Blender 3D | (Advanced) Particle workflow

UPDATE: To make the textures follow the particles, when they're emitted all at once, you can literally just use a texture coordinate node in the shading (enable "From Instancer") and use the Generated coordinates for a proper 3D texture. No need to go through this confusing process of creating gradients! If the particles are being emitted in a stream, and you want 3D texture coordinates there, then it might still be useful to use the particle "Index" for the Z-axis, but outside of that, the "Texture Coordinates" node has everything you need!
Project files are available for free here: / 52586182
Hello, everyone! In this video, I'll be quickly going through my general workflow when creating complex particle setups in Blender. It's a much more advanced video than I usually make; and will skip over a lot of information. However, a few interesting tips and techniques will be explained in a bit more detail: attaching 3d texture coordinates to moving particles, emitting particles from other particles, and turning particles into force fields (this last one, however, doesn't appear in the final simulation).
Awesome sources of inspiration for effects:
MatthiasM (primarily, advanced particle effects): / matthiasmvideos
Roman De Giuli (in-camera paint and water effects): / @romandegiuli
Simon Holdmedal (advanced 3D motion graphics): / simonholmedal
Music used:
DELOS - Trace Decay
BETTOGH - Another World
Aries Beats - Stranger Things
---
00:00 Introduction
00:24 (faking) Particle texture coordinates (UPDATE in description!)
03:30 Particles from particles
04:50 Turning particles into force fields
05:40 Reference analysis
07:06 (hyper-summarized) Creating a dumb emitter :p
04:42 First particle system
09:34 Prepping the texture coordinates (1st sim)
10:37 Adding some turbulence
11:09 Particle trails! (primary + secondary systems)
16:14 Prepping texture coordinates (3rd sim)
18:03 Previewing the progress
18:36 (hyper-summarized) Liquid simulation
20:19 Fluid-Flow force fields!
22:01 (hyper-summarized) Shading
28:51 Rendering talk
29:57 Conclusion
30:21 Thank you! (+ Ending)
---
My current PC specs (I recommend better than these):
16 Gb of RAM
Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-3770 @ 3.40 GHz
Graphics card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti
Keep in mind that parts of this video are sped up, so this is not a good reference for the performance of my computer.

[@alexandremarcel5937]

For the first question you asking (if the particles are emitted at once) : If you want texturing an particle emmision, why do not used the "from instancer" option on the texture coordinate node. As far as i know, you can stick the emmiter texture to the particles.

[@IagoMotaVFX]

Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to work with particles. At least not with 2.93. I think that feature is more directed to the more usual "object parent" way of instancing than it is to particles.

[@alexandremarcel5937]

@@IagoMotaVFX It's work with particle emission . You can check this from video from default cube "You're Shading Particles Wrong!" : kzbin.info/www/bejne/a6fTk3Zoj5ZmjaM

[@IagoMotaVFX]

@@alexandremarcel5937 Oops, yep, it works! I forgot I had the render engine set to EEVEE :p. Alright, thank you for this!

[@alexandremarcel5937]

@@IagoMotaVFX Great ! Another specific hidden official secret trick... Thx for all your video. Great content.

[@doekewartena5729]

You can also go to edit mode. Then add the 3d cursor below the vertices. Then do [Mesh > Sort Elements > Cursor Distance].

[@IagoMotaVFX]

Hello everyone. I have to be honest, I'm not exactly proud of this video. And, although it's not supposed to be a tutorial in the first place, it's an advancement of the problems of my other videos; it's way too fast-paced and barely explains any of the processes I used. I realized this when I was halfway done with the editing (many months into the production). I believe the reason for this is because of a fundamental idea I had: explaining a huge workflow in a 30-minute video. Except, 30 minutes just isn't enough to clarify all the information presented here. In other words, I realized these structural mistakes way too far into the process; so I decided to just finish the video with all of its massive flaws and such. I believe to have learned from these mistakes, so hopefully, whatever my next project will be, I'll try to prioritize clarity over the amount of content. So, again, I really apologize for the problems in this video, and truly thank you for your patience and continuous support!

[@Polyfjord]

Don’t be so hard on yourself, this was a fantastic video!! Who cares what a tutorial is supposed to be like, this exploration format was a breath of fresh air! I loved every second of this video. You balance your passion and curiosity so well with your technical insights, which makes this video so inspiring!! Keep on making awesome stuff like this!

[@bigjpeg8411]

@@Polyfjord c'mon man) It was tremendous pack of knowledge for me! I would love to support you through patreon

[@IagoMotaVFX]

@@Polyfjord Thank you!! I was quite skeptical about this video having much value when I published it, so hearing this makes me truly happy! Thank you again!

