Creating a Water Effect

One of the effects that I really wanted to incorporate into the trailer was some water to add to the danger of the car Bond is driving falling into the sea. A tutorial from the internet (Mucio, 2002) explains in great detail each step of how to create this effect.

This is the final outcome (the bitmap used in the reflection depends on what the background is supposed to be), in this case a Manhattan Skyline was used to create this effect.



By altering the bump level from 39 to 59 it makes it work even better. This is a very useful tutorial and will be incorporated into the final trailer.

I am very pleased with this.

This effect has now been incorporated into one of the scenes with the car crossing the bridge, with its wheels turning with a blur effect as well. The camera then changes direction as it follows the car.

To create  the water effect (paraphasing from the tutorial), first, create a sphere and create a modifier FFD 2x2x2 and move the points so that it looks flat like a pancake. To move the points, control points must be selected.

Next add a noise modifier, select 'Fractal' with roughness of 0.405 and iterations of 6. The strength should be x:0.028, y:0, and z:0.125.

Next, set the animation length using the 'Time Configuration Panel' located next to the frame number.

Once the end of the timeline has been selected, the strength values need to be changed to the following:

x:0.028, y:0, z:-0.227 . Go to the half way frame and modify the strength values to the following:

x: 0.028, y:0, z:0.29 . This makes the waves change and appear to have small waves as the water moves.

The next step is to create a standard target camera and place on the right hand side (in the left view) slightly above the object.

Next, create a wave, this can be found in the create panel, followed by space warps and then select from the drop down menu 'Geometric/Deformable' and then click 'Wave'.

The same way a plane would be created, click and drag the wave across the sphere surface, making sure to keep it within the sphere otherwise it will cause problems later.

Once aligned, select the "Bind to space warp" button located in the top menu. The parameters for the wave should be as follows:

WAVE:

Amplitude 1: 0.021

Amplitude 2: 0.029

Wave Length: 3.697

Phase: 32.1

Decay: 0

DISPLAY:

Sides: 11

Segments: 36

Divisions: 9

Once the object is finished all of the above figures can be changed to create different effects. If the play button is pressed, the waves should move slightly.

Next, create two omni lights, the first should be placed on the left most side above the sphere and its multiplier should be set to 0.3. This should make it darker. The second should be placed beneath the first in the left view port making sure they are aligned together in the other viewports, and set the multiplier as 0.1. The colours of the wave should now begin to be showing.

Finally, add a material of what the water should be reflecting in the diffuser button. It should have a high specular and high glossiness level such as 80 for each. Plus, when on maps on  the parent material, reflection should also be used with the same bitmap so it reflects the image off. Finally add a bump of 59 with the same bitmap image and this gives a lovely water texture. When the camera viewport is selected, the water will move as the camera sees it.