Ferrofluid Magnetic Spikes

Ferrofluids are colloidal suspensions of nanoscale magnetite particles that sprout the characteristic Rosensweig spike pattern when a strong external magnetic field overcomes surface tension. Here a high-subdivision icosahedron is displaced per-vertex in a custom GLSL vertex shader, using a sum of pointed inverse-square falloff fields from three orbiting virtual magnets. Surface normals are reconstructed by finite-difference sampling of the field so the metallic clearcoat material still shades correctly.

Mesh vertices
~55K (subdiv 96)
Dust particles
1200
Technique
Vertex shader displacement
Magnet sources
3 orbiting
Material
Physical clearcoat
1.0
4.0
1.0