WEBVTT 00:00:00.036 --> 00:00:01.216 >> Hey. What's up, Blender users? 00:00:01.216 --> 00:00:01.946 I am Jonathan. 00:00:01.946 --> 00:00:06.826 And in today's video, I will show you how we can use the new volume modifiers in Blender 2.91 00:00:06.826 --> 00:00:09.106 to easily create clouds in EEVEE. 00:00:09.106 --> 00:00:13.906 This is especially useful because now we can see our cloud in the viewport 00:00:14.196 --> 00:00:16.436 and are not limited to node-only setups. 00:00:16.856 --> 00:00:19.106 This video is pre-recorded and uploaded. 00:00:19.106 --> 00:00:22.856 So if in the meantime any other creators published a tutorial 00:00:22.856 --> 00:00:24.456 about the same topic, I'm sorry. 00:00:24.456 --> 00:00:27.916 And with that said, let's get straight into the video. 00:00:27.916 --> 00:00:30.886 And by the way, if you enjoy my content, consider subscribing 00:00:30.886 --> 00:00:33.486 because I upload a new video every Saturday. 00:00:33.486 --> 00:00:36.636 To create a cloud with the new volume modifiers, we, of course, 00:00:36.636 --> 00:00:39.906 first need a base mesh that represents our cloud. 00:00:39.966 --> 00:00:42.476 And I'll create this one with metaballs. 00:00:42.476 --> 00:00:46.126 So let's add in a metaball and maybe scale it down. 00:00:46.456 --> 00:00:50.646 And now, with Shift-D, we can just duplicate it and move them 00:00:50.646 --> 00:00:53.206 into a shape that roughly represents a cloud. 00:00:53.796 --> 00:00:58.476 We also don't need much detail in the shape because we'll later use displacement modifiers 00:00:59.006 --> 00:01:02.926 on our volume to create all the little details in our cloud. 00:01:03.546 --> 00:01:07.906 So once you have a basic metaball shape, let's select it and press Ctrl-A 00:01:07.906 --> 00:01:10.346 and choose visual geometry to mesh. 00:01:10.516 --> 00:01:13.566 This will convert our metaballs to a mesh. 00:01:13.566 --> 00:01:19.206 And now, we can use this empty volume object together with the mesh to volume modifier 00:01:19.616 --> 00:01:21.926 to create a volume out of this mesh. 00:01:21.996 --> 00:01:26.016 And as you can see right here, we also have a volume displace modifier, 00:01:26.016 --> 00:01:29.266 which we will use to later add all the little details to our cloud. 00:01:29.656 --> 00:01:31.776 Now, this modifier has some settings, 00:01:31.776 --> 00:01:35.196 but the most important one is definitely the voxel amount one. 00:01:35.376 --> 00:01:38.756 We can use this slider to control the resolution of our volume. 00:01:38.866 --> 00:01:44.776 But for now, I will keep it relatively low, to about 64 voxels, because, that way, 00:01:44.776 --> 00:01:48.576 all the volume displace modifiers will all load pretty quick. 00:01:48.866 --> 00:01:53.966 So, let's start with the first iteration, and let's add in some of the bigger details. 00:01:53.996 --> 00:01:59.036 So let's click on new and then this button right here, and choose clouds. 00:01:59.146 --> 00:02:02.366 I will use a scale of maybe about two. 00:02:02.366 --> 00:02:06.096 We can also adjust the depth for some finer detail. 00:02:06.456 --> 00:02:09.496 We can now play around with the strength slider. 00:02:09.676 --> 00:02:13.216 But be aware that if you slide it too high, Blender could crash. 00:02:13.326 --> 00:02:14.636 This happened to me in the past. 00:02:14.636 --> 00:02:19.456 You can also see that the volume is clearly displaced on an axis. 00:02:19.766 --> 00:02:21.826 This might become apparent later. 00:02:22.276 --> 00:02:24.736 But right now, we will keep the strength pretty low. 00:02:24.736 --> 00:02:26.326 So this shouldn't be an issue. 00:02:26.506 --> 00:02:30.076 Great. Now that we have some bigger details, we, of course, want to add more. 00:02:30.516 --> 00:02:32.486 So let's add in some medium ones. 00:02:32.956 --> 00:02:36.076 Let's again select clouds but now maybe a size of one. 00:02:36.076 --> 00:02:39.826 And you can already see that we get some finer details around the edge. 00:02:40.146 --> 00:02:40.676 This is great. 00:02:40.676 --> 00:02:42.576 And we can now also adjust the strength, 00:02:42.976 --> 00:02:46.776 maybe even into the negative direction, to get a cloud shape we like. 00:02:46.776 --> 00:02:49.456 And just like in the normal displace modifier, 00:02:50.016 --> 00:02:53.546 you can also choose an object to control the texture mapping. 00:02:53.546 --> 00:02:56.726 And this is already looking good, so let's add even smaller details. 00:02:56.726 --> 00:03:02.356 You can now see that we have to turn down the strength a lot, to maybe 0.25. 00:03:02.576 --> 00:03:06.336 Great. And if we now up the voxel amount to maybe 128, 00:03:06.336 --> 00:03:09.706 we can really see all the detail in our cloud. 00:03:10.356 --> 00:03:11.486 Okay, that's great. 