Divergence-Free Copy-Paste For Fluid Animation Using Stokes Interpolation

Jiamin Shi, Christopher Batty

Keywords: fluid simulation, reusing fluid animations, incompressible Navier-Stokes equations, interpolating velocity fields

TL;DR: We propose a copy-paste editing operation for fluid animations by solving Stokes flow problems.

Abstract: Traditional grid-based fluid simulation is often difficult to control and costly to perform. Therefore, the ability to reuse previously computed simulation data is a tantalizing idea that would have significant benefits to artists and end-users of fluid animation tools. We introduce a remarkably simple yet effective copy-and-paste methodology for fluid animation that allows direct reuse of existing simulation data by smoothly combining two existing simulation data sets together. The method makes use of a steady Stokes solver to determine an appropriate transition velocity field across a blend region between an existing simulated outer target domain and a region of flow copied from a source simulation. While prior work suffers from non-divergence and associated compression artifacts, our approach always yields divergence-free velocity fields, yet also ensures an optimally smooth blend between the two input flows.

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