Sergey Kharitonov, whose work on small-scale liquid simulations we’ve featured before, has presented a new water simulation setup and shared insights into his approach.
Adding water droplets to close-up renders is a popular technique for boosting visual interest and making objects appear more dynamic and detailed. While creating static droplets on a surface is relatively straightforward, even for beginners, animating them to move realistically across surfaces is a much more complex challenge.
As Sergey mentioned, he personally considers two existing methods to be among the most realistic: a procedural tool developed by José Mauro Lobão and an X-Particles rig for Cinema4D created by Sam Tato. There’s also a built-in Houdini shelf tool located under Particle Fluids – Condensation, but he finds it relatively slow and difficult to control, likely due to its reliance on the FLIP solver at its core. The artist decided to take on the challenge and build a version entirely from scratch. Here’s the algorithm he followed: