#Underwater Effects
4 messages in this thread
Whew… I finally got my jet plume to look good. I tried everything. I
finally did the following…
Took the Snow Column object that comes with Lightwave and copied it
beside itself to make a tall rectangular column of single point polys
(spps). I used a cylinder just slightly smaller than the column of
spps and used a Boolean op to cut a column of spps. Then I saved the
new object with a new surface name.
I then loaded the object into layout and positioned it just inside my
nozzle at frame 0. at frame 7, I moved the object to a point where
the back side in frame 7 was just butted up against the front edge in
frame 0. Then I cloned the object at frame 7 and keyed it without
moving it as frame 0. (Stayed at frame 7 but manually entered frame
0 when prompted to create a key frame)
I repeated the cloning until I reached the surface of the water. The
final object was a bit different. I sized it so that the top edge
was always equal with the surface of the water. By having each
object repeat this motion, the look of the jet plume was achieved.
By rotating the appropriate objects as I cloned the column of spps, I
was able to create a curved path of moving air bubbles. Now my only
problem is memory. The number of polys grows fast! I can have
about 3 full jet plumes and then I run short of memory. Looking at
expanding memory to allow more plumes (Need 12 plus other objects).
I know it took awhile, but I want to thank those of you who gave
support when I needed it. I never thought it would take me this long
to get it.
P.S. I should also mention that you can follow a bubble from the
start all the way to the top. Looks great and only 7 repeating
frames (More frames for slower movement, less for faster). I also
used a fractal displacement map with world coordinates to give the
bubbles a bit of a wiggle.
Great ideas. Glad it worked out so well. The idea of setting the
position but entering another keyframe number to make things loop is
marvelous! 8{)
Is there any way you could record the three or so plumes you can make
as a series of background images, and do the anim in layers? It
might take a couple of times through, but RAM is awful expensive now.
… Nate.
>> Is there any way you could record the three or so plumes you can make as a
>> series of background images, and do the anim in layers?
That is one way to do it for sure, and I have concidered it. I have
also looked at a virtual memory driver. I have a 2Gb SCSI drive and
the 120Mb drive that came with the 4000. I figure I could boot from
the 2Gb drive and use all or most of the 120Mb drive as virtual
memory. Then lightwave would allow me to really go to town and poly
till I puke!
Inovatronics
800-878-7834
Gigamem $109 (My dealers price)
Virtual Memory Expansion card for Amiga 4000
The method I used also seemed to be the only way to get a curved
motion path. Using any surface tricks for animation, really messed
things up. I needed the first part of the plume to move down at a
diagnal then slowly curve until it is going straight up. Surface
tricks had all of the bubbles moving in the same direction.
-Mike
You've found the key there. Surface tricks obviously only affect the
surface; if you want stuff happening inside of an object, then you
have to put things (polys) in there. Otherwise you get pretty but
useless looking tubes. Lightwave does surfaces, not solids.
I've considered virtual memory, but wondered about the speed effect.
It's gotta take longer to access the disk than RAM, but how much is
it noticable? Anyone out there used it enough to tell?
<Poly till I puke!> Love it! 8{)