drawing water particles in a water column - tikz

Question

I am trying to generate a figure that shows various water particles in a water column where the particles are moving chaotically driven by the cooling and heating of water. So far I have generated an idealized water column with 3 spheres used to represent the water particles.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[margin = 1in]{geometry}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{decorations.pathmorphing,calc,shapes,shapes.geometric,patterns}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\shade[bottom color=cyan!60!black, top color=blue!20!white] (0,0) rectangle (4,5);
\foreach \x in {1,1.2,1.4}
\shade[ball color = cyan!20!white] (\x,3) circle (.1);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

enter image description here

However, this seems really unimaginative and I was hoping if anyone had some advice on how o improve the figure from the description given above.

So you want some random particles at random places? There is a great example about random drawings in the manual. See about the function rnd. When, I get off, I will create one for you. :) — nickpapior, Mar 08 '13 at 11:48
And also http://tex.stackexchange.com/q/98754/18674 might be of interest... — Benedikt Bauer, Mar 08 '13 at 13:17
What do you mean by water particles? Do you mean individually water molecules? The water molecules is what water is. -and they can not in any way be viewed as spheres in a liquid. — hpekristiansen, Mar 10 '13 at 16:32
Well I am trying to draw an annotated diagram of convective mixing in a water body where mixing is driven by the cooling of the water particles (where a they cool and become denser the sink and mix the water column). — KatyB, Mar 10 '13 at 18:10

score 22 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:35

I don't know how much this will get the point, however this is what I imagined the OP had in mind:

enter image description here

Some references for the code:

the water shading is taken from one of the definitions in How can we draw Christmas animations with TikZ? as well as the water color;
the visibility of the particles is realized combining the approaches of Mindmap tikzpicture in beamer (reveal step by step) and Highlighting in Beamer using TikZ nodes;
for what concern the background shade style used by default, it has been necessary to disable the shading: the method used is taken from Jake's answer TikZ/PGF - switching off shading.

The idea behind all is to have more particles moving around the hot area, gradually less in the warm area and less in the cold area.

The code:

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{lmodern,tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{shapes.geometric}

\makeatletter
% original code in
% https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/88040/how-can-we-draw-christmas-animations-with-tikz#88042

\pgfdeclareradialshading[tikz@ball]{water}{\pgfpoint{-0.15cm}{0.4cm}}{%
  rgb(0cm)=(1,1,1);
  color(0.35cm)=(tikz@ball!35!white); 
  color(0.75cm)=(tikz@ball!80!white); 
  rgb(1cm)=(1,1,1)
}
\tikzoption{water color}{\pgfutil@colorlet{tikz@ball}{#1}\def\tikz@shading{water}\tikz@addmode{\tikz@mode@shadetrue}}

% original code by Jake:
% https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/85743/tikz-pgf-switching-off-shading#85750
\def\tikz@falsetext{false}
\tikzset{
    shade/.code={
        \edef\tikz@temp{#1}%
        \ifx\tikz@temp\tikz@falsetext%
            \tikz@addmode{\tikz@mode@shadefalse}%
        \else%  
            \tikz@addmode{\tikz@mode@shadetrue}%
        \fi
    }
}
\makeatother

% original code by Daniel:
% https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/55806/tikzpicture-in-beamer#55849
\tikzset{
    invisible/.style={opacity=0,text opacity=0},
    visible on/.style={alt=#1{}{invisible}},
    alt/.code args={<#1>#2#3}{%
      \alt<#1>{\pgfkeysalso{#2}}{\pgfkeysalso{#3}} 
    },
}
% original code in
% https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/84513/highlighting-in-beamer-using-tikz-nodes#84608
\tikzset{
  background shade/.style={#1},
  background shade/.default={shade=false},
  shade on/.style={alt=#1{}{background shade}},
}


\tikzset{water cold particle/.style={
    circle,
    inner sep=2pt, 
    background shade={shading=water,water color=blue!30!white}   
  },
  water warm particle/.style={
    circle,
    inner sep=2pt, 
    background shade={shading=water,water color=blue!40!cyan!80!black}   
  },
  water hot particle/.style={
    circle,
    inner sep=2pt, 
    background shade={shading=water,water color=cyan!60!black}   
  },  
}
\begin{document}
\begin{frame}{}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\node[draw,cylinder,
  minimum width=4.25cm,
  minimum height=5.65cm,
  shape border rotate=90,
  aspect=1,
  bottom color=cyan!60!black, 
  top color=blue!20!white,
  anchor=after bottom] 
  at (-0.1,-0.1){};

\foreach \hotparticles in {1,...,70}{
  \pgfmathrandom{}
  \pgfmathsetmacro\xpos{4*\pgfmathresult}
  \pgfmathrandom{}
  \pgfmathsetmacro\ypos{2*\pgfmathresult}

  \pgfmathrandom{1,2}
  \let\seqa\pgfmathresult
  \pgfmathrandom{3,5} 
  \let\seqb\pgfmathresult
  \pgfmathrandom{4,7}
  \let\seqc\pgfmathresult
  \pgfmathrandom{7,9}
  \let\seqd\pgfmathresult
  \node[water hot particle,shade on=<{\seqa,\seqb,\seqc,\seqd}>] at (\xpos,\ypos) {};
}
\foreach \warmparticles in {1,...,45}{
  \pgfmathrandom{}
  \pgfmathsetmacro\xpos{4*\pgfmathresult}
  \pgfmathrandom{}
  \pgfmathsetmacro\ypos{2*\pgfmathresult+1.5}
  \pgfmathrandom{1,3}
  \let\seqa\pgfmathresult
  \pgfmathrandom{4,6} 
  \let\seqb\pgfmathresult  
  \pgfmathrandom{7,9} 
  \let\seqc\pgfmathresult 
  \node[water warm particle,shade on=<{\seqa,\seqb,\seqc}>] at (\xpos,\ypos) {};
}

\foreach \coldparticles in {1,...,25}{
  \pgfmathrandom{}
  \pgfmathsetmacro\xpos{4*\pgfmathresult}
  \pgfmathrandom{}
  \pgfmathsetmacro\ypos{2*\pgfmathresult+3}
  \pgfmathrandom{1,5}
  \let\seqa\pgfmathresult
  \pgfmathrandom{4,9} 
  \let\seqb\pgfmathresult  
  \node[water cold particle,shade on=<{\seqa,\seqb}>] at (\xpos,\ypos) {};
}

\end{tikzpicture}
\end{frame}
\end{document}

First version without shape

enter image description here

The code:

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{lmodern,tikz}

\makeatletter
% original code in
% https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/88040/how-can-we-draw-christmas-animations-with-tikz#88042

\pgfdeclareradialshading[tikz@ball]{water}{\pgfpoint{-0.15cm}{0.4cm}}{%
  rgb(0cm)=(1,1,1);
  color(0.35cm)=(tikz@ball!35!white); 
  color(0.75cm)=(tikz@ball!80!white); 
  rgb(1cm)=(1,1,1)
}
\tikzoption{water color}{\pgfutil@colorlet{tikz@ball}{#1}\def\tikz@shading{water}\tikz@addmode{\tikz@mode@shadetrue}}

% original code by Jake:
% https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/85743/tikz-pgf-switching-off-shading#85750
\def\tikz@falsetext{false}
\tikzset{
    shade/.code={
        \edef\tikz@temp{#1}%
        \ifx\tikz@temp\tikz@falsetext%
            \tikz@addmode{\tikz@mode@shadefalse}%
        \else%  
            \tikz@addmode{\tikz@mode@shadetrue}%
        \fi
    }
}
\makeatother

% original code by Daniel:
% https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/55806/tikzpicture-in-beamer#55849
\tikzset{
    invisible/.style={opacity=0,text opacity=0},
    visible on/.style={alt=#1{}{invisible}},
    alt/.code args={<#1>#2#3}{%
      \alt<#1>{\pgfkeysalso{#2}}{\pgfkeysalso{#3}} 
    },
}
% original code in
% https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/84513/highlighting-in-beamer-using-tikz-nodes#84608
\tikzset{
  background shade/.style={#1},
  background shade/.default={shade=false},
  shade on/.style={alt=#1{}{background shade}},
}


\tikzset{water cold particle/.style={
    circle,
    inner sep=2pt, 
    background shade={shading=water,water color=blue!30!white}   
  },
  water warm particle/.style={
    circle,
    inner sep=2pt, 
    background shade={shading=water,water color=blue!40!cyan!80!black}   
  },
  water hot particle/.style={
    circle,
    inner sep=2pt, 
    background shade={shading=water,water color=cyan!60!black}   
  },  
}
\begin{document}
\begin{frame}{}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\shade[bottom color=cyan!60!black, top color=blue!20!white] (-0.1,-0.1) rectangle (4.1,5.1);

\foreach \hotparticles in {1,...,70}{
  \pgfmathrandom{}
  \pgfmathsetmacro\xpos{4*\pgfmathresult}
  \pgfmathrandom{}
  \pgfmathsetmacro\ypos{2*\pgfmathresult}

  \pgfmathrandom{1,2}
  \let\seqa\pgfmathresult
  \pgfmathrandom{3,5} 
  \let\seqb\pgfmathresult
  \pgfmathrandom{4,7}
  \let\seqc\pgfmathresult
  \pgfmathrandom{7,9}
  \let\seqd\pgfmathresult
  \node[water hot particle,shade on=<{\seqa,\seqb,\seqc,\seqd}>] at (\xpos,\ypos) {};
}
\foreach \warmparticles in {1,...,45}{
  \pgfmathrandom{}
  \pgfmathsetmacro\xpos{4*\pgfmathresult}
  \pgfmathrandom{}
  \pgfmathsetmacro\ypos{2*\pgfmathresult+1.5}
  \pgfmathrandom{1,3}
  \let\seqa\pgfmathresult
  \pgfmathrandom{4,6} 
  \let\seqb\pgfmathresult  
  \pgfmathrandom{7,9} 
  \let\seqc\pgfmathresult 
  \node[water warm particle,shade on=<{\seqa,\seqb,\seqc}>] at (\xpos,\ypos) {};
}

\foreach \coldparticles in {1,...,25}{
  \pgfmathrandom{}
  \pgfmathsetmacro\xpos{4*\pgfmathresult}
  \pgfmathrandom{}
  \pgfmathsetmacro\ypos{2*\pgfmathresult+3}
  \pgfmathrandom{1,5}
  \let\seqa\pgfmathresult
  \pgfmathrandom{4,9} 
  \let\seqb\pgfmathresult  
  \node[water cold particle,shade on=<{\seqa,\seqb}>] at (\xpos,\ypos) {};
}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{frame}
\end{document}

By the way, why did you use beamer class rather than standalone class? — kiss my armpit, Mar 10 '13 at 17:10
Oh.. just because I feel more comfortable with the styles visible on and related (shade on in this case). It's doable also with standalone of course :) — Claudio Fiandrino, Mar 10 '13 at 17:23

drawing water particles in a water column - tikz

1 Answers1

Linked