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Course: Pixar in a Box > Unit 7
Lesson 1: Introduction to particle systems- Effects overview
- Introduction to particle systems
- Simulating water
- Water simulation
- Smooth collisions
- Smoothed particle hydrodynamics
- Create water surface using particles
- Calculating contour lines
- What else can you make with particle systems?
- Fireworks simulator
- Genesis effect
- Getting to know Matt Wong
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Effects overview
Pixar effects artists create realistic water using particles and simulations. They apply forces like wind and gravity to particles, making water interact with characters and scenes. Learn how to make water and more for animated films with particles and simulations, making stories come alive!
Want to join the conversation?
What grade is this topic generally for?(11 votes)
Any age! It doesn't matter what grade you're in!
It only matters if you enjoy and want to do it. Everyone can do what they want to do.(15 votes)
How long did it take for the Pixar animator to create the water in each scene?(6 votes)- it depends greatly on the shot. I can set up a simple water sim in a few minutes not counting the 3d scene it lives in. Or it can take hours to set up the sim. If the sim is just allowed to be a real sim based on real world physics thats easier than a sim that has to look real but I need to control the final look of the sim to achieve a specific effect or look. Thats because you are adding more math to the equation.(6 votes)
how long did finding nemo take to create all the water?(6 votes)
Why this dude wearing his glasses in the water? Everyone who wears glasses knows not to do that! Duh!(I should know. I wear glasses.)(5 votes)
At2:02anybody else see a white dot and a beep?(5 votes)- Yes, its so RANDOM!(1 vote)
What is the hardest effect to simulate?(2 votes)- Hair sims can usually bunch groups of hair to follow a single hair. So it depends on how big in the shot the hair will be as final as to how small those groups will be. Closer to camera, less splines per group.
Water works the same way so it again will depend on level of realism needed, what its interacting with and how accurate that interaction needs to be for a given shot.
So the answer it Depends on the level of detail and desired accuracy of the physical simulation. The Black hole in Interstellar was pretty crazy long sim.(5 votes)
- Wouldn't the computers struggle with all the amounts of particles?(4 votes)
- I believe the way that movies are created helps eliminate this problem. Pixar along with other big studios use rendering farms in order to output the videos that you see. Unlike video games that run and process in real-time as you play. Movies require hours or sometimes days of rendering every frame and recalculating and rendering frame by frame until they have the frames of the movie.
http://www.slashfilm.com/cool-stuff-a-look-at-pixar-and-lucasfilms-renderfarms/(3 votes)
- What was that white dot at2:01?(3 votes)
- How long does it take to animate all those particles?(4 votes)
- What is a particle(2 votes)
- A particle is a point in 3d space that can move around and obeys rules in the scene. For instance, a particle might be affected by a gravity force that accelerates it downward, or a flocking control that causes it to move in the same direction as nearby particles.
Particles can be assigned shapes that inherit their motion and other properties. For instance, you might create a cloud of flies, each of which is controlled by a particle at its center. Or you can assign the particle a flat shape that always faces the camera and put a texture on the shape, allowing you to easily make something like bubbles or smoke.
Particles make it possible to create complex animations that would otherwise be very time-consuming. Fire, smoke, water, magic, swarms, sand, and so forth.(5 votes)
2:02Video transcript
- Hi, I'm Eric Lacroix and I'm
an effects artist at Pixar. - And I'm Sarah Beth Eisinger,
another Pixar effects artist. - At Pixar, when we say effects, we mean the creation and animation
for anything that moves... - But isn't a character. Almost all the natural
phenomena in our films are created by the effects teams. - Things like dust. (air blowing) (coughing) (soft crunching) - Smoke! (loud blare) (coughing) Fire. (sizzle and crackling) (cough) - Explosions? - No. (bang) (loud, dramatic boom) - And effects creates
water in its many forms. - [Eric] Making believable
water in the computer is really exciting and really challenging. That's partly because
water takes so many forms. Placid Lake you could swim in, or rushing river you would
not want to be caught in. - [Sarah Beth] The type of water we create depends on the story we're trying to tell. And the way we approach water is different depending on how it
interacts with the characters and how close we are to it. - One of the tools we use
to create believable water in the computer are particles. - [Sarah Beth] Let's start
with a single particle. We can apply forces to
that particle such as wind, or gravity, or more particles
that push and pull each other. By adding many, many, many more particles and applying those same forces, we begin to create water in the computer. (water splashing) - [Eric] Water in the real world is also made up of particles, because molecules are really
just super tiny particles. And even though are particles
are much, much bigger than molecules, the physics are similar. So we simulate those real world
forces using math and code. - [Sarah Beth] It would
take years and years to individually animate
the billions of particles that make up the water in these scenes. So it helps that we can use
an existing set of rules that particles in the computer can follow. (splash) - You are probably asking yourself, how can I create water for animated films? - Great question, Sarah Beth. In the following lessons,
you'll learn all about creating water using
particles and simulations. - Have fun and stay dry!