Prince of Persia’s VFX Supervisor Ben Morris sits down with ArtOfVFX to discuss the creation of the many ‘sand’ sequences in the movie, as well as his background in the industry and tips for newcomers. I was personally surprised to find that the flowing sand was not generated with a fluid solver, but rather with geometric approximations.
The whole sequence was blocked out by the animators using geometric surfaces to represent the sand’s surface, we were able to get most of the key movement of the sand signed off in this way before an fx artist became involved. Once the layout of the shot had been finalized we had a custom plugin in Maya that took the animated geometric surfaces representing the sand and were able to produce a flow of particles that replaced the geometric surface in the final render. The plugin was able to create particle movement that appear fluid like and was dictated by the gradient of the under lying surface. Any additional flow detail could be controlled via maps, allowing the artist to quickly and visually paint the sand flow direction, including any turbulence and spay.
via The Art of VFX » PRINCE OF PERSIA: Ben Morris – VFX Supervisor – Framestore.
