Visual Simulation of Cumulus Clouds Using Fluid Dynamics and Adaptive Texture Synthesis

Abstract

We propose a new method for creating realistic animations of cumulus clouds by combining a fluid dynamics simulation and texture synthesis. Small scale dynamics and fractal patterns of cumulus are synthesized in according to the cloud states, which are derived from the atmospheric fluid simulation. Small scale dynamics is controlled by the buoyancy energy, and adapted to large scale behavior of the velocity field. In addition the density distribution is used for adaptive pattern synthesis. Various shapes are combined by the cloud density and fractal noise textures according to the cloud density distribution.