This month I dabbled in the second course of Visual Effects in Full Sail. The focus was mostly on Fluids both in Maya and Houdini. The past month was my first time really working with fluids and more complex dynamics in Houdini.
The third project for the month was to make a liquid simulation with FLIP Fluids in Houdini.
The reference used was of a bottle pouring water into a glass. While observing the motion, the liquid can be seen hitting the bottom of the cup and wrapping across the surface until it reconvenes on the other side. By then, it curls onto itself towards the center, causing a short and stocky wave.
I tried doing the same motion observed in the reference, and had to model the glass with a curved bottom as to direct the particles smoothly instead of the harsh displacement a right angle was causing with a previous model I had been working with. Soon after starting to test different settings, it became obvious that the cup was not being filled; a search had me going back into Maya and thickening the model by selecting the outer faces and scaling appropriately. Later, for rendering, I used the original thin cup and hid the collision mesh so the effect was seamless. I also used an emitter with initial velocity on -X for that curve characteristic of fluids being poured from a container and most movements in nature.
A particle separation of 0.02 and the use of only the basicliquid shader with refractions and reflections enabled allowed the fluid to gain the visual appeal of water. An environment light with a map provided the lighting on Mantra - PBR.