00:03:11.486 --> 00:03:13.596 But there are still some things left to do. 00:03:13.896 --> 00:03:17.936 Let's firstly go into rendered mode, add in a sun lamp right above, 00:03:18.076 --> 00:03:20.626 and give it a strength of maybe 10. 00:03:20.626 --> 00:03:23.636 We will use this sunlight to just light up our cloud. 00:03:23.636 --> 00:03:26.676 To make this more pretty, let's also enable volumetric shadows, 00:03:26.676 --> 00:03:29.276 and let's turn down the tile size to two pixels. 00:03:29.456 --> 00:03:33.666 And we can already see that our cloud is starting to look like a cloud. 00:03:34.206 --> 00:03:36.826 But clouds often have a flattened bottom. 00:03:36.996 --> 00:03:40.136 And we can easily do this with just a few nodes. 00:03:40.136 --> 00:03:46.036 So let's select our volume, click new, and let's add in a gradient texture. 00:03:46.036 --> 00:03:50.776 For now, I'll set the tile size back to eight pixels so everything renders a lot faster. 00:03:50.776 --> 00:03:53.596 We can now plug the factor into the density slider. 00:03:53.726 --> 00:03:57.496 And with CTRL T, add in a texture coordinate and a mapping node. 00:03:57.706 --> 00:03:59.986 You can see that nothing is really happening right now, 00:03:59.986 --> 00:04:02.216 so let's select the object coordinates. 00:04:02.476 --> 00:04:06.916 And now, our gradient is cutting off our cloud in the middle. 00:04:07.156 --> 00:04:08.706 But this happens on the wrong axis. 00:04:09.256 --> 00:04:11.796 So let's rotate it 90 degrees on the y-axis. 00:04:11.796 --> 00:04:14.606 And now, we can see that our cloud has a flat bottom. 00:04:15.226 --> 00:04:17.536 But this falloff is right now pretty harsh. 00:04:17.536 --> 00:04:20.586 So let's add in a mix RGB node, as well as noise texture, 00:04:20.736 --> 00:04:25.366 and mix the vector with the factor of the noise. 00:04:25.996 --> 00:04:28.286 And if we now adjust the slider, you can see 00:04:28.286 --> 00:04:30.816 that we can make the falloff a bit more interesting. 00:04:31.176 --> 00:04:36.156 We can now, of course, adjust the noise size and make it more noticeable with a color ramp. 00:04:36.156 --> 00:04:40.296 Now, all that's left to do is maybe add in a math node, set it to multiply. 00:04:40.296 --> 00:04:43.286 And now, we can make the cloud a lot thicker. 00:04:43.376 --> 00:04:47.106 Great. Let's change our tile size back to two and preview our cloud. 00:04:47.346 --> 00:04:48.946 And this is already looking pretty good. 00:04:49.076 --> 00:04:51.796 But, of course, we are still missing our sky background. 00:04:52.066 --> 00:04:58.586 So let's add in a camera, clear out everything, and rotate it 90 degrees on the x-axis. 00:04:59.416 --> 00:05:02.686 And now, we can just move it back and have it face our cloud. 00:05:03.186 --> 00:05:05.356 And now, let's add in our world background. 00:05:05.806 --> 00:05:08.836 The easiest way to do this is to add in another gradient texture. 00:05:09.216 --> 00:05:12.156 And you can see that, again, it is on the wrong axis. 00:05:12.416 --> 00:05:15.186 So let's rotate it 90 degrees on the y-axis. 00:05:15.476 --> 00:05:18.666 Change it to easing to have a smoother gradient. 00:05:18.666 --> 00:05:24.306 And let's add in a color ramp, and now make the one handle a light blue color 00:05:24.446 --> 00:05:26.156 and the other one a dark blue color. 00:05:26.836 --> 00:05:29.906 But you can see that we are only seeing the light blue one. 00:05:30.316 --> 00:05:32.736 And this is because all the dark is left on the top. 00:05:32.946 --> 00:05:36.136 But we can easily change this by adjusting the X location. 00:05:36.276 --> 00:05:39.076 And now, we have our nice gradient in the background. 00:05:39.076 --> 00:05:42.146 Awesome! And now, we have a very simple cloud in Blender. 00:05:42.306 --> 00:05:47.876 And we can even just use this mesh, scale it maybe up or down, 00:05:47.876 --> 00:05:50.116 to easily create variations of our cloud. 00:05:50.326 --> 00:05:51.906 For example, just like this. 00:05:52.316 --> 00:05:57.166 In the end, I would suggest you to turn up the samples right here, to maybe 128, 00:05:57.166 --> 00:05:59.576 and also turn up the voxel amount. 00:05:59.746 --> 00:06:03.456 Keep in mind, this voxel amount is relative to what you did in your scene. 00:06:03.456 --> 00:06:04.166 Okay. Great! 00:06:04.166 --> 00:06:05.446 And that's basically it. 00:06:05.446 --> 00:06:09.686 This is how we can now easily create custom clouds and volumes in Blender EEVEE. 00:06:09.876 --> 00:06:14.446 Right now, I would only suggest you to use this in EEVEE because, in Cycles, 00:06:14.446 --> 00:06:18.026 some interesting visual bugs can occur, like blockiness in your volume. 00:06:18.546 --> 00:06:20.016 I hope this tutorial was helpful. 00:06:20.066 --> 00:06:21.126 I hope you learned something. 00:06:21.196 --> 00:06:23.256 And if you did, consider liking and subscribing. 00:06:23.516 --> 00:06:26.976 And you'll see us in the next video next Saturday.