CoP 3: My Reading That Reflects My Practical

I have already found a few readings which reflects on my practical, where I research into particle simulation, and I've come across multiple papers on water simulations speaking about how they have effectively used particles to create a realistic and believable simulation.

Some pieces of reading that has influenced me are as followed:

Muller. M, Charypar. D, Gross. M 'Particle-Based Fluid Simulation for Interactive Applications'
V. Kerlow. I 'The Art of 3D Computer Animation and Effects'

In Muller. M, Charypar. D, Gross. M's  'Particle-Based Fluid Simulation for Interactive Applications' the paper talks about how they have proposed an interactive method based on smoothing particle hydrodynamics (SPH) to simulate fluids with free surface. This meas that they will be experimenting with real time fluid simulation and improving it by using point splatting and marching cubes-based surface reconstruction, which is fast enough to be used in interactive systems and to allow for user interaction with models consisting of up to 5000 particles. They're doing this because typically fluid is simulated off-line and then visualized in a second step, which makes it harder to control the fluids behavior. This relates to my practice because I am experimenting with ways in which I can create character for elemental effect, so that processes they have used and produced can help further develop and increase the amount of time I can spend on each experiment. This is because in their results the simulation runs at interactive rates instead of taking minuets or hours per frame as in today's off-line methods.  

In Isaac V. Kerlow's book 'The Art of 3D Animation and Effects' it teaches you in chapter 12 all about Motion Dynamics and within this there is a section about Particle Systems, which tells you what a particle is and how it can be used. "Particle systems are used to represent dynamic objects that have irregular and complex shapes, each with its own behavior. Particles have a life snap during which they are created, behave a certain way, age, and die. Particles can also be used to control the motion of three-dimensional models - such as snow, water, or even a flock of birds..". This as help me understand what a particle is and what I can do with it with in my practical element. "Modeling with particle systems is based on employing simple shapes, usually small spheres or points in three-dimensional space. These shapes, or particles, have growth attributes. When these attributes are simulated, the particles have a specific behaviors that result in specific particle trajectories." This has helped me figure out how to make objects into particles and control their behavior. Reading this book will also help me in the long run because it will also teach me how to composite my practical together and teach me what other things I can create with particles, i.e. fire, smoke, clowds, and snowstorms.