Life on the ocean waves

[mikeb]

Hello again, i'm embarking on another little test project (as my battle of britain animation will be on hold for a short time)..

I'm trying to get realistic looking waves (simple ones, not storming). Then a ship traveling on them. I've started with a couple of shaders on a basic plane..

So day 1:
http://www.doghouseanimations.com/pirates/1st%20pirates.mov

So does anyone have any better ideas, or different techniques??

[roshent]

Link not working mikeb ...

I hope your BoB is really just a short while on hold...would love to see that one progress...

[krazycolin]

did you check out this thread?

http://www.military-meshes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=142

[mikeb]

The above link is fixed..

So now i've added a ship, nothing complicated at first..

Day 2..
http://www.doghouseanimations.com/pirates/2nd%20pirates.mov

http://www.doghouseanimations.com/pirates/2nd.jpg

[Archetype]

btw mike are there any positions open at dog house ? and if yes do you hire 3dmax users ?
i have to keep my options open as im still not out of my trial period here at INDG.

and unfortunatly im not sure if this job is really what i want to do

[Spinner]

I've been playing around following the basic ideas in Gary Runke's Waves tute for XSI. The ideas can be applied in other programs of course.
http://www.garryrunke.com/tutorials/Water-Tutorial.html

[krazycolin]

btw mike are there any positions open at dog house ? and if yes do you hire 3dmax users ?
i have to keep my options open as im still not out of my trial period here at INDG


moi aussi!!!!!

always ready for some contract work... why is it the better you are, the less work you get?

[mikeb]

I don't have any positions open at the moment as i mainly work freelance, however there are some projects looming that are too big for me to do alone so please feