Help with realistic thick fluids

Hi all,

I’ve recently been playing about with Blenders Fluid sim, hoping to find a way of making realistic thick fluid sims, in particular an effect like paint being poured on an object and the fluid running over the object, dripping off the bottom. But, after many failed attempts, I’ve been having no luck.

This is the kind of effect I want to achieve (created by Paul Hollingworth). I’m not even sure if such sims are possible in Blender or if the fluid sim is most appropriate.



Whilst I’ve been using blender for a few years I’ve never really tackled the fluid sim so I’ve little knowledge on the subject, and would really appreciate some help!

Whilst I’ve been using blender for a few years I’ve never really tackled the fluid sim so I’ve little knowledge on the subject, and would really appreciate some help!
Don’t expect to get great results with the blender fluid sim, it is very rudimentary. Don’t assume a ‘simulation’ simulates anything like what you’s get in the real world. You could get something 50% there and then fake it with the sculpt tools
You would need high resolution and try something like the honey viscosity presets

Ah I see, I’ve seen some decent simulations online but clearly they use very high resolutions. I’m aware they’re not entirely accurate. Thanks for the idea with sculpting

This^ to an extent.

Your exact photo as one whole fluid bake is almost impossible to achieve in Blender in one go-- even with a very high resolution… unless it was a very large and viscous fluid with a constant outflow. In blender’s fluid sim, drips like that tend to split up into little beads instead of staying connected like a thick goo.

One thing you could try (and that I’ve done, and works) is to use multiple domains over time. You won’t achieve that picture look in one fluid sim bake. You’ll be able to do parts of it at a time, maybe the main parts of the skull first … then you’d duplicate the domain, apply the fluid modifier to the copied verison, then continue on another part of the mesh (like the dripping parts).

You can sculpt the applied meshes (like Richard suggested) and also delete vertices of unwanted drips or beads.

You could change the speed of the animation and make it super slow so that you can capture more detail in a shot easier. Droplets etc.