CompuServe Thread

#Water – From a distance

4 messages in this thread
#186262From: Mike MorleyAug 21, 1995 11:44 AM
We are looking for suggestions as to how to create a very realistic looking ocean surface scene. The key to the scene is making the ocean surface look excellent from a distance – mapping methods experimented with so far have looked really hot close up, but lose their 'reality' when viewed from a distance. We will by trying out some IPAS combinations – smoke with water etc. today…. If anyone has suggestions, they would be most welcome!! Thanks….. Mike M. & Tim…
#186302From: Joe DeboleAug 21, 1995 3:04 PM
mike… i've had some pretty good luck with water/waves using a combination of bump maps, texture maps, and reflection maps… i've found that creating a tileable bump map which simulates the waves (usually i use a series of "elliptical gradients" — photoshop's <dodge> feature with an elliptical brush works nicely) is a good place to start… from there you can play around with reflection options… and for even better effects, you can layer a few different materials on top of each other with varying degrees of opacity, which can simulate depths… finally, by mixing in "noisy" texture maps, you can simulate the "glistening" effect that the ocean seems to have… best of luck… … joe
#186478From: Andrew ReidAug 22, 1995 6:58 AM
Mike, There's a tileable wave bump map in the ASHOWCASE forum (fourwav.jpg) that has worked well for me in the past. If you want more realism than that you may want to try and find a copy of the proceedings of the '86 SIGGRAPH, which has an interesting article by Alain Fournier on simulating ocean waves. Andrew.
#186584From: Mike MorleyAug 22, 1995 1:17 PM
Thanks for the info! The ocean has turned out quite well…. Tim Clarke says 'HI"…..