Procedural Cloudscapes

Antoine Webanck (1, 2) , Yann Cortial (1, 2) , Eric Guérin (1, 2) , Eric Galin (1, 2)

1 GeoMod - Modélisation Géométrique, Géométrie Algorithmique, Fractales
2 Université de Lyon

We present a phenomenological approach for modeling and animating cloudscapes. We propose a compact procedural model for representing the different types of cloud over a range of altitudes. We define primitive-based field functions that allow the user to control and author the cloud cover over large distances easily. Our approach allows us to animate cloudscapes by morphing: instead of simulating the evolution of clouds using a physically-based simulation, we compute the movement of clouds using key-frame interpolation and tackle the morphing problem as an Optimal Transport problem. The trajectories of the cloud cover primitives are generated by solving an Anisotropic Shortest Path problem with a cost function that takes into account the elevation of the terrain and the parameters of the wind field.

Keywords: procedural animation; implicit surfaces; morphing; volumetric models; clouds; procedural modeling

Domains: Graphics [cs.GR]

Antoine Webanck, Yann Cortial, Eric Guérin, Eric Galin. Procedural Cloudscapes. Computer Graphics Forum, 2018, 37 (2), pp.431--442. ⟨10.1111/cgf.13373⟩. ⟨hal-01730789⟩