Extracting and Parametrizing Temporally Coherent Surfaces from Particles

Chen Shen, Apurva Shah

Abstract:

From pouring sauces to sudsy sink water to violent sewer rapids, realistic animation of fluids presented interesting challenges in Ratatouille. The various fluid effects were simulated either using a physically-based solver or directly with generic particle systems. Although the simulated particles move as a whole like a fluid, the number of particles was too small to give the appearance of a continuous surface if rendered directly. To address this, we developed a technique to efficiently extract temporally and spatially coherent surfaces from particles with parametrization that allows textural details to be later added in rendering.

Paper (PDF)

Available as Pixar Technical Memo #07-05