Volcano Tutorial
By: Jeremy Brooks
-Learn particle animation
-Learn to model with proportional vertex editing
Start a new Blender project.
Make sure num lock is on.
Press 7 on the num pad to go to top view.
Press Space.
Click Add->Mesh->Plane.
Notice that when you add a plane (or any object) it is already in vertex edit mode with all vertices selected.
Press s to scale the plane and make it about 12x12 grid squares big. (Note: You can have more control when you scale, rotate or move objects if you HOLD Ctrl or Shift while you move the mouse. Holding Ctrl will make the object "snap" to the grid lines. Holding Shift will make your mouse moves smaller giving you much better precision.)
Hit the w key to bring up the Specials menu. When you choose an option in this menu it will apply to any vertices that are selected (yellowed), we want to affect all vertices and they should already be all selected.
Click on Subdivide. Subdivide will take two selected vertices and add an extra vertex exactly half way between them. It does this for all the vertices in our case.
Hit w again and click Subdivide again.
Subdivide a total of exactly 6 times.
You now have a plane with a LOT of vertices.
Hit the a key to deselect all vertices.
Pick a vertex in the center of the plane and right mouse click it to select it.
Press 3 to get a side view
Click the Proportional Vertex Editing button then click the Smooth Falloff button which will magically appear 2 buttons over. Now when you move your single selected vertex the vertices around it will move, too. The effect is greater on the vertices closer to the selected vertex.
Press the g key (g is for grab) and move the mouse up. Notice how the proportional vertex editing works. You also should see a faint dotted line circle where your vertex started. This circle represents the area that is "proportionally affected" by the selected vertex. Press the + key to increase the affected area, press - to decrease it. Give the circle a diameter of 12 grids and make your volcano 6 grids high. Left click the mouse to make your changes permanent.
Well its looking not much like a volcano yet so we need a crater in the top. The vertex at the top of the mountain should still be selected, if not right mouse click select it. Hit the g key and notice the circle is too big. Press the - key until it has a diameter of 4 grids(oops my picture shows 2 grids, ignore that and make yours 4). Move the vertex straight down to the base of the mountain. Voila! A volcano!
Ok press 7 to go to top view.
All this time we have been working in vertex edit mode. Press Tab to get out of vertex edit mode. The volcano should look like a big pink square now.
Select the camera and move it back so you can take a look at your handy work.
Press 0 to go to Camera view.
Press z to see a shaded view of the volcano. Notice it looks kinda blocky.
Press z to go back into wireframe view.
Right click on the volcano to select it (it turns pink).
Press F9 to open Edit options.
Click Set Smooth. Now press z and the volcano should look better.
Ok so its still not quite a volcano. It needs liquid hot magma spewing out everywhere! But first, save your volcano as volcano.blend. Ill wait .
Go back to top view (7)
Left mouse click somewhere away from the volcano.
Add a plane.
This plane will be our particle emitter or lava spewer.
Press F9 to open Edit options.
Click on Hash.
Press Tab to get out of Vertex edit mode (the plane should turn pink).
Press F7 to enter Animation options.
Click NEW Effect and then change Build to Particles (click and hold Build and move down to Particles).
Set your numbers to look like mine.
Save your work!
Take a look real quick at two important numbers: Norm:0.080(in purple) and Z: -0.040 (bottom left). Norm is short for normal. The normal is the initial direction the particles will travel and the number represents the speed in which they will travel. The Z represents another force acting on the particles along the Z axis, this number will simulate gravity in our virtual world. You can play around with these numbers and see how they affect the particles.
Press 3 to go to side view(make sure you can see the particle emitter).
Move the mouse cursor into the same window as the particle emitter and hold Alt and press a to watch the particles animate. Set the values back to my values when you are done.
Press 7 to go to top view.
Now we need to put the lava spewing plane inside the volcano.
Right mouse click select the plane.
Press g.
Stick it right in the center of the crater. Left mouse click when the plan is where you want it.
Press 3 to go to side view.
Press g.
Move the plane about a third of the way from the top of the crater.
Now press 0 to go to Camera view and press Alt and a to watch the animation.
Alright its spewing something but it is not quite lava. Those particles are in need of some textures.
Make sure the particle emitter plane is selected. Press F5 to open the Material options.
Make a new Material and name it Lava.
Press F6 to open Texture options.
Make a new Texture and name is Lava also.
Click Clouds and then click Soft noise(bottom left of screen in green).
Press F5
Set your Material values to look like mine.
Now select the volcano. Make a new Material and name it volcano. Give it a brown color.
R = 0.200
G = 0.100
B = 0.000
Add some lights to the scene to illuminate the volcano.
Go to about frame 100 and press F12 to render the frame.
Good work! Now you can render the entire animation and enjoy the fireworks!
Last Update: 07/12/2002 09:44 PM