#Ripples Help
3 messages in this thread
I've been having trouble for the longest time trying to understand
how the various parameters which define the "Ripples" bump map affect
the appearance of the ripples. I think I've boiled it down to these
problems:
1. What is the "texture size" ? How is it related to "wavelength" ?
2. It appears that if you specify multiple sources, they all
originate from the the same point (texture center). Therefore,
how do you generate an interference pattern of multiple
reflections (such as in a pool with a random pattern of
ripples due to multiple reflections) ? I've done it before,
but I'm not sure what it was that did it.
3. Once you get a realistic interference pattern, how do you
specify a "wave speed" to make the ripple motion look natural?
Is it always, as the Lightwave 2.0 manual says, about one-tenth
of the wavelength ?
Thanks !
Jim,
Texture size is the overall size of the repeating texture pattern. It's
kind of hard to 'splain, but I usually set the texture size for ripples
close to the size of the object. If you want smaller (less wide) ripples
and lots of em, set your t size smaller. Try .25 of the surface.
I've had lots of interference with multiple sources. For really nice
water, use 16. It takes a while to render but looks good. Rember, the
smaller the Texture size the more interference you will see.
Wave length is the distance between waves. Like I said, I will obften use
a t size equal to the object and then use a wave length of about .10 the
texture size. You need to experiment for your particualr needs.
Wave speed is how far the waves move in meters/frame. The rule of thumb
is to figure how many frames you would want your waves to move one
wavelength, and divide that number into the wavelength (eg. w.l. of
5/60frames = .0833333 wave speed). Never use texture velocity with ripples
as the center of the wave sources will move about…(may be acool effect
tho)
Hope this helps
JG
Thanks, John. Your tips are, as usual, very helpful.