This was a project made for Debra Isaac and her work teaching science visualization at USC. The project is meant as an introduction to using different types of 3D simulations to create Nebula imagery.

The main principle of this project is to use fluid simulations to replicate the motion of bodies of gas and matter in space. I tried implementing similar things when trying to visualize accretion disks back when I started working in Houdini.

After doing the original fluid simulations, the points are converted into volumes. Depending on the scale and look you are going for this can then be further simulated with Houdini’s pyro solver to get a more natural dispersion of the gas.

For the final render I was interested in capturing a Stellar Nursery. In these nebulae the large amounts of gas lead to the formation of new stars as the gas collapses. So to represent stars within the large field of gas I did a final particle simulation to spread some bright points around. This would not be necessary or logical for all types of nebula.

Obviously though this is entirely an artistic work. Although the methods used take inspiration from science, this project was focused on the expression and awe rather then a more diagrammatic or data driven visualization.