#Making Water
9 messages in this thread
Gary,
I'm writing an article on how to create realistic looking water. I'd like to
get information on use w/ 3DS, IPAS and other related info. Also I'd like to
talk with any "experts" you know of that can add some substance to this story.
My dealine it tight so a quick response would be appreciated.
Thanks,
-Gregory
Thanks,
gregory MacNicol
Greg, Gary is off on holiday for a few days, so a quick response from
him is rather impossible at this time.
For research for your article, experiment with the water.sxp from the
Yost Group's IPAS boutique. Using it as a (water) bump map in a scene
with a complete environment (read: a "sky" mesh), I've gotten some
pretty decent water effects for a scan-line renderer. Automatic Flat
Reflection and Shininess Mapping can make the effect all the more
realistic. I could send you a tape showing this water effect if you
wanted.
Good luck on the article,
-Alan
Alan,
Thanks for the info. But if Gary is away, who can I contact at the Yost Group
to get info on the IPAS routine?
Gregory
Gregory, Schrieber Instruments is a good source of information on Yost Group
Boutique IPAS Plug-Ins.
-Alan
I'm back, but I won't be able to get to my backlog of email until this weekend.
– G
Gregory;
I am currently working on the intro to a new game comming out called Silent
Hunter by SSI. It is a WWII sub game and entails a lot of water. Mid-high res
real looking water. We are getting very good effects so far. What kind of
information are you looking for exactly?
Zac (AZ-TECH)
Berkeley
-Zac Rymland (AZ-TECH)
Thanks for getting back to me. The story I'm working on is "How To Make Water"
for Computer Graphics World. Naturally I'm going to talk only about simple
water effects excluding splashing, waterfalls, breaking crests, etc. So, I want
the how to be pretty simple, like an overview and introduction.
So, what gems can you offer to the would-be water maker? There are so many
routes and shortcuts. Any of these would help a lot. And are you making water
effects from the water looking up? Or?
Gregory
Gregory;
There are a few good tricks to making realistic water, but most of the time
you need a lot of trial and error.
To get a good under water scene it helps if there are objects within the scene
(hopefully going off into the distance). These objects allow you to create a
sense of atmosphere and depth. By using a projector light with an animated map
such as CAUSTIC off of the 3DS Special Effects book you can create that
flickering light effect. To create beams of light, create geometry in the
shape of the beams and assigning transparent additive 2 sided materials to the
geometry.
From above water the WATER.SXP works very well to create the opens seas kind
of look. It does not hold up if you are close to an intersecting piece of
geometry such as a ship. Under this condition you need to add additional
pieces of geometry with white transparent frothy animated maps applied to the
geometry. WATER.SXP also does not create white caps or extremely rough waters.
This trick I have not figured out yet.
Good luck with you article, hope this helps…
Zac (AZ-TECH Studios)
Berkeley
-Zac Rymland (AZ-TECH)
Gregory,
I don't know much about making water but I did see some amazing water used in
an animation I saw on TV a few days ago regarding the rescue of several
sailboats which had capsized during an extreme storm in the Pacific near New
Zealand. I'm sorry I don't have more information, I only saw part of the show
but they had some animaiton segments showing the boats rolling in enormous
waves. The water was excellent and especially the wave action.
Perhaps someone else knows more about it.
Alec Jason