I’m sure most people have seen movies such as “Monsters Inc” and “Shrek”.  If you haven’t I REALLY recommend that you do, they are fantastic!  What both of these movies have in common is that the final product was created entirely inside a computer.  Well actually a whole lot of computers, but who’s counting?.  A feature length computer animated movie was all but unimaginable until fairly recently, due largely to the enormous cost and the lack of computing power and resources.  But now, thanks to modern technology, computer animated movies are a reality.  In fact, there are a few full time computer animation studios around the world, such as Pixar and Dreamworks.

In the world of animated cartoons and movies, it is usual for the animators to ignore the way the real world works.  This may be why they are so damn funny.  For example, the classic case is a character that runs off a cliff, yet does not fall.  Not until he realizes what he has done and makes a pathetic and amusing attempt to run back to the cliff, at which point he disappears off the bottom of the screen leaving a small puff of smoke behind.  In the new world of computer animation however the animators have taken a different approach.  They have decided to head into the world of physically based modeling, that is they attempt to simulate how the real world works.

This article will attempt to introduce one particular physically based model that helps animators simulate many different aspects of the real world.  In fact, this modeling technique if utilized correctly can also be of great use to scientists, engineers etc.  This modeling technique is known as a particle system.