Software Choice
I usually complete all the work almost entirely within SideFX Houdini, since it is what we use in work projects and what I am most comfortable with. Houdini is an amazing tool because it allows me to quickly prototype any idea I have and then, if I see potential, its procedural nature lets me quickly begin polishing that rough prototype.
The other great tool I’ve been using, and what drives the main simulation in this piece, is Theory Accelerated’s Paradigm solver by Matt Puchala. This is a GPU-accelerated fluid solver that is orders of magnitude faster than Houdini’s native FLIP solver. This plug-in has been a game changer for me since speed is very important when you are doing little experiments like these after work, simulating and rendering everything on a single computer.