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FLIP Fluids Development Notes #15

Weekly Development Notes #15 – Call for Content: 2020 Customer Reel

Ryan Guy 6. April 2020 0 Comments

Covering the week of March 30th – April 3rd, 2020.

Hope you are all staying healthy and safe! Here we are with our 15th weekly development updated for the FLIP Fluids addon for Blender. Last week’s development mostly involved performance improvements in both existing features and our upcoming force field features.

In this post, we’re calling for content submissions for our 2020 FLIP Fluids Customer Reel. Send your submissions to support[at]flipfluids.com by June 30th, 2020 and you may be featured! More information and up-to-date guidelines can be found in this documentation: FLIP Fluids Customer Reel 2020.

Call for Content

Be a part of the 2020 FLIP Fluids addon Customer Reel

  • The Best Animations will be selected to be featured in our 2020 customer reel
  • Our video editor will add sound effects to some videos, and cut them to the beet of the reel’s soundtrack
  • While your animation is featured, an overlay will display your artist information as well as links of your choice so that other can find your artwork
  • The final 2020 customer reel will be uploaded and linked to all of our channels where your artwork will reach thousands of viewers

Animation Guidelines

  • All simulations and animations must be your own and created using the FLIP Fluids addon
  • Video Resolution: 1920 x 1080 pixels (Full HD)
  • Video Frame Rate: 30 FPS
  • Video Length: Max 10 seconds
  • Output Format: JPEG or PNG image sequence, packed into a ZIP archive
  • Upload your ZIP file to any online host and then send the link and your information to support[at]flipfluids.com

By participating, you consent to the full publication of your content as part of this project. Submission deadline ends on June 30th, 2020.

Your Artist Information

We want to display your artist information over your animation so that viewers will be able to find you and your artwork. Your information and links will also be available in the YouTube descriptions and on other social media where applicable. In your submission let us know what information and links you would like to display.

  • Artist Name: Your name, alias, or screen name
  • Links: These may be links to your portfolio, website, email, social media, etc. Due to limited space, we may not be able to add all of your links to the video overlay. Please list your links that you would like to be displayed in order of priority.

Example:

Artist Name: Ryan Guy

1. Website: rlguy.com
2. Email: 
        
            fl*********@gm***.com
            
                
                
                
            
            
                
                
                
            
        

3. Facebook: www.facebook.com/FLIPFluids
4. Twitter: twitter.com/FlipFluids
5. Instagram: www.instagram.com/flip.fluids
6. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/rlguyportfolio

Want to bake and render your animation on Polargrid?

The Polargrid baking and render farm wants to support you in creating your animations! Each user who requests resources will get a free package containing:

  • 2 units GTX 1060 GB (OctaneBench 1080) for rendering
  • 1 unit baking server

Request Polargrid resources here

Tutorial: Baking and Rendering on Polargrid with the FLIP Fluids addon

FAQ

Do I own the rights to my submitted animations?

Yes, you will still own the rights of your submitted animations. We are not requesting exclusive rights to your submitted content. By submitting your content, you consent to the full publication of your content as part of the FLIP Fluids 2020 Customer Reel project.

Can I make multiple submissions?

Yes, you can!

Does my submission need to be new content?

No, you may also submit older animations that you have created.

Will my submission be featured?

We cannot guarantee that your submission will make it into the final customer reel. Due to limited length, we will only be able to choose the best and highest quality submissions.

Do you have any examples of high quality artwork?

See this collection of some of the artwork we have seen shared on Twitter: FLIP Fluids Artwork on Twitter

Can I send a video file for my submission?

No, for highest quality, we are requiring that the animation is submitted as a JPEG or PNG sequence packed into a ZIP archive.

Can I use a third-party renderer?

Yes, you can render your animation using a third-party renderer or software outside of Blender. We only require that your simulation is created using the FLIP Fluids addon.

I have a question!

If you have any questions, comments, or would like to discuss a qualifying submission, please send a message to support[at]flipfluids.com

🙂

Development Notes

  • Improved performance of engine initialization stage – This is the baking stage directly after the settings/mesh export stage and right before the first frame starts processing. During this stage the Bake operator displays the ‘Baking in progress… initializing‘ message. This stage mostly involves reserving memory and initializing your FLIP Fluid objects (Fluid, Inflow, Outflow, Obstacle) within the engine. Performance of initializing objects has been significantly improved and if your scene contains many objects, initialization will be much quicker.
  • Multithreaded adding fluid particles to the simulation – Performance has been improved during the stage where fluid is added to the domain. This stage happens once for each Fluid type object or on every frame/substep for each Inflow type object. This stage used to be single threaded and you could see a performance decrease if your Fluid/Inflow objects were large in volume and containing millions of particles.
  • Simulator now automatically detects if mesh is rigid or deformable – The Inflow ‘Add Object Velocity to Inflow‘ feature required the user to specify whether the animated mesh was rigid or deformable. This UI element is no longer needed since the simulator will now automatically detect this. Whether an animated mesh is rigid or deformable is computed on a frame-by-frame basis. Depending on how the object is animated, it could be deformable on some frames and rigid on others.

    UI: Rigid or Deformable selector

    This detection opens up the possibility to add optimizations in future development. At the moment, most objects in the simulator are treated as if they are deformable. Assuming an object is deformable is safe and relatively accurate for both rigid and deformable meshes. We cannot assume that all objects are rigid because this would lead to inaccurate calculations if the mesh is actually deformable. Being able to differentiate whether an object is rigid/deformable can allow us to add optimizations specifically for rigid objects. There are some calculations in the simulator that can be more efficient, quicker, and more accurate if we know that the object is rigid.
  • New Documentation: Limitations of the FLIP Fluids addon – Is the FLIP Fluids addon right for your project? The FLIP Fluids addon, the FLIP simulation method, and Blender may have limitations that can affect the result of your project. This helpful document covers important limitations that you should know about.