Sculpting fluids: a new and intuitive approach to art-directable fluids

Fluid simulations are very useful for creating physically based water effects in computer graphics but are notoriously hard to control. In this talk we propose a novel and intuitive animation technique for fluid animations using interactive direct manipulation of the simulated fluid inspired by clay sculpting. Artists can simply shape the fluid directly into the desired visual effect whilst the fluid still adheres to its physical properties such as surface tension and volume preservation. Our approach is faster and much more intuitive compared to previous work which relies on indirect approaches such as providing reference geometry or density fields. It makes it very easy, even for novice users, to modify simulations ranging from enlarging splashes or altering droplet shapes to adjusting the flow of a large fluid body. The sculpted fluid shapes are incorporated into the simulation using guided re-simulation using control theory instead of simply using geometric deformations resulting in natural-looking animations.