Simulation and Animation of Fire and Other Natural Phenomena in the Visual Eects Industry

In this article, we give a brief overview of methods that are currently used to simulate and animate fire and other natural phenomena for the special eects industry. First, we discuss the use of the ghost fluid method to treat thin flame fronts. Then, we illustrate the use of this method to model and animate fire for computer graphics purposes. Next, we discuss the use of the one phase, two- dimensional Euler equations to model highly detailed large scale phenomena such as the nuclear explosions seen in the movie "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines". We also briefly touch upon the use of more traditional (in a computer graphics sense) particle-based techniques for modeling flames and explosions. Finally, we close the article with the particle level set method and its application to the animation and rendering of complex water surfaces.