The Art of Fluid Animation

by Jos Stam

Fluid simulation is a computer graphic used to develop realistic animation of liquids in modern games. The Art of Fluid Animation describes visually rich techniques for creating fluid-like animations that do not require advanced physics or mathematical skills. It explains how to create fluid animations like water, smoke, fire, and explosions through computer code in a fun manner. The book presents concepts that drive fluid animation and gives a historical background of the computation of fluids. It covers many research areas that include stable fluid simulation, flows on surfaces, and control of flows. It also gives one-paragraph summaries of the material after each section for reinforcement. This book includes computer code that readers can download and run on several platforms so they can extend their work beyond what is described in the book. The material provided here is designed to serve as a starting point for aspiring programmers to begin creating their own programs using fluid animation.

257 pages, Paperback

First published December 23, 2015

Reviews

[Bill Hsu]

This has to be the most entertaining book on fluid dynamics/animation, ever. It's hard to tell who the intended audience is though. If a reader needs an explanation of basic vectors, s/he probably can't follow derivations like Fick's laws? (Love that name, Fick.)

But Stam is almost constantly wacky. The book is peppered with quotes like:

This is a common experience when one is relieving oneself in a urinal.

Then he goes on to explain shotgunning a can of beer.

[Douglas Summers-Stay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first encountered Jos Stam's work in about 2002. His code was easy enough to understand that I used it to write my own fluid animation using OpenGL. There was a tutorial in Gamasutra, I think, about using his ideas applied to fabric animation, which I used to make an interactive quilt, before such things were widely used in games.
This book is written in a fun, easy to follow style, that would have really made me like it in high school. But though he tries to write it for everyone, explaining some very elementary concepts, it's actually not going to be of much use, because it is so spotty in what it covers and doesn't cover. He has some C code that he's very proud of, but it would be better if it were twice as long and in Python, and included some well named variables and comments so that it was easier to follow instead of just making it efficient and short.
Jos Stam later programmed the fluid simulations in Maya (the 3D animation software) that were used for cloud, fire, and fluid effects in a lot of big movies like Lord of the Rings in the 2000s.