Looping Smoke-sims in Blender | Quick Tip on Simulations

In this video, I'll go over one way to seamlessly loop a smoke simulation in Blender 2.9. I'll use OpenVDB to create the effect, meaning that there's no need to render it out and loop it in post. Keep in mind, though, that this is a more technically involved method. So, although it allows for more control and versatility, it's tougher to work with, much slower to render, and more likely to lead to technical issues and bugs. Some of these hurdles will also be addressed in this video.

This video took me a bit longer to make than I anticipated, so I'm sorry about that! This time, I decided to avoid making a more comprehensive tutorial, as Mantaflow is still going through some notable bug fixes and changes. Instead, I opted for something more "futureproof". OpenVDB allows for much easier control over the simulation. Before, I had to use collection instances to be able to duplicate smoke simulations across a scene, with no control over their timing and with max tolerance for bugs and crashes. There are still plenty of big problems with the implementation of OpenVDB in Blender (different attributes for a base smoke simulation than for one with "Noise" enabled, for instance), but, it's still a major upgrade.

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.

[tetrapixel]

the master of blender's sci-fi particle sims is back

[benjaminyeiser]

"Yo I can actually write outside the bounds, dude this is gnarly" LMAOOOO. love this tutorial, and even more so, your sense of humor.

[EC]

4:05 - WOW....that top left simulation animation is the most realistic and awesome fire/smoke sim I've ever seen done using Blender..it is so realistic and amazing ! it's spectacular !

[flunkgamer]

Loved that ending :) it was so real and wholesome!

[komputer]

yo i can actually write outside the bounds dude this is gnarly

[lepra]

whoaaa
the quality of your videos is so good

[petervonfrosta]

BRO
a real Fox my Friend....thx for that !
I had something like that already in my mind but i didnt know how to close the gaps....thats awesome work man !!!!
Thank u thank u thank u !!!!
🤩🤩🤩🤩👍👍👍👍

[bennyweimer]

This is a great thing to know for game assets

[annekedebruyn]

Game industires use this a lot of background elements.
See: Battlefield 3 and 4 on operation firestorm, the oil fires in the background are looped simulated elements.

[xalener]

oh yeah, vfx for games 100% need this technique

[ShadyRonin]

I have ALWAYS wanted to know how to do this... thank you!!!

[stefanguiton]

Insanley high detail video, keep up the great work!

[ArtPomelo]

Homework and more homework (lol) great work!

[SangHendrix]

Omg since when smoke simulation from Blender becomes this good looking?

[RaffoVFX]

Istruction unclear I didnt understood you were speaking about cgi fire - burned my house.

[Vilde]

Can I export the looping VDB after Ive done the instances and made it loop? or do I always have to make this loop setup separately?

[tebitosan]

I see that in the VDB / grids, you have info like Fuel, fuel_inflow, density_inflow, flags.... How do you get to export that information to the VDB?

[kings-letter]

Ive watched this 15 times I still dont get it.
The sudden realization of bring dumb... :(

[swampwaffle]

The only problem I have is how do I combine all the data in to vdb files without them gaveling separate folders to them?

[ThomasPotter]

How do you write out of the bounds in the blender file view?