Liquid simulation made of 7 million particles
Personal project, 2025 – simulated in Houdini, rendered with Octane Render in Cinema 4D.
About the project
This personal project from 2025 is a test of large particle counts. The goal was to render a liquid simulation made entirely of millions of individual particles – around 7 million in this case.
At that scale, individual points merge into a continuous mass that behaves like a liquid. That boundary between particle animation and fluid simulation is what the project explores.
Technique
The simulation was built in Houdini. The particle data was exported as an Alembic cache and brought into Cinema 4D, where lighting, materials and camera were set up and the image was rendered with Octane Render.
The Alembic workflow keeps simulation and rendering cleanly separated: Houdini handles the physics, Cinema 4D and Octane handle the look. This makes it possible to work with scenes of several million particles in a familiar rendering environment.
More stills