[@IagoMotaVFX]

@@bigjpeg8411 I'm so thankful people are getting something out of this video. Also huge thanks!! Though, I'm currently on a massive hiatus (going to last for quite a while) so I won't be able to provide any Patreaon content, unfortunately. You can still follow it at www.patreon.com/IagoMota , but I'll only be posting occasional public updates, while keeping the billing cycle paused. I'll resume my normal activity when I'm fully back!

[@justintabaniag6905]

Even if you haven't able to explain everything, it's fine because you just inspired me and everyone! Ty!

[@stuffystuff1661]

this is the kind of content i was looking for , there's a lot of beginner tuts but not that many highlevel and advanced ones, thank you!

[@melvin3509]

Oh yeah, PARTICLE NODES are gonna be a thing sometime... everyone forgot about them since geomatry nodes haha

[@jcurry_clips8580]

Houdini lol

[@emreyaka355]

Thanks for coming back to share your valuable information with us.

[@nategreyson6014]

dude this is insane. your particles skills are amaaaazing.

[@503unavailable]

incredible work!! Got me excited to try more advanced particle artworks even though i rarely use them

[@cosmovski]

watching this as a houdini user made me respect blender users mad heavy, all your doing is working around massive glaring issues in the software constantly, that takes some mad skill. Good shit my man

[@IagoMotaVFX]

Thank you!! Although I did mess up in the first bit, since there is a very simple way to attach textures to particles that I completely overlooked, there's definitely an unfortunate amount of instances where it feels like the user has to fight against the tools to make things work. I do really hope to learn Houdini someday lol

[@cosmovski]

@@IagoMotaVFX deffinately just jump into it. Theres no right time to learn a new tool, its much less scary than youd expect. Entagma is a brilliant resource for learning and the educational version is completely free with some limitations (that you can work around for certain)

[@photographybyjin3758]

@@IagoMotaVFX How do you attach textures to the particles then?

[@yanntrolong1977]

@@photographybyjin3758 using the "from instancer" option on the texture coordinate node like Alexander Marcel pointed out in the comments

[@BlenderBob]

So nice to see advanced tutorials. Thank!

[@krysidian]

I'm glad to have you back! You got me into particle stuff and blender in general back then and seeing you refreshing our knowledge on particles is great!

[@IagoMotaVFX]

Thank you!!

[@tillmannhegner7087]

same here. And I think it is actually really nice to see you create such a complicated Simulation in such a video. It shows new things that I myself didn't know and doesn't loses itself in details that are no longer necessary, if you already know something about particles.

[@artboard8116]

My man's dedication is over the top!

[@fergadelics]

Fantastic and inspiring. I have the day off and this popped up in my feed. What a treat! Thank you

[@johnbaxter7582]

amazing workflows. I really love this lecture, it gets more into the theory and made me discover quite the amount of new interesting features and stuff you can do! amazing! Very well done!

[@IagoMotaVFX]

Thank you!!

[@msqrt]

About the nabla thing: the Gradient and Curl are differential operators (formulas that turn textures into other textures) by looking at their partial derivatives (how they change locally). For each pixel in the output, they check how the input would change if you nudged the texture coordinates a bit -- nabla is the size of this nudge. Tiny values will give noisy results, large values will give smoother results, but if you go too large you'll start looking at non-local change (the nudge becomes too big and you might land in an entirely separate feature of the texture)

[@peterjaschkowske8416]

Really amazing how much effort you put in to this. Thanks a buch for sharing your knowledge!

[@bigjpeg8411]

GODDAMNED! I paused right at the start, to grab a coffee... Some quality material right there.

[@RaffoVFX]

jesus! I was just checking your channel these days, trying to figure out why there are not new videos from you master!

[@IagoMotaVFX]

Aaah, sorry! This video went through tons of little delays and issues, so it got reeeally slowed down too :p

[@gustavoivo284]

Water breathing, 11th form: Nagi

[@soundrraj3880]

I love these videos' explanations! I learned a lot from your channel!

[@thechosensloth1452]

Thank you so much for this video, you always manage to amaze me with what blender can do regarding particle simulations only to crush my hopes of doing something like this in the next 30min of the video ;) For real though, thank you for providing the project file and explaining everything you do because even though it was kind of fast-paced and not easy to follow you broke down the entire creative process that went into it, and knowing how to do the technical stuff that you didnt really take your time to explain is already explained very well in other videos.

[@IagoMotaVFX]

Thank you!! Yeah, this video was definitely confusing; I definitely messed up the writing and recording. But I'm glad people are getting some things out of it! Makes me genuinely happy to see such positivity here!

[@cowbless]

I find this video terrific at explaining the most important things one should focus on. There's no place and time for the "press G to grab" if you want to teach people how to properly use references, how to dissect them, analyze whole and details and stuff. This is a perfect balance of stuff that you need to learn.

[@IagoMotaVFX]

Thank you!

