Character Partially Submerged in water Ideas.
I want to create a scene with the Sobek HD Crocodile for Genesis 8 Male where he is wading though a pond/swamp about hip deep. I have some models/sets of trees, foliage, forests, creeks, river beds that sort of thing, but nothing resembling a "pool" or pond of water. Most are shallow at best. Any suggestions on creating one within daz thats noobie friendly or point me to a tutorial? Perhaps a model, scene or set you'd like to recommend or kit-bash if possible?
Also as for a different idea, how would go about creating a side view/slice of the same view but being able to see the bottom half of the body underwater while seeing the top half in the open air? As if the camera were partially submerged underwater? Is this a possible effect?
Examples of models I posses: Woods Modules Willow Creek The Greenwood Vol 2 - Ash Trees Wetlands Low Res Plants for Vol 2 - Flowering Plants Wild Flowers - Water Plants Vol 2 Wildflowers - Tall Weeds and Seed heads Dynamic Jungle Rainforest (with reqs) and so on.
Jacob G.
Comments
Depends how still the water is. If it's really still, all you need is a cube with a glass shader. Change the Index of Refraction to 1.333 and give it a murky tint.
Unfortunately, Daz Studio hasn't implemented volumentrics like volume absorbtion. You can fake it with a product like KindredArt's Iray Deep Sea, or bring your scene over to Blender. (see my post below.)
If you do decide to use Blender, Grant Abbitt's "Sea Shack" tutorial on Youtube will show you how to make a nice water cube with some ripples. You could also export the water cube into Daz if you want to stick with Iray, but you'll need to Photoshop the half-in, half-out effect with Iray Deep Sea.
I build a scene using Sobek HD in a (fanatsy) Louisiana swamp a few months back & used the Pond Builder and Pond Builder Expansion products, along with adding more sawgrass and such to make it look more swampy. You'll see the swamp in the background but it's kind of hidden as the action occurs on a peer.
Click on the render below to go to the DAZ gallery for that image and if you look at the product listings on that render you'll see a listing for the products used.
I figured out how to do what you're asking and have posted the instructions in my Shader Mixer tutorial thread:
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/505581/the-shader-mixer-deciphered-blender-to-daz-conversion
For water, like something "flooded," I usually use a plane primitive and a water ripple normal I found in one of the MEC4D PBR Vol. 2 shaders. I apply one of the default Iray water shaders to the primitive and add the ripple normal to it. The same can be done to built in fountains or pools.
You can always try to make your own ripple normal map with this https://cpetry.github.io/NormalMap-Online/ just paint one yourself in grayscale and create it on this site.
As luck would have it there is a papyrus freebie this week
Nile Papyrus Plants | Daz 3D
Thank you everybody for contributing to this forum and it's questions. I'll be reading and attempting your ideas as time allows. I added the shaders along with bookmarking that website link, those pond builders modules and I checked out the tutorial link that was posted on the shader mixer. A lot of material is a bit above my skill level but I'm looking forward to reading up and gaining knowledge on how to do it. Please keep adding and building up this section for others looking for the same advice.
Here's my two cents: I found this program I bought a while back that might help as well: iREAL Animated Ocean Water System you don't have to animate it. You can use them as still shots as well from my understanding. If you look at the gallery link on the product page, people have made some interesting combinations with this product.
Jacob G