Researchers from BYU have created a new method to help animators easily edit fluid materials. When creating an animated movie, one of the most tedious parts is animating fluid materials, like hair or water. The fluid simulation process for a single scene is expensive, takes more than a day and can be hard to get right on the first try.
A larger version of this river animation can be quickly created by using the fluid carving technique. (Source: BYU)
The process of creating a fluid animation is tedious. After the animators create a scene, they run a simulation, show the director, the director returns with notes, then the animator needs to make the changes and run a simulation all over again. Animators repeat this process until the director approves it.
The new method resizes the animation of fluids quickly without needing to re-simulate the entire clip. The key to this is fluid carving. Fluid carving is when the size of an image is changed without losing relevant information or distorting the image. It takes out pixels that the algorithm finds that are unnecessary.
With the new method, animators can edit a 4D video — 4D video is a 3D image spread out over time. The animators can make an image smaller, which allows them to tweak or change the image quickly. Before, animators would have had to wait for the simulation to recalibrate before they could
The new function took over a year to create.
Read more about this project here.