[@cowbless]

@@IagoMotaVFX Thank you for your work! I'm really hoping that you continue to share your understanding of blender with us. I'm willing to bet you're busy with geometry nodes right now, haha, since, to my understanding, they address a lot of these coordinate system problems that you talk about. One can also hope that geonodes are more efficient for these 1kk+ simulations. So, if you have time and strength to share your findings in that area, that would be invaluable! We'll beat houdini yet, hehe

[@IagoMotaVFX]

@@cowbless Thank you! Well, I'm actually currently busy with some more personal things. But, hopefully soon enough, i can get back to Blender work. Really hoping to see geonodes and particle nodes compatibility in the future! Seems like particle nodes are going to be worked on for some 3.X version, from what I've read, but I can't be fully sure yet!

[@monsoonsheep]

This is super cool! Love the way you've done the tutorial.

[@richard29sher]

Thank you for the work that went into this amazing video...I'll need a few months to absorb it but it is so worth it. This is the best, for lack of a better word, particles exploit yet. You're the man now dog.

[@IagoMotaVFX]

Thank you!!

[@depeyermartin6631]

just insane, awesome to have advanced tutorial like those

[@dragon0o030]

absolutely well done! just found your channel and i am a big fan of your work :D

[@Alvinator888]

Genius! Thanks a lot! I almost gave up hope with Blender's particles to be usable.

[@crypt0sFX]

The legend has returned!

[@alifpathpath5559]

you are very talented! thank you for great video and tutorial! even though I still confusing, but I need to learn a lot to get this level.

[@HoMinhAudio]

This is insane. A lot of very valuable tricks.

[@reverb07]

Might be a bit late but i just wanna say thank you for this tutorial! I didnt really understand much but this helped me a lot thank you!!

[@BROOCKENDA]

this was great. Thanks for nice and useful Blender particle system tutorial video.

[@shubhamdhage6935]

this is incredible man! keep making vids like this. you're a gem💎. thanks for sharing this masterpiece.

[@IagoMotaVFX]

Thank you!

[@xxsauron007xx]

This looks insane! Gonna watch it soon.

[@kumachannel4789]

the guidebook did, and now I finally understand the chanics!

[@leaphymoon9881]

WOW this guy is INSANE, its so beautiful!

[@uzaykisi1863]

beautiful, thank you for sharing for free, this is great

[@aaronnichols5206]

Youve come along way mr Iago! 💯

[@blackandblood.x5908]

I literally didn't understand a single think.... but I love what u did 🥰🥰

[@connormichalec]

Really cool, thanks for the workflow breakdown

[@IDK-ye4fi]

Dude, I hope you make more tutorials, this is soo good!

[@pratikpuri7079]

You are Insane, Thanks for creating this tutorial.

[@TechnicJelle]

I really love your channel!

[@mbarupa]

This was so useful! I'm sure you worked this out too, but if you can't use the index value, you can always just duplicate the particle info node and remap size or lifetime again to the third coordinate value.

[@jiangliu3538]

this is a amazing nice tutorial i really need more !!!

[@stefanguiton]

Exceptional Tutorial!

[@tetrapixel3028]

and he's back!

[@UPLunko]

I'm happy to see that I still have a long way to go !

[@sazaam]

this is just awesome!! thank you so much~

[@TikiPotion]

Thanks for sharing this. Both the visuals and narration were incredibly soothing. Here, have a token of appreciation ʕっ•ᴥ•ʔっ⭐

[@IagoMotaVFX]

Thank you for the kind words! And a special thanks for the token!

[@user-ht4ux3xn4s]

First 2 seconds listening and i immediately got an urge to sub, your voice and audio quality is nuts lol

[@IagoMotaVFX]

Thank you!

[@jeremypajotart]

please post more tuto on this type of subjects, it's awesome!!

[@mastart4971]

I just realised that I am not an advanced... Great stuff you are coming up here with...

[@IrreversibleExtents]

I love how there's the "Hyper-Summarized Shading" segment of the video and it's still the longest segment in the video.

[@tri-aayam]

That your name style animation 3:31 looked amazing

[@IagoMotaVFX]

Thank you! Yeah, I spent a couple months trying to replicate a part of the comet sequence there. It looked so pretty in the movie that I just had to try it out!

[@lemonpowder7863]

super great stuff man!! srsly

[@emimeemio]

We need more of these \o/

[@Ammeeeiizing]

Great content! Thank you!

[@karthikc3001]

Nice work

[@EDcase1]

Yeah, can't wait for particles nodes

[@gemineye5412]

Incredible.

[@aras7345]

hanks lot Sir.. You helping us..

[@ax3lfdl14]

That was great. Thank you.

