CGTalk - lava lamp animation

atomizer

02-25-2004, 08:00 PM

to be brief i have to create a lava lamp animation which is 3 minutes long and loops but the client has a very limited budget and wants 7 different variations; differing in colour, speed and how the blobs react with each other...

I want to know if anyone had any experience with animating lava laps and what’s the best/fastest technique to do it.

Right now I'm thinking of using metaballs and just animating the whole thing by hand but I had an idea of creating a particle simulation or using something like realflow to do it but then I don’t see how I can create a seamless loop with ether of those techniques...

If anyone can help id appreciate that very much!

Cheers

Andini

02-26-2004, 09:10 PM

I can't really help you here. My only guess is metaballs. I've made a still lava lamp model in Bryce using metaballs and it came out well. Animating it, though, is another story.

I'd love to see it when you finally have a solution! I love lava lamps...their movements are so fluid and calming.

My number one suggestion would be to simply look at a lava lamp in action. Observe how it moves and flows. That's the only way that you'll ever make a really good lava lamp animation.

Good Luck!
-Andy

Andini

02-27-2004, 10:06 PM

Ok...I don't know if this helps but in Chemistry today, I learned the inner-workings of a lava lamp.

The "lava" of the lamp is really wax and the the liquid is oil. When you turn the lamp on, the wax is heated...sort of liquifying. The heat also makes the wax the expand and lose some of it's density. That's what makes it float to the top. When it reaches the top, however, the wax cools, becoming more dense again. It then sinks to the bottom where it's heated and floats to the top. As long as you still have the heat source at the bottom, the process will keep repeating itself.

Whether or not this helps...I felt like sharing!

Good Luck, again,
Andy

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