Fluid Dynamcis and Flash

David Ellenwood

Hello,

I'm shooting in the dark right now, but I'm looking for a way to generate "realistic" fluids in a Flash animation that I am working on. I know nothing about fluid dynamics nor do I even know if I am looking in the right place.

My ideas is as follows: a simple rectangle (Flash movie) containing 2 to 3 ribbon-like shapes that flow from the left to right side of the Flash movie. These ribbons would behave and feel much like a heavy oil or honey being poured--very viscous but still very fluid. I would like these ribbons (streams) to be as much like the real thing as possible in terms of size, shape, shifts, etc. I'm not concerned with physical color, reflections, etc.

Here's where I need help: I'm sure that I can draw basic shapes with Action Script (Flash's programming language) and then control them by an algorithm that would control the sizes, shapes, movements, etc of each shape (stream). I need help setting up that algorithm so that it can be implemented in Flash. To help visualize my idea take a look at this image: http://www.essentiastudios.com/image...bmail_logo.jpg The white bands are what I would like to animate.

Any help or direction would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time,

David Ellenwood