NNenov

I just tried putting a few drops of isopropanol in a shallow layer of water and it was very surprising! I've never done that before! I understand what was happening there.. But obviously they are both transparent, I tried it in some milk and got some very interesting effects indeed. Its a shame the turbulence only lasts for a few seconds.. I wonder why that is.. I think I'm going to stick with milk as the opaque substance, because of its colour it diffuses light off its surface defining its form rather than a black/translucent silhouette. thanks again

Thanks Suxamethonium! That's a lot of great suggestions for me to experiment with. I have some isopropanol and white spirit, would these be good for the surface effect? (going to try that now) The boiled water idea sounds really great, but ideally I'd like one of the substances to be as opaque as possible and the other transparent, so I can get interesting lighting effects. I found that food colouring is too translucent. About immiscible fluids, I agree it would need to be very finely disturbed, otherwise the blobs would be way too large to get any detail. That's a great idea about increasing the viscosity of the water with sugar. Thanks again!

I almost posted this in the physics forum but I realised that what I am ultimately looking for is a type of substance to use, and the way it behaves will be down to its chemical make-up. I am not a scientist, my only knowledge is from tv documentaries. I am an animator working on a personal project and I wanted to film some liquids interacting. My problem is that I want to film the same type of turbulence as what you see when you pour milk into a cup of tea. The problem is that the turbulent forms which the milk makes are on a scale far too large for the effect I am aiming for, I need the same effect but much more detailed, with intricate micro scale vortices. This is where I get stuck, I dont need the effect to have depth, it can be a surface effect, like the turbulence on the surface of a soap bubble, but the problem is that it has be on a scale which complies with the FOV of my camera and the distance it focuses at for super macro. This means the area I have to work with effectively is about 10 x 10cm. Any suggestions on the types of liquid mixtures I can use to get extremely detailed turbulence effects would be great, I was thinking that the viscosity of the liquid would play a major role, the temperature too.. I think the rainbow-like streaks you see in puddles from diesel are also an option, but they need to have very specific lighting to be filmed effectively.. Give me some suggestions and feel free to ask me to elaborate further if you need to! I've just been in the chartroom and got some great suggestions from Schroedingers_hat to help me understand what I'm looking for. Its immiscible liquids, but which ones would be best, I am not sure.. Also I had pearling agent suggested to me and organic liquids..

Hi, I am an artist and animator, and I hope to find some some scientists who are interested in having their ideas visualised. I am also unemployed, so I would be interested in any job opportunities. My work can be seen here on my website: http://nnenov.eu/