Doc:Manual/Physics/Soft Bodies

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Manual - Blender 2.49

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Image 1a: A softbody cloth uncovering a text. Animation – Blend file

A Soft Body is a physical simulation of what would happen to an object if it were to exist “in the real world”. This is done by applying forces to the vertices or controlpoints of the object. There are exterior forces like gravity or forcefields and interior forces that hold the vertices together. This way you can simulate the shapes that an object would take on in reality if it had volume, was filled with something, and was acted on by real forces.

Soft Bodies can interact with other objects (Collision). They can interact with themselves (Self Collision).

The result of the Soft Body simulation can be converted to a static object. You can also bake edit the simulation, i.e. edit intermediate results and run the simulation from there.

[edit] Typical scenarios for using Soft Bodies

Image 1b: A wind cone. The cone is a Soft Body, as the suspension. Animation – Blend file

Soft Bodies are well suited for:

• Elastic objects with or without collision.
• Flags, fabric reacting to forces.
• Certain modeling tasks, like a cushion or a table cloth over an object.
• Blender has another simulation system for clothing (see Clothes). But you can sometimes use Soft Bodies for certain parts of clothing, like wide sleeves.
• Hair (as long as you minimize collision).
• Animation of swinging ropes, chains and the like.

The following videos may give you some more ideas: [1], [2]

[edit] Creating a Soft Body

Image 2a: Create a Soft Body.

Image 2b: Create a Soft Body from a Hair particle system.

Soft Body simulation works for all objects that have vertices or control points:

• Meshes.
• Curves.
• Surfaces.
• Lattices.
• Hair particles.

To activate the Soft Body simulation for an object:

• Change to the Object context (F7), and select Physics sub-context.
• Activate the Soft Body button in the Soft Body panel (Image 2a).
• For a hair particle system first select the particle system, than activate Soft Body (Image 2b).

A lot of options appear. For a reference of all the settings see this page.

• You start a Soft Body simulation with AltA.
• You pause the simulation with Space, continue with AltA.
• You stop the simulation with Esc.

[edit] Cache and Bake

Soft Bodies use a unified system for caching and baking (together with cloth and particles). The results of the simulation are automatically cached to disk when the animation is played, so that the next time it runs, it can play again quickly by reading in the results from the disk. If you Bake the simulation the cache is protected and you will be asked when you’re trying to change a setting that will make a recalculating necessary.

	The simulation is only calculated for the frames in-between the Start and End frames (Bake panel), even if you don’t actually bake the simulation! So if you want a simulation longer than the default setting of 250 frames you have the change the End frame.:
	{{{2}}}

• Caching:
  • As animation is played, each physics system writes each frame to disk, between the simulation start and end frames. These files are stored in folders with prefix “blendcache”, next to the .blend file.
  • The cache is cleared automatically on changes - but not on all changes, so it may be necessary to free it manually, e.g. if you change a force field. Note that for the cache to fill up, one has to start playback before or on the frame that the simulation starts.
  • If you are not allowed to write to the required sub-directory caching will not take place.
  • The cache can be freed per physics system with a button in the panels, or with the CtrlB shortcut key to free it for all selected objects.
  • You may run into trouble if your .blend file path is very long and your operating system has a limit on the path length that is supported.
• Baking:
  • The system is protected against changes after baking.
  • The Bake result is cleared also with CtrlB for all selected objects or click on Free Bake for the current Soft Body system.
  • If the mesh changes the simulation is not calculated anew.

For renderfarms, it is best to bake all the physics systems, and then copy the blendcache to the renderfarm as well.

[edit] Interaction in real time

To work with a Soft Body simulation you will find it handy to use the Timeline window. You can change between frames and the simulation will always be shown in the actual state. The option Continue Physics in the Playback menu of the Timeline window lets you interact in real time with the simulation, e.g. by moving collision objects or shake a Soft Body object. And this is real fun!

	Continue Physics does not work while playing the animation with AltA:
	Right. This works only if you start the animation with the Play button of the Timeline window.

You can than select the Soft Body object while running the simulation and Apply the modifier in the Modifiers panel of the Editing context. This makes the deformation permanent.

[edit] Tips

• Soft Bodies work especially well if the objects have an even vertex distribution. You need enough vertices for good collisions. You change the deformation (the stiffness) if you add more vertices in a certain region (see the animation of Image 1b).
• The calculation of collisions may take a long time. If something is not visible, why calculate it?
• To speed up the collision calculation it is often useful to collide with an additional, simpler, invisible, somewhat larger object (see the example to Image 1a).
• Use Soft Bodies only where it makes sense. If you try to cover a body mesh with a tight piece of cloth and animate solely with Soft Body, you will have no success. Self collision of Soft Body hair may be activated, but that is a path that you have to wander alone. We will deal with Collisions in detail later.
• Try and use a Lattice or a Curve Guide Soft Body instead of the object itself. This may be magnitudes faster.

[edit] Links

• Developer Notes
• Swinging of a chain
• Softbodies for Rigged Characters

Manual

[edit] Subpages

1. Collisions
2. Combination with armatures
3. Combination with hair particles
4. Exterior forces
5. Interior forces
6. Reference
7. Simple Examples