Skeleton-based control of fluid animation

We present a skeleton-based control method for fluid animation. Our method is designed to provide an easy and intuitive control approach while producing visually plausible fluid behavior. In our method, users are allowed to control animated fluid with skeleton keyframes. Expected results are then obtained by driving fluid towards a sequence of targets specified in these keyframes. In order to solve for an optimal driving solution, we propose a keyframe matching model based on the transportation principle. Moreover, to ensure that the fluid actors move as rigid bodies while preserving liquid properties during animation, we introduce an approach of driving solid-like liquid motion. Finally, we embed the skeleton-based control method into the standard fluid animation, and apply it to control fluid actors’ motion as well as liquid shape deformation. Experimental results show that our method can generate natural-looking interesting fluid behavior with little additional cost.