Chromatic fluid guide

Overview

Chromatic fluid lets you stir a picture like dye in water.

Teal, violet and blue colours of the sample picture swirled like dye in water
The sample picture a few seconds after the page opens, with Auto-stir on.

Your picture becomes dye floating on water. Drag across it and the water moves, carrying the colours with it.

Every frame, the tool works through the Navier–Stokes equations on a grid: the flow carries itself and the colours along (advection), a pressure step keeps the water from piling up, and curl confinement keeps the small swirls alive.

All of it runs on your GPU. You can keep a PNG of the picture, or record the moving fluid as a video.

Open Chromatic fluid Start here

In this guide

  1. StartWhat you need and your first swirl in five steps.
  2. Every controlEvery control in the panel, one line each.
  3. Three looksThree pictures and the settings that made them.
  4. Keep your workThe PNG, the copy and the video.
  5. HelpWhat to do when something goes wrong.

It runs in your browser with WebGL 2. Nothing is uploaded. A mouse, a trackpad and a finger all work.