Field Animation

Abstract

Vector fields visualization is quite common in many scientific disciplines and many methods have been developed for this purpose. Python is probably the ideal glue language to write applications that exploit the capabilities of modern graphic cards through the Open Graphics Library. A brief introduction to Python and OpenGL will preface our approach in writing easily reusable code to create a Python package to represent vector fields through particles that move along the flow lines of the field at a speed and color proportional to its modulus. An example application will be shown to illustrate how interactive control of speed, color and number of animated particles is possible as the whole rendering process happens in the GPU in real time. A background image can be shown to add information for the interpretation of the results. Keywords: Python, OpenGL, Vector field, Animation