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Snowflake simulated growth

Mac Version

Seed points are chosen to start the snowflake, and particles are allowed to random walk on a hexagonal grid until they hit a seed point. If enough particles hit the seed point, the snowflake grows in that point. Varying the number of particles necessary to grow the snowflake will change the characteristics of the growth from spiky to smooth. The third picture started out smooth, and varied to spiky, simulating a snowflake falling through different conditions within the atmosphere.

Seed points could be drawn by the user to create the desired crystal shape.

Using the grey-value at each point on the grid as a height value, the ice surface was imported into Maya and rendered using reflection and refraction.


References:

  • T. Kim, M. Lin, Visual Simulation of Ice Crystal Growth. Symposium on Computer Animation 2003.
  • T. Kim, M. Henson, M. Lin, A Hybrid Algorithm for Modeling Ice Formation. Symposium on Computer Animation 2004.
  • K. Libbrecht, V. Tanusheva, Cloud Chambers and Crystal Growth: Effects of Electrically Enhanced Diffusion on Dendrite Formation from Neutral Molecules. Physical Review E. 1998.