Water Fall

[Frosty]

Hi guys.

I have a project that involves an interior pool and a water fall. I have been doing a few experiments with Caustics and am getting some cool results on the water, but render times are getting scary and I am running out of ram. Anyone have optimization tips? Ideas on how to create a water fall?

[STRAT]

Hi m8

 

obviously the best way is to fake stuff imo. can you post up a piccy of what this waterfall should look like? only waterfalls come in many types, 'easy' and 'complicated'.

[Frosty]

Unfortunately I cant yet Strat. I'm still at the early stages and dont know what the design is going to look like. I am simply doing research into methodologies to create it.

 

I believe it is going to look like a pile of rocks at the side of the swimming pool. Water will come out of the wall and splash down the the rocks into the pool. I can make the rocks no prob - terrain primitives in spherical mode work rally well .

 

I have tried several options so far. I think I need a combination of them all.

1) Particles

I set up an emitter, gravity, disturbance and a series of deflectors down the rock pile.

Effect: A bunch of spheres bouncing down rock pile. Not too bad. The material was way off.

2) Metaballs:

Same set up with the particles in a metaballs deformer.

Effect: An oozing goo rolls and bounces down the rocks.

3) Loft Nurbs:

A series of splies used to create the surface of water as it flows down the rocks. I think this is the way to go but my material wasnt very good.

 

I think what I really need to set it off is a particle system to create the spray and splashes. It wouldnt be such an isssue but I'm inexperienced with "foggy" textures. My inital reaction is to use "SmokeIt" but I havent had much success. I do have Pyro Cluster but I dont have very many presets to work from.

Steve

[STRAT]

animation or still?

[Frosty]

More than likely this will be a still. However, I would like to animate it for a demo reel. I know it would be simple to PS a lot of this, but I would like to do as much in the 3D environment as possible.

Steve

[Ace_Face]

Frosty,

 

There is a flowing water shader in the Deepshade gallery. This might be a starting point.

 

http://www.maxon-computer.com/deepshade/shader/shaders/water/016/016.html

 

My guess is you probably have it already. :ngesighw:

[Frosty]

K, I've done a little work and experimentation on this waterfall problem. Here is a first draft test render.

http://www.crucialperception.com/play/waterfall_test.mov

 

I used an animated water shader on the lofy nurbs and the plane (yes I know the texture moves the wrong way ), 4 particle systems with gravity for the falling splashes, and a single particle system with pyrocluster for the spray. I think this basic setup will work quite well, so I'm going to try and refine the settings a bit. Comments welcome.