"Cliff Collapse" RBD Simulation in Blender using RBDLabs Addon

"Cliff Collapse" is my first real attempt at a RBD simulation in Blender using the RBDLabs Addon. It let's you create RBD fracture simulations module by module and I'm loving it so far. Start out by fracturing your mesh, then create constraints and cluster groups. After you've cached the sim you can quickly add debris and dust using a custom collection. Final step is creating a smoke sim for the debris which I did using the meshes and not particles.
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To bring more life into the environment I wanted the foliage to be animated but didn't yet know how to do it. So I came up with my own solution of using the displacement modifier in Blender and with the help of a clouds texture, an empty null and vertex paint were able to move the foliage meshes in a somewhat realistic way. It wasn't based on physics, but at least easy to art direct.
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After I got all my render passes into a multi-layer EXR i composited everything in Blackmagic Fusion Studio. I carefully practiced the A over B workflow of nodes. I also tried to get comfortable with the 3D camera by doing a parallax dolly zoom with the different layers. After adding some camera/lens effects such as chromatic aberrations, film grain and lens distortion I edited everything together in Blackmagic Davinci Resolve 18 with some sound design.
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The most valuable lessons from this project was probably getting comfortable with the RBD Labs addon, learning that imported VDB files plays back smoother than a cached sim (strange?), and getting familiar with the 3D environment in Fusion Studio which is still a bit difficult to grasp.
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All in all I think I spent around 40 hours on this. Mostly on learning everything.
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✉️ For any business inquiries, email me at michael@tiedtke.se
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