We present a technique for simulating underwater explosions using an animated volume control method that allows us to visually approximate the expansion and contraction of underwater explosions measured in existing literature. The foundation of this technique is a FLIP/APIC bubble simulation coupled with a surrounding sparsely allocated volumetric water field in a multi-phase solve. We achieve the desired compression and expansion effects by animating the target bubbles volume via adjusting the equilibrium FLIP particle counts per voxel. Adjusting bubble density with volume and adding surface tension improves the match to real world references. Because our method can be animated to any timing desired by the artist, it is more practical for achieving art-direction.

Sean Flynn, Alexey Stomakhin, Joel Wretborn, Daniel White

SIGGRAPH 2024 (Talks)