out briskly. I changed the speed which changed it to slowmo and then that was it. I was fairly happy with the result.
Thoughts
The physic simulations were a mixed result for me. I think the splash came out okay. I can’t help thinking that to get the result I was thinking in my head, I need to learn Houdini. But for this project it was okay. I also think I need to re do the first fluid sim and correct the animation and re-render. To me, the final render looks dark, even after I placed main lights in the scene. The Particle sims came out the best for me.
This has just made me really want to learn Houdini and get into learning better simulations.