Real-time controllable fire using textured forces

Abstract

Fluid dynamics can produce realistic looking fire effects, which are heavily used in animation and films. However, the parameters of the various underlying physical equations are not intuitive enough to be controlled easily. As a result, animators face problems when editing the fine details of the fire, especially the turbulence and growth at the fire surface. In this paper, we propose a new approach to enable animators to interactively edit such fine details using textured forces. These techniques involve mapping a texture onto the simulation that controls the creation of new forces, growing the fire into specific shape and adding the natural turbulence of fuel ignition. These textures can be edited using an intuitive user interface that allows forces to be painted directly onto the fire. Our system can be integrated into existing GPU fluid solvers to run in real-time. As a result, it is applicable for interactive applications such as 3D computer games. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.