liquid contact meniscus

[smashley]

We are exploring fast methods for creating liquid contact meniscus on small items submerged in liquid (fruit in thick yogurt). Must withstand macro scrutiny. Trying to stay away from displacements. Any ideas out there? BTW, this is for an animation and not still (otherwise we'd model it out).

Thanks in advance,

-chad

[super gnu]

hmm well displacement would seem the obvious way to do it. why are you trying to avoid it? distance tex with a gradient ramp in mapped mode could maybe be used to generate the source.

[Dave_Wortley]

Can you find an image/video example of what you are trying to create?

[Raven]

If it needs to withstand micro scrutiny then, you need micro faces, so I would think the only way would be with displacement.
How has the liquid been created? Max geometry or liquid sim?

[smashley]

The liquid is alembic geo (exocortex) out of XSI, not simmed fluids. Trying to avoid displacement because they can be expensive (render wise). They may be unavoidable as the distance texture + grad method is all we are finding that gets us close. Thanks for your thoughts everyone! -chad