CoP 3: Conclusion of Practical work

For my practical I wanted to research and explore different softwares and solvers for particle simulation and find out how you can add a character element to the simulation. So for my final practical I produced a simulation showing the different stages it takes to create a realistic water simulation where I can control the particles to have some sort of character element in it. For this practical I used the software Maya because for me it's the software I'm most familiar with and it's the simplest software to create and control the particles. I also used the FLIP solver for my simulation because it's a very powerful system and it stays stable when 10s of millions of particles are flowing on top of each other, it is also able to create more detail within the simulation compared to the SPH solver. 

I used Bifrost in Maya to create the liquid simulation because I found that if I use that instead on the fluid dynamics I'll get better results and more detail with greater control over the particles, plus I could add an accelerator to the simulation to make it more dramatic and it adds more character element to the scene due to the ferocious movement. I have about 10 to 20 million particles within the simulation so that I can get the best detail my computer can allow, and this gives better indication to what the particles are doing and how they act in the simulation. Adding the accelerator to the scene helps give more character element to it because it gives the wave more force when crashing through the window, which give the wave an aggressive and intimidating characteristic attributes. Below you'll see the different stages in creating a liquid particle simulation. 

I've also created a video demonstration the different stages in creating a liquid particle simulation. I did this by capturing playblasts within Maya and rendered off animations showing how different the particles look when in the Maya work space and when it's rendered out. Rendering the final outcome did take about 24 hours to do but I feel like it was worth it.  

I'm quite pleased with my final outcome of my practical even if I did have some problems with the texturing of the water and the lighting. The video demonstrates the different stages well and you can tell the differences between them and why they are needed to create a realistic water simulation. Other people and I have found that the force that the wave comes out is very effective and gives the simulation character elements. However, I feel like I may have made the wave too foamy for my liking because of all the white water in the scene. I think this is due to the fact that I put the curdle rate quite low so that the water produces more foam so if I was to change anything about the simulation I would change that.