Mid-Level Smoke Control for 2D Animation

Fairy with controlled smoke.

People

Abstract

Smoking woman
Our motif-based mid-level fluid control allows artists to specify local density patterns that will emerge during fluid simulation.

In this paper we introduce the notion that artists should be able to control fluid simulations by providing examples of expected local fluid behavior (for instance, an artist might specify that magical smoke often forms star shapes). As our idea fits between high-level, global pose control and low-level parameter adjustment, we deem it mid-level control. We make our notion concrete by demonstrating two mid-level controllers providing stylized smoke effects for two-dimensional animations. With these two controllers, we allow the artist to specify both density patterns, or particle motifs, which should emerge frequently within the fluid and global texture motifs to which the fluid should conform. Each controller is responsible for constructing a stylized version of the current fluid state, which we feed-back into a global pose control method. This feedback mechanism allows the smoke to retain fluid-like behavior, while also attaining a stylized appearance suitable to integration with 2D animations. We integrate these mid-level controls with an interactive animation system, in which the user can control and keyframe all animation parameters using an interactive timeline view.

Paper

Alfred Barnat, Zeyang Li, James McCann, and Nancy S. Pollard, Mid-Level Smoke Control for 2D Animation, Proceedings of Graphics Interface 2011

Video

Graphics Interface video
Smoke motifs expository movie

Copyright notice

The documents contained in these directories are included by the contributing authors as a means to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work on a non-commercial basis. Copyright and all rights therein are maintained by the authors or by other copyright holders, notwithstanding that they have offered their works here electronically. It is understood that all persons copying this information will adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. These works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.