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VFX & Visual Effects Physics

The same algorithms that power Houdini, Blender and game engines — cloth on springs, SPH fluids, position-based fracture and volumetric fire — running live in your browser.

8 simulations WebGL · Three.js SPH · PBD · GLSL

Simulations

Open any simulation — runs instantly in your browser

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Popular★★☆ Moderate
3D Cloth Simulation
Mass-spring lattice with structural, shear and bending springs. Drag corners, drop on a sphere, adjust wind and stiffness — the same PBD technique used in game engines.
PBDSpringsThree.js
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Popular★★★ Advanced
SPH Fluid Simulation
8 000 particles governed by Navier–Stokes pressure and viscosity. The SPH solver is the same algorithm used in Houdini FLIP and Blender Mantaflow for fluid VFX.
SPHNavier-StokesWebGL
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★★☆ ModerateNew
Fire & Smoke Simulation
Buoyancy-driven vorticity-confined Eulerian fluid with temperature and fuel fields. Adjust ignition, drag and wind to sculpt photorealistic fire and volumetric smoke.
EulerianVorticityGLSL
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★★★ Advanced
Fracture & Destruction Physics
Voronoi fracture of 3D meshes with impulse-based constraint solving using Cannon-es. Break concrete pillars, glass panes and ceramic objects in real time.
VoronoiCannon-esImpulse
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★☆☆ Beginner
Fireworks Particle System
GPU-accelerated particle emitter with multi-stage burst explosions, trail attenuation and additive blending — one of the fundamental particle VFX techniques.
ParticlesAdditiveThree.js
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★★☆ Moderate
Sand & Granular Matter
Falling sand cellular automaton with multiple materials — sand, water, fire and oil interact. Demonstrates granular flow and angle-of-repose used in terrain VFX.
CAGranularGLSL
★☆☆ BeginnerNew
Magic Sand — Interactive Sandbox
Multi-material sandbox with topographic colour mapping. Draw terrain, pour water and watch erosion — inspired by augmented reality sandbox installations.
ErosionThree.jsTopo
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Popular★★☆ Moderate
Ocean Wave Shader
JONSWAP spectrum driving a Gerstner wave displacement shader in Three.js — exactly the technique used in AAA game water systems and film CGI ocean environments.
GLSLPBRGerstner

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About Visual Effects Simulations

Particles, fire, smoke, destruction, and cinematic physics — in WebGL

Visual effects simulations model the physical phenomena that VFX artists reproduce in film and games. Particle-system simulations emit sparks, embers, and debris from a point source with randomised initial velocity, gravity, drag, and life-span, producing fire, explosion, and magic effects through GPU-accelerated instanced rendering. SPH fluid simulations in a 3D box handle up to 50,000 particles at interactive frame rates, enabling dynamic water splashes and fluid destruction.

Smoke and volumetric-cloud simulations integrate Navier–Stokes' vorticity equations on a sparse voxel grid and render the resulting density field with ray-marching. Destruction simulations pre-fracture a rigid body into Voronoi cells and activate physics on impact, using impulse-based dynamics for the resulting debris. These are the same computational techniques underlying Houdini, Blender's MantaFlow, and Blizzard's physics-based destruction in games like Overwatch.

Each simulation in this category is built with accuracy and interactivity in mind. The underlying mathematical models are the same ones used in academic research and professional engineering — just made accessible through a web browser. Changing parameters in real time and observing the results is one of the most effective ways to build intuition for complex scientific and engineering concepts.

Key Concepts

Topics and algorithms you'll explore in this category

Cloth SimulationSpring-mass network with Verlet integration
SPH Fire & SmokeParticle-based combustion and buoyancy forces
Fracture PhysicsVoronoi decomposition and impulse-based shattering
Particle SystemsEmitters, forces, age-based colour and opacity
Procedural TexturesPerlin/Worley noise for fire, smoke, and clouds
Rigid Body DestructionImpulse fracture and debris physics

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about this simulation category

What VFX algorithms can I explore here?
Cloth simulation (spring-mass Verlet), SPH fire and smoke, Voronoi fracture physics, particle system emitters, procedural Perlin/Worley noise textures, and rigid-body destruction — the same algorithms powering Houdini and Blender.
How does the cloth simulation work?
Cloth is modelled as a spring-mass network. Structural springs resist stretching, shear springs resist diagonal deformation, and bend springs resist folding. Verlet integration updates positions each frame with wind and gravity forces.
What is Voronoi fracture in VFX?
A mesh is pre-fragmented along Voronoi cell boundaries stored as a convex hull set. On impact, an impulse propagates through the graph and breaks joints exceeding a strength threshold — producing physically plausible shattering patterns.