2016
I was brought on to this project to create multiple lava simulations that were going to be composited into the final installation for Disney World's "A Star Wars Spectacular."
First I divide into Houdini to do some R+D and figure out the best way to create this in Houdini. The hardest part was figuring out the cooling rate. The cooling rate/temperature is driving the simulation. Once the particles reached a low enough value they would stop moving. So trying to find the perfect balance for the cooling rate was a bit tricky. The next hurdle was just creating multiple path and motions for the effect to add variety, and adding object to interact with giving it a more believable motion. Render time was another issue I had, but that with every cg project, the simple solution was to turn off motion blur. Doing this cut the render time in half.
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