Introduction to Smoke Simulation
Posted on 14. Feb, 2010 by Andrew Price in Simulations, Tutorials
Unless you’ve been living under a rock the last few months, you’ve probably heard about this new feature called the smoke simulator. But what is it? Why is everyone getting so excited over it? This tutorial will answer all your questions from a beginners perspective.
During the 27-minute video you will learn:
- The Old System Vs New – What’s changed?
- How the Smoke Simulator works
- How to bake and render realistic smoke
- A behind the scenes look at creating a smoking city
Ready? Lets begin…
I originally gave this presentation at the 2009 Blender Conference. The presentation included creations from other users, a short demonstration of smoke in action and a slideshow. Since that time there have been massive developements in smoke simulation so consider my video a revised edition.
Do you have any tips or tricks for using the smoke simulator? Share your experiences in the comments below!
144 Responses to “Introduction to Smoke Simulation”
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22. Feb, 2010
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23. Feb, 2010
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09. Apr, 2010
[...] you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!When I posted my Introduction to Smoke Simulation video, my inbox was flooded with requests for a tutorial on how I achieved the photo realistic [...]
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Michael
02. Apr, 2010
You don’t need any installer, download this here, open it with Winrar or Winzip extract it and start the blender.exe
http://download.blender.org/release//Blender2.50alpha/blender-2.5-alpha2-win32.zip
Marc Brown
03. Apr, 2010
Thnx so much the smoke looks so cool but it took me a while to get how to do it, everything has changed
jared
03. Apr, 2010
can u make a tutorial of how u made the city
rasband
04. Apr, 2010
Hey man, I really enjoyed the video, it’s a great starting place for a noob such as I.
I don’t know about others, but I really like the idea of you doing the tutorial for when you cut out each building in photardshop and built the scene from there (Sorry the name escapes me since it’s been 5 minutes since I watched, haha).
Keep up the great work.
Ian
07. Apr, 2010
Hey, just like to say thank you for a very informative tutorial here. I am very very new to 3D as a whole, and as Blender is in my price range (ie Free) it’s tutorials like these that show me what is possible even using Open Source software. It’s also an inspiration to me to try all sorts of scene ideas.
Keep up the awesome work!
MR.Kangarooo
08. Apr, 2010
really awesome tut! and I do prefer that you show your face in the tuts it gives a much more friendly kinda feeling when watching your videos and thanks
sincerely from MR.Kangarooo
firas
08. Apr, 2010
I want to ask you guys…blender is very cool and I want to ask you if you can make 3d games with blender,that will be realy cool!!!!
MissingFFT
08. Apr, 2010
After recently downloading blender 2.5 alpha 2 r’27226′ and watching this tut, I noticed that the FFT noise method mentioned is not there. Is it included in a patch or plugin? If so where can I find it? Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Dayanto
10. Apr, 2010
@firas Yes you can make games in Blender! In difference to many other programs Blender has got a built-in game engine. It is one of many reasons why Blender is awsome! =D
Peter Neda
14. Apr, 2010
Very nice tutorial!!
Thank you for that!
I realy enjoid your speaking, because I´m from Germany and not the best english speaker, but your english is very clear and easy to understand, not as some other videos.
Im learning Blender and English,
because of this thank you twice!
RyLeY
14. Apr, 2010
hey, i just wanna say that you have helped me so much with all your tutorials, especially because blender has a COMPLETELY different interface (in a good way) so its kinda hard getting back your feet and trying to understand all the new stuff.
i have seen some stuff on youtube about ‘demolition with the solidify modifier’ and would love to see a tutorial if there is such thing.
thanks, love ur tutorials they are so helpful and easy to understand
thanks
-RyLeY
Name (required)
17. Apr, 2010
Aloha,
Andrew U one Genius!
Mahalo
Sean
20. Apr, 2010
@ MissingFFT
I had the same problem with the FFT, I haven’t found out where to get it yet but I wish I could find out.
@ Andrew
Your 3d modeling techniques are amazing! Did you model ALL of that at the start? I also noticed the knocked over pencil cup wasn’t completely circular XD
How did you do all that, its amazing
Sean
20. Apr, 2010
Also I couldn’t find the certain build to download, could you post up a link? thx =]
Arthur Downhill
23. Apr, 2010
I’m also lacking the FFT noise method, is it because of my Blender version 2.5 Alpha 2 ?
And this is awesome tutorial ^_^ I wish I could do something alike.
Michael
24. Apr, 2010
Really helpful tutorial. Thanks!
Wondering, do you have any basic advice for setting up thin flowing smoke (that behaves and looks like incense sticks, or cigarettes)?
Would be sooo helpful. At the moment, I’m doing tests with high-res set to 5, standard divisions at 43 and using FFT (fast-fourier transform if i’m not mistaken) as the noise.
Ted Watkins
05. May, 2010
I just wanted to say, I thoroughly enjoy your tutorials. You go not only into what or how to do something, but you also get into why, which is important, if one is to understand the concepts and theories of the various aspects.
Andrew Price
05. May, 2010
@Sean
It did take a LONG time to model everything, but if you just put on your favorite music and plug away at it every night you eventually get there 
Yep! Everything was modeled by me
@Michael
Very high divisions, low heat, high particle numbers and make the domain a rectangular prism to save on baking time.
That’s how I would approach it. But as usual: it’s a matter of experimenting until you get the desired result.
@Ted
Thanks mate! I really appreciate your feedback
clecle
10. May, 2010
you said you used “nodes” ( I think) to make the process faster. Could you make a tutorial on it?
John A.M.
13. May, 2010
thanks for that part an the end
i almost always watch the “bonus features” on CG moves the that was kind of like that. 
Tobi
23. May, 2010
It wont work ive downloaded the blender Andrew says in the video and it works as far as when im chek the Initial Velocity nothing happens the smoke is the same as befor I cheked the box What is wrong ??
ola
24. May, 2010
help.. all this video did not come automatically….. what can I do?
renato
28. May, 2010
Hey Andrew .. nice work !!!
I am a newbie and i just want to know how much time for rendering this scene and your pc configuration for that .
Ryan
01. Jun, 2010
That video at the beginign was epic
eminy.thewild
05. Jun, 2010
how can i download the tutorials?please help me.
Downloader
06. Jun, 2010
to download videos you could use DAP. just type download accelerator plus into google the download and install.
if you install the toolbar then you press the download video button and it will download the video that is playin.
a video has to be playing when you press but once download starts it does not matter.
Ace
11. Jun, 2010
There’s an easier way, it’s using IDM, just Install IDM (Internet Download Manager), and “Download this video” button will appear in the corner of the video, just click that button.
Glen
14. Jun, 2010
You said that to make the rubble you only needed to drop it. Right? How do you do it??
Fulla
14. Jun, 2010
please keep showing your face in the videos! that really makes your videos authentic and besides that you’re cute
Sam Kitsune
17. Jun, 2010
It looks like people before me have the same problem as me. I am missing the the FFT as a noise method in 2.5 Alpha 2. I am beginning to suspect that it wasn’t included because it seems “unnecessary” to include it. However, I wonder if that’s true.
What’s the difference between Wavelet and FFT in terms of quality and speed?
diceman
18. Jun, 2010
Good Tut! Your webcam face although not ugly, is optional. – Did you put yourself in the corner in realtime or was this Tut multipass? Looking forward to the mapping photo to buildings Tut.
bra
26. Jun, 2010
The falling building needs a little shake and some rubble movement/dust particles, i understand that its not meant to be anything but a teaser, but with out it, the “fall” just feels like a transition. Other then that great work all round the tutorial was meaty and the behind the scenes was informative and fun.
Sherminator
27. Jun, 2010
I have a problem here. Every time I press the Domain button, blender crashes… I’ve tried to download new blender but still the same.. What should I do? This moment I really need smoke
blendern00b
30. Jun, 2010
How do you add a domain or the flow object. I can’t find the option to do so.
tededonthugback
04. Jul, 2010
Hey, Thank you for all of the tutorials, it helps a noob like me. i can’t find the physics panel. I have the latest Blender and I can’t find a physics panel. Can you tell me what I need to do to get it?
Calixto
17. Jul, 2010
Hi, great tutorial. — I would really like to see that video on Camera Mapping that you talked about in your Smoke video. That would be an extremely valuable technique to learn. – You obviously have it mastered!
Great work!
Anthony
18. Jul, 2010
Nice tut, dude! Indeed, you should do a camera mapping tut as well.
keenan spencer
26. Jul, 2010
Its impossible. I have an amazing computer but it is way too slow to handle this! it has 6 gigs of RAM! Somebody please tell me whats up. Is it my version of blender?
Bishop
26. Jul, 2010
I watched the first scene, and damn, that made me feel sad….until the introduction title came up. This was very helpful and you really put alot of effort just for your followers. Thanks, Price.
Bert
28. Jul, 2010
Andrew,
Great tutorial. followed it to the letter, but i cannot see my smoke. all i see are the damn particles.. what am i missing?
VidE
30. Jul, 2010
I don’t know if this comments thread is dead at this point, but like some others, Voxels do not show up in the texture window, either as a texture or as a material. All I get are Halos. Im using Blender 2.5 Beta at this point and they don’t show up either on my Macbook or my quadcore Windows machine. Any ideas?