Basic Model of Particle Systems
A particle system is a collection of many minute particles that model some object. For each frame of an animation sequence the following steps are performed:
New particles are generated
Each new particle is assigned its own set of attributes
Any particles that have existed for a predetermined time are destroyed
The remaining particles are transformed and moved according to their dynamic attributes
An image of the remaining particles is rendered
Since the creation and attributes of the particles are procedural, these can be the results of other computations, e.g. from science or engineering. This paper describes one way in which these particles can be generated and assigned attributes - using stochastic means.