FLUID DYNAMICS ANIMATION SYSTEM AND METHOD

The described system and method provide for the creation of realistic wave fronts and spray from one or more user-defined objects impacting on or moving on the surface of a user-defined body of fluid, e.g. water, without using the Navier-Stokes equations. A novel fluid dynamics model is used which requires only the solution of a small set of simple pressure and flow equations. The model involves an array of volumetric cells each in fluid communication with plural neighboring cells, wherein the height of each at each time interval is updated to represent the surface of a fluid body, and objects therein or impact thereon are treated as one or more pressure vectors acting on a given cell in the array. The change in volume of each cell, and its corresponding change in height, is straightforwardly calculated for each unit of time, and the average height at each of the array's vertices is used to build a dynamically changing wire-frame grid that represents the surface of the fluid body. The calculations required are straightforward and involve no differentials or integrals. Instead, the calculations require simple arithmetic operations that can be performed quickly in a single iteration for each of only three equations involving pressure on a given cell and fluid communication with neighboring cells. The invented animation system provides easy-to-use tools for creation of such fluid dynamic renditions, preferably as a software plug-in module to the already capable 3D Studio MAX.RTM. animation tool kit operating under Windows.RTM. 95 or NT.