Liquid Simulation Series: Hornitos Tequila part 4

The texture and lighting of the elements in this piece added the final flourish.  The glossy bottle, the smooth tequila, the shiny metal and the crackling ice set in a pure, dark atmosphere set a somewhat seductive mood that the team achieved through compositing several render passes.  Take a look below!

 

This wraps up our Liquid Simulation series for now.  S&M has a lot of great work coming up which means more 'behind the scenes' soon.  Watch this space!

Liquid Simulation Series: Hornitos Tequila part 3

Having recently finished simulating the surging dam and its conglomeration of splashes for Mountain Dew, the work for Hornitos seemed almost easy.  However, creating the smooth, sultry flow of tequila presented its own challenges.

Taking the physically accurate model of the Hornitos bottle seen in the previous post, the team filled it with fluid particles.  Because the shot required the tequila to pour from the tilted bottle, the primary challenge was getting the pressure pockets of air to travel through the neck of the bottle to convincingly create the ‘glugging’ of effect of liquid pouring through a constricted pathway.  Having ironed out this detail, the team applied the proper viscosity to the liquid and then subjected it to other physical properties including gravity and noise to give it believable flow and movement. 

Cascading across the embossed, channeled surface, the liquid needed to feel light and delicate.  Because the shot was quite close up, the spacing of the particles became an issue as, at that close viewing range, the particles were too far apart to be construed as a proper viscous liquid.  To ameliorate this issue, the team multiplied the resolution of the particles by a factor of 20 helping them achieve a more convincing result.

This shot of the tequila filling in the horns was the most complex of the entire spot.  To accomplish the desired aesthetic with proper splashes, the team composed the main fluid with several smaller simulations.  This allowed them to more easily tweak various locations of the fluid.  The simulation was run at a higher frame rate than the rest of the spot, essentially slowing the simulation to allow for greater control over the splashes.  The simulated particles then had to be pushed back the proper frame rate; NextLimit’s new particle retiming tool within RealFlow became indispensible in this situation. Once the main simulation was complete, the team continued to introduce new fluid systems to fill in the gaps within the horns.

After modeling all of the elements and perfecting the liquid simulation, the last step in creating this spot was lighting and rendering.  Check back tomorrow for the last post!

Liquid Simulation Series: Hornitos Tequila part 2

Before approaching the tequila simulation, the team first needed to create the rest of the elements in the spot: the Hornitos Tequila bottle, the grooved surface through which the liquid cascades and lastly the icy horns that fill up with the flowing tequila.  These pieces were necessary to complete the simulation and would also be featured in the final piece.

The first and easiest element for the team was the Hornitos Tequila Bottle.  Seen grayscale and partly textured here, it was eventually properly textured, lit and rendered to create a photoreal bottle.

Next came furrowed surface over which the tequila would flow.  With the embossed text, "double distilled", and the shallow grooves, these elements added points of interest to the visual as they would interrupt the smooth flow of the tequila simulation.  Meant to be a shiny metallic surface, the team also included various knicks and grooves along the channels to give the element a slightly aged, more compelling feel.  

Most engaging for the team in terms of modeling was to create was the set of icy horns that fill with the pouring tequila.   Dictating a more organic aesthetic, these horns were sculpted using MudBox.  This allowed the team to more easily form the various imperfections illustrative of actual ice.  Of course it would take the proper texture and lighting to fully achieve realism, but that will be approached in a later post.

With all the CG elements created, the next challenge was going into RealFlow to simulate the flow of the tequila.  Check back tomorrow for more on the tequila simulation process!