Simulating Caustics due to Liquid-Solid Interface Menisci

Abstract

A solid partially immersed in a liquid creates a local deformation of the liquid surface at their interface. This deformation, called a meniscus, exhibits high curvature, and as such, produces very intriguing caustic patterns. However, this natural phenomena has been neglected in almost all previous liquid simulation techniques. We propose a complete solution to model and render meniscal illumination effects. First, we outline a physicallymotivated approach to approximating the geometry of the meniscus. We then describe the targeted photon map, an adapted photon map which facilitates efficient sampling of the finely tessellated menisci. This technique, which integrates well within traditional photon mapping, allows for automatically rendering illumination effects for complex solid-liquid interfaces. Several images rendered using this technique are presented and are compared to their real-world counterparts.