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Question: How to create custom water ripples with DCG Terrain Tool?

Rhian-SkybladeRhian-Skyblade Posts: 223
edited August 2012 in Carrara Discussion

I got myself a while ago the Terrain Tools from Digital Carver's Guild.

I know this has been asked a while ago (April 2010)... however only Google remembers it and if you follow the offered link you end up in the forum overview :-/ (used this phrase in google: Creating Water Ripple with DCG Terrain Tool )

I would like to use the Terrain Tool for creating custom ripple(s)... that appear on a pre defined water object where I want... without fumbling with the bump-map too much. Well... like shown on the DCG website in the image with the Ball on the water surface.

As the one before me already mentioned, unfortunately there is no tutorial about that... only how to create a shore line.

All I know it ends with sticking "invisible" objects into the water surface... though what to do before that to get exactly those wanted ripples
Does anyone have a link to that old thread (if that one has any useful hints), or maybe a link that explains exactly how that works?

Thanks in advance

Post edited by Rhian-Skyblade on

Comments

  • McGuiverMcGuiver Posts: 219
    edited December 1969

    I have worked with DCG's Intersect shader to do what you are after, unfortunately, I will have to wait until after work to give you the info.....unless someone else posts. ;)

  • Rhian-SkybladeRhian-Skyblade Posts: 223
    edited December 1969

    Thank you McGuiver.
    I can wait ;-) since it's sleepy time here, anyway.

  • 0oseven0oseven Posts: 626
    edited December 1969

    Came across this yesterday which may interest you - Havent tried it yet
    Its a water effects for post processing and is free

    http://www.xiberpix.net/SqirlzReflect.html

  • McGuiverMcGuiver Posts: 219
    edited December 1969

    In my animation, I had a suitcase, dropped by a duck, drop into a pond.
    So I needed the ripples to start as a rectangle, then morph into a circle.
    What it all amounts to is: whatever you choose to intersect the water is turned into a ripple,
    The ripple is re-sized as time passes.

    This animation was keyframed so that at the exaxt frame where the suitcase entered the water,
    my invisible rectangle intersected the waters surface. (Angular and rotational entry of the suitcase made it much
    more work to get it right.) The rectangle was resized, and morphed into a disc to spread the ripples as time passed.

    Hopefully, the screenshots will help a bit.

    My shader used Terrain Tools Intersect for:
    1. The color channel-- to make the shallow water more greenish near where water intersects the terrain. (radial falloff at 18")
    2. The Bump channel-- where the invisible ripple rings intersect the water, (custom falloff) --intersect will affect both
    sides of the intersection.
    3.The transparency channel-- to make the shallow water more transparent.(radial falloff at 10")

    Ripple_14.jpg
    778 x 760 - 214K
    Ripple_13.jpg
    640 x 719 - 66K
    Ripple_12.jpg
    640 x 719 - 95K
    Ripple_11.jpg
    640 x 1080 - 125K
  • McGuiverMcGuiver Posts: 219
    edited December 1969

    If you are doing a static image you may not need a hidden intersect object.
    In the beach ball render, the ball was the "Intersect with" object, and they used a custom falloff as I used in the bump channel example above.

  • Rhian-SkybladeRhian-Skyblade Posts: 223
    edited August 2012

    Thank you so much McGuiver :)

    I do most of the time static images, though this still might come in handy as soon as I have the courage to try animated scenes, too :)
    (the render time of animations always scared me away, since I have the bad habit of using extremely high settings to achieve the best results in my scenes)

    That gives me an idea... maybe I can use that also on one of my fog planes to create a swirly effect...

    @0oseven
    Thanks for sharing this, will have a look, since I am also doing 2D projects in Photoshop, too.

    As for 3D Rendering, I try to manage/create as much as possible within Carrara - especially when I know Carrara can do this. I only do postwork, when I have no other choice...

    Can't wait to get home from work and try this.

    Post edited by Rhian-Skyblade on
  • 0oseven0oseven Posts: 626
    edited December 1969

    My pleasure !

    Would like to hear how you get on with squirtz and what you think of this little program.

    I have dabbled with water ( cant swim yet though) and bought the Orca Ocean plugin ( see Carrara Cafe _
    But I'm a bit disaappointed as there is an issue with positioning objects floating - they unexpectedly mov further and further from the camera.
    Developer has suggested a worekaround by moving hotpoint but I havent yet experimented with tha. Hoping he comes up with a fix but its been a couple of months now.Just telling you this in case you were interested but its $15 for something not working properly yet.

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