Creating a "Solar Wind" Similar to Asteroid 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Support Particles and Physics Simulations
1

Hello there!

I’m working on a Project where a spaceship is getting very close to the Sun. It’s a photorealistic animation, part of my diploma film on the filmschool in Lodz, Poland.

I’m asking because I’m now at a total loss on how to do it, having tried my best to solve it on my own. Perhaps some geniuses here can chip in?

Describing the effect:
It’s sort as if someone getting bombarded with luminous particles, the particles having a slightly wavy nature, and they deflect in a magnetic fashion around the ship/character. Think something like the northern lights. Charged particles getting excited and illuminates close to charged object. Another way to describe it: Ghostly lightbeams waving and bending around a person/ship.

some examples:

ooComet_on_6_February_2015.jpg945×680 122 KB

Similar to the above image, just that the light source are the particles themselves. And they slightly bend around the ship.

I have played with physics and particles, but they don’t seem to get there all the way. Mainly because of the amount of particles require to achieve a smooth lighting effect. Here is as close as I’ve gotten.

TRFuJA1.png968×545 335 KB

This is a beam of particles hitting an invisible cube, that has a force field applied to its geometry. Theres about 1 million of them, the cache weighing 4gb. The particles are small cubes with a glossy shader on them, getting hit by a sun lamp.

Anyone? Achieving a smooth simulated stream? Perhaps a kind of volume shader mixed in with some particles?

Thanks for any help or advice! Cheers!

2

If you’re going for photorealism, don’t do this with a spaceship. The jets on that comet are caused by ice sublimating and shooting off into space. A spaceship won’t do that unless it’s leaking/venting gas or burning its engines. Instead, I’d base it more on a spacecraft entering a planet’s atmosphere.

I’m asking because I’m now at a total loss on how to do it, having tried my best to solve it on my own. Perhaps some geniuses here can chip in?

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This is a beam of particles hitting an invisible cube, that has a force field applied to its geometry. Theres about 1 million of them, the cache weighing 4gb. The particles are small cubes with a glossy shader on them, getting hit by a sun lamp.

Anyone? Achieving a smooth simulated stream? Perhaps a kind of volume shader mixed in with some particles?

Thanks for any help or advice! Cheers!

Try blowing some smoke at it, instead of using particles. It’ll act like gas flowing past the ship, and you can apply a color ramp to make it look like plasma.