Animated Carpet Macro Shot

Support Particles and Physics Simulations
1

I’ve recently been hired to create a shot for a product video showing the dirt being removed from a carpet when a carpet cleaning machine is used on it. I’m trying to decide how much to animate the individual carpet follicles I plan on modeling and in what way I should animate them. I’m very new to Blender’s softbody and physics engines. Are those something I would use in this instance? Would I make the follicles soft bodies and have them interact with the bristles of the cleaning device?

Anyone have any good tutorials they’d recommend that are applicable to the latest blender release?

2

Depending on the effect you want there could be so many ways. Keyed particles, dynamic paint, animated texures, force fields, cloth sims, soft bodies… the list goes on. Your best bet is to find a reference animation that the client approves, and post that video here. Then people can say, oh well, that’s easy you just…

3

Just use particle hair for the carpet and don’t even fuss with softbodies (waste of time).

Check out Blender Steve’s video on grass via hair.