With this project I wanted to create a lava lamp effect. I started off with a sphere SOP and rendered it, then applied a colour ramp and lookup TOP to colour the render and create colour variances and highlights. I then used a displace TOP to displace the render against a noise TOP translating using the absTime.seconds expression. This noise displacement created the slow moving liquid effect.
With this effect achieved I duplicated the rendered sphere, applied separate colour ramps, and noise TOPs, to create the 3 columns of the lava lamp. I then added a secondary light source below the render, a mostly transparent colour ramp to create a glassy look, and a transparent random noise TOP to create a film grain effect. Finally I began experimenting with the input shape to be rendered. I added a switch, and changed/added the input SOPs to include; concentric circles, a torus, a hollow tube, and a text.
