Real-Time Physics Simulation Forum

Hello,

i am currently working on a project with goal the simulation of clay modeling (not sculpting as this is the same in my mind as terrain deformation). For example if the user decides to apply pressure on the bottom of clay some mass should be transfered upwards.

At first i thought that some good parameterized soft bodies would do the work. I tried to play a bit with the demo source of soft bodies and i have some questions. Can a soft body through parameterization loose it's elasticity but still achieve volume preservation (not shape)?

If anyone has some experience with this subject i would appreciate his answer.

It is probably possible to apply large damping on soft bodies deformations (but not global motion), to achieve some kind of Clay like behavior, but it is currently not implemented.

Clay behave very much like an highly viscous fluid, with very little elastic forces, so, my guess is smoothed particle hydrodynamic with the right set of smoothing kernels could be used.
try looking at http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/labs/infogr ... S/pvfs.pdf, basic SPH (smoothed particle hydrodynamic) is easy to implement, so it may be worth a try.

Alternatively, http://physbam.stanford.edu/~fedkiw/pap ... 007-01.pdf, basically enforce divergence free velocities over a tetrahedral mesh, that could probably suit your needs, I am not sure about the real time part through...

Hope it help,
Nathanael.