[@xxVeidxx]

The brabo has a name? Yep! Kk mano que daora o.o

[@BlendWithRoy]

Thanks for this video ❣️❣️

[@MaxPuliero]

very cool! thanks

[@TussoR4]

1.200 like 0 dislike !! Congratzz

[@eliassuzumura]

por favor faça um curso de partículas, eu nem sabia que era possível fazer essas coisas tão boas no Blender, você é uma entidade

[@flwyd]

Incredible stuff, thank you so much for this! May I suggest getting a pop filter for your mic to prevent plosives? Your voice is easy on the ears, but the Puh's and the Buhs's were not easy to deal with as a headphone user.

[@emimeemio]

Wow! Awesome video! Just before I saw your specs I thought what kind of machine I need. I do have r9 5950x, 128Gt ram & rtx 3090 .. still cant do nothing like this xD Hope fully I will learn from this video. Thank you! :)

[@tang7960]

Amazing!!

[@baronmanchot2011]

Awesome program

[@goodmantactics]

Nice tutorial Iago :)

[@IagoMotaVFX]

Many thanks!! And great work on your vids too!

[@idesignerqaz]

Very helpful, thanx

[@RMAFIRE]

Terrific job !! 👆⚡

[@RoN43wwq]

great. thanks

[@khalilicf]

damn this guy doing all this epic renderring on a gtx 650 ti bruh hands-off too you!!!

[@FalconWingz88]

im trying on my RTX 3090, opening his project files. even the baking and rendering 1 frame takes a super long time ! can't imagine how much time taken for him

[@h0nmyou]

Thank you!!!

[@lebenin3604]

Great times. I'm happy that I made the switch to #Blender . I don't need to use #3dsmax and #krakatoa no more.

[@sammy5294]

Thank you in advance

[@sarahorton9223]

Thank you for this. I found your tutorial while looking at ways to get similar results in blender. Mathias is my inspiration as well. I know he used fluid sims for the meshes in "The space we live" and used krakatoa and 3ds max for his work during that time. The work flow in 3ds max is to run the particle sim through a Fumfx sim using stoke. Stoke can then build partitions, caching 10s of millions of particles. Krakatoa handles particles differently than a standard renderer (particles as points)and is able to render 100s of millions of particles and the magma modifier gives an insane amount of control in shading them. Have you checked out the 3.1 Blender beta, It has a better way to render particles and I hope this will lead to some Mathias level effects in Blender. Thanks again, for this video.

[@Looped_13]

Very nice😃😃

[@judaiyuki4308]

thanks for share

[@michelangelocracco7260]

All the best,

[@flipnap2112]

watching this again and im pretty bummed they didnt move forward with particle nodes. I appreciate the work on geometry nodes and its super powerful.. but dam, I was really REALLY hoping they implemented particle nodes. it would be insane to have that kind of flexibility

[@leftclot]

Just when i thought buying X particles for C4D is the best way to achieve this level of sims in 3D software outside of Houdini

[@LeLNascimento]

Sensacional!! Meu nível de proficiência é médio, mas deu pra entender tudo o que você fez. Continua assim

[@IagoMotaVFX]

Obrigado!!

[@marc-antoinedeke-mangeon3617]

Please come back you’re my prophet

[@kubahex]

Hello, really nice tutorials. Could you prepare tutorial about using to create for example carbonated water ?

[@Seven7601]

New subscriber

[@MeinVideoStudio]

Nice :)

[@BlueBeatsChannel]

liked and subscribed

[@newWorldBanana]

Looks amazing, but I'm just a beginner with Blender. What would you recommend focusing on skill-wise so I could tackle one of these tutorials?

[@yonlaycabrera4431]

Wow

[@bparlan]

Literally 0 dislikes.

[@9words40]

im ded looking at these beauty xD

[@ethansparks8825]

This is really sick! Im kinda new when it comes to that particle stuff. I downloaded the pack and in most of it i cant see anything. Somethimes a few colored dots. In the discription in the first file it says i need to "bake" them first? Is that the reason? How do i do that?

[@Glitch_Wizard]

I just want to let you know that i check your channel from time to time hoping to see a tutorial on geometry nodes in blender. :)

[@IagoMotaVFX]

Thank you! I appreciate it so much! I've been quietly looking into geo nodes for a while and can say with certainty, I'll be making some videos on them at some point (whenever I'll finally be able to fully return to making videos, that is XP)

[@briananeuraysem3321]

Big brain

[@denizorsel1029]

Those two dislikes from infidels ! Huge respect also for the effort in editing the video.

[@DavidBichoHasBeard]

-Do you know Blender? -No. I am Blender.

[@JJSnel-uh3by]

Hi so I guess you made your preview render with approx. 70000 particles but how did you then scale that up to 6000000? My computer (about the same specs, some a little better but overal similar) Just crashes. How do you get to those numbers without your computer shitting the bucket?