What is Mantaflow in Blender?

This article provides an overview of the Mantaflow system in Blender, explaining its primary purpose and how it functions. You will learn about its applications in creating realistic fluid and gas simulations, as well as the core components required to set up a simulation.

Introduction to Mantaflow

Mantaflow is Blender’s integrated physics simulation framework used for simulating fluids, which includes both liquids (like water and honey) and gases (such as smoke, steam, and fire). Introduced in Blender 2.82 to replace the older, separate smoke and fluid engines, Mantaflow provides a unified, physically accurate solver that allows artists to create realistic environmental effects.

Primary Uses of Mantaflow

The Mantaflow system is divided into two main simulation types:

Gas Simulations: This is used to create fire, smoke, steam, dust clouds, and explosions. The solver calculates how hot air rises, how turbulence affects smoke shapes, and how fire combusts based on fuel and oxygen levels.
Liquid Simulations: This is used to simulate water, splashes, pouring liquids, and viscous substances like paint or maple syrup. It can generate secondary particles such as foam, bubbles, and spray to enhance the realism of moving water.

Core Components of a Mantaflow Simulation

To create a simulation using Mantaflow, you must configure a system using three primary types of objects:

The Domain: This is the bounding box that defines the boundary of the simulation. All physics calculations occur inside this box. The resolution of the domain determines the detail and quality of the simulation.
Flow Objects: These are the geometry sources that either add fluid/gas into the domain (Inflow), act as a one-time geometry source (Geometry), or remove fluid/gas from the scene (Outflow).
Effector Objects: These act as collision obstacles. When a liquid or gas hits an effector, it deflects, flows around, or is blocked by the object’s geometry.

Once these components are defined, Blender bakes the simulation physics into cache files, which can then be rendered as realistic animations.