Artist Shows How to Use Cloth Simulation in Blender to Create a Liquid in a Bottle Effect

2D/3D Digital Artist known as MetaMeta has recently impressed thousands of people on Reddit by showcasing an unusual way to set up a particular visual effect attempted by many artists following the release of Half-Life: Alyx – a liquid in a bottle.

Unlike many other popular approaches, MetaMeta's method involved the use of cloth simulation combined with bone constraints in Blender to emulate the liquid's surface, Boolean and Edgesplit modifiers for the liquid itself, and a particle system to set up the bubbles. To give the bottle this painterly look, the creator utilized a custom shader and Displace Nodes with Grease Pencil as masks. The project's goal, the author commented, was to achieve a "convincing" result akin to Alyx, all without the need for in-depth shader knowledge.

You can find the original Reddit post here and check out more of MetaMeta's awesome projects over here.

And here are some of the other artists' attempts at the liquid-in-a-bottle effect:

The Liquid-in-a-Bottle Effect from Half-Life: Alyx Made in Blender

A Great Fluid-in-a-Bottle Effect Created With Blender

Alyx-Style Bottles in Unreal by Ryan Brucks

Recreating Alyx-Style Bottles in Unity

A Free Liquid Shader Plug-In for Unreal Engine 5.2

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