Feedback control of cumuliform cloud formation based on computational fluid dynamics

Clouds play an important role for creating realistic images of outdoor scenes. In order to generate realistic clouds, many methods have been developed for modeling and animating clouds. One of the most effective approaches for synthesizing realistic clouds is to simulate cloud formation processes based on the atmospheric fluid dynamics. Although this approach can create realistic clouds, the resulting shapes and motion depend on many simulation parameters and the initial status. Therefore, it is very difficult to adjust those parameters so that the clouds form the desired shapes. This paper addresses this problem and presents a method for controlling the simulation of cloud formation. In this paper, we focus on controlling cumuliform cloud formation. The user specifies the overall shape of the clouds. Then, our method automatically adjusts parameters during the simulation in order to generate clouds forming the specified shape. Our method can generate realistic clouds while their shapes closely match to the desired shape.