Chromatic fluid guide

Every control

Every control in the panel, top to bottom. Drag on the picture to push the fluid; Force radius and Force strength shape that push.

Load and save

They stay at the top while the panel scrolls. Your pictures stay on this device for every lab tool until you press × on a tile; Reset puts the controls back and leaves them.

Image AButton
Your picture, the colours the fluid carries. Press it to open one from your device, or drop one on the frame; two at once fill A and B. It is kept on this device, never uploaded, and every lab tool that takes a picture opens with it until you press × on its corner.
SwapButton
Changes which tile Chromatic fluid uses, so a picture you added as B in another tool can be used here. When the other tile is empty, the picture the page opens with comes back.
Image BButton
A second kept picture. Chromatic fluid stirs one picture at a time: the tile it is not using is dimmed and says Not used here, and pressing it only says so.
Try with sampleButton
Loads the small AIKIZI mark as the picture.
Export PNGButton
Saves the picture as chromatic-fluid.png.
Record videoButton
Starts recording the moving picture. Press it again, now named Stop recording, to save the video. See record video.
CopyButton
Copies the picture to the clipboard.

Image

A line shows the size of the picture and the size the fluid is worked out at.

Fluid physics

ViscositySlider · 0 to 0.001 · starts at 0.0003
How thick the fluid is. Each frame the flow is smoothed toward its neighbours, so higher values calm the small swirls and the colours move together, like oil. At 0 the fluid is as thin as it gets. See viscosity.
Velocity dissipationSlider · 0.9 to 1 · starts at 0.98
How much of its speed the fluid keeps each frame. At 1 it never slows down; lower settles sooner. See dissipation.
Color dissipationSlider · 0.9 to 1 · starts at 0.995
How much of its colour the picture keeps each frame. Lower fades the colours to black sooner.
Pressure iterationsSlider · 5 to 40 · starts at 20
How many passes the pressure step makes each frame. More keeps the water from piling up more exactly, and is slower. See Jacobi iteration.
CurlSlider · 0 to 50 · starts at 15
How strongly small swirls are fed back into the flow. At 0 there is none. See vorticity.

Interaction

Force radiusSlider · 0.01 to 0.15 · starts at 0.04
How wide each push is, for your drag and for Auto-stir. See force radius and splat.
Force strengthSlider · 1 to 50 · starts at 15
How hard each push is, for your drag, Auto-stir and Stir all.
Inject colorOn or off · starts on
Adds a little colour where you push, as well as moving the colours already there.
Color fromPick one · Image · Solid · Rainbow
Where that added colour comes from.
  • Image: The colour of your picture at that spot. See colour from image.
  • Solid: The one colour set in Solid color.
  • Rainbow: A colour that moves round the colour wheel over time and across the frame.
Solid colorColour · starts #FF7A7A
The colour added when Color from is Solid.

Animation

Auto-stirOn or off · starts on
Pushes the fluid at random places on its own. See auto-stir.
Stir rateSlider · 1 to 20 · starts at 6
How often Auto-stir pushes. Higher is more often.
GravitySlider · -0.005 to 0.005 · starts at 0
A steady pull on the whole fluid: right of 0 pulls down, left of 0 pulls up, like rising smoke. At 0 there is none. The Smoke preset sets it just below 0. See gravity.
WindSlider · -0.005 to 0.005 · starts at 0
A steady sideways push on the whole fluid. Above 0 it blows right, below 0 left. See wind.

Visualization

This section starts closed. Tap its title to open it.

Show velocityOn or off · starts off
Colours the picture by the way the fluid moves, and brighter where it moves faster. See velocity field.
BloomSlider · 0 to 1 · starts at 0
A soft glow around the brightest colours. At 0 there is none. See bloom.
BackgroundPick one · Black · Original · Custom
What shows where the colours have faded dark.
  • Black: The dark stays dark.
  • Original: A dim copy of your picture shows through.
  • Custom: The colour set in Background color shows through.
Background colorColour · starts #08080A
The colour that shows through when Background is Custom.

Presets

A preset sets every slider in Fluid physics, Interaction and Animation, plus Auto-stir and Bloom. The sliders glide to their new values over a moment.

Watercolor · Ink in water · Oil paint · Lava lamp · Hurricane · Calm pool · Chaos · SmokePick one
Starting points for the flow.
  • Watercolor: Thick fluid, wide, soft pushes, a slow stir, colours that last and a light glow.
  • Ink in water: Thin, quick fluid with strong swirls, colour that fades sooner and a light downward pull.
  • Oil paint: The thickest fluid: slow, lasting motion with few swirls. Auto-stir is off, so you stir by hand.
  • Lava lamp: Wide pushes, strong swirls, a slow stir, a light downward pull and a strong glow.
  • Hurricane: The strongest swirls, big hard pushes and a fast stir.
  • Calm pool: Gentle pushes, weak swirls and a slow stir that settles quickly.
  • Chaos: Motion that never slows, the hardest pushes, the fastest stir, gravity, wind and a strong glow.
  • Smoke: Strong swirls, a light upward pull, a slight wind to the right and a glow.

Actions

Stir allButton
Gives the whole frame twenty strong pushes at once, at random places.
Reset colorsButton
Brings your picture back as it was and stills the water. Your settings stay.
Clear velocityButton
Stops all motion. The colours stay where they are. See clear velocity.

Reset

Your picture stays, and the colours start again from it.

ResetButton
Puts every setting back to how the page opened and starts the colours again from your picture.