Water Displacement Tutorial:

After following this tutorial, you should be able to achieve the following effect:

(The effect is only viewable in downloaded versions, to see the effect go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0v88G7PdLo)

1. Open up blender and delete everything in the scene besides the camera and light source. [Select what you want to delete and press “X”]

2. Insert a cube. [Space -> Add -> Mesh -> Cube]3. Scale the cube 3 times larger. [“S” -> 3 -> Enter]4. Duplicate the cube. [Shift + D -> Enter]5. Scale the duplicated cube on the z-axis by half. [“S” -> “Z” -> .5

-> Enter]6. Move the duplicated cube to the bottom of the original one. [“G”

-> “Z” -> -1.5 -> Enter]

7. Now we are going to add the object that will influence the fluid. For me I am choosing a Sackboy, but you can add what ever you want, a cube, sphere, or one of your own models. If importing

from a different file then, Shift + F1 -> find the file -> go to the object selections -> choose the object you want to import.

Import Screen:

Updated Scene:

8. Now select the largest cube, this will be the domain. This means that the water will not leave the bounds of this box. Now, you will notice that there are many options under the domain settings. For this tutorial, we will not be using many options, only the resolution options. Depending on how detailed your controlling object will be (for me it’s the Sackboy) it will also determine your resolution. So, the more detailed it is, the higher you want to make the resolution, however, the higher the resolution is, the slower your computer will go. In addition, if you place the resolution too high, Blender may crash on you.

9. Now select the smaller cube, this will be the fluid. For this tutorial, we will not be changing any of the options under this panel.

10. Finally, select your controlling object. Make sure that it is under the water and in frame 1. Then insert a keyframe. [“I” -> LocRotScale] Then skip a head to frame between 120 and 150, move the object above the water and insert another keyframe. Now when you play back the animation [Alt + “A”] you should see the object move from under water to above water.

Frame 1: Frame 150:

11. Under the fluid panel, select it as Control. The only options we are going to change here are Attraction Force and Velocity Force. Now, for your model, depending on what it is, you’re going to have to mess with the settings some. The strength settings basically states how strong do you want your object to influence the water and the radius is simply how big of a radius do you want your water to influence. These are the settings I used for my model:

12. Finally, reselect your domain cube and select bake. Depending on how high your resolution is, this may take a while.

13. Once done baking, play back the animation [Alt + A] if you see problems with fluid not in all of the parts of the controlling object, then increase you attraction radius. If the fluid looks like a giant blob where the fluid isn’t taking the shape of any of the controlling object, decrease the attraction radius.

Radius is too large: Radius is too small:

14. If you are satisfied with the fluid simulation, delete the cube that was assigned as fluid and the controlling object, or just move them to another layer [Select item -> “M” -> Choose a Different layer]

15. Change the Animation format to Quicktime or Avi Raw and Animate!

I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and found it useful. If there are any problems with this tutorial, any questions, or suggestions for future tutorials, please contact me through my Youtube account or my website at www.yodaman921.wordpress.com. For more information on fluid simulations, go to: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Manual/Physics/Fluids.

~Yodaman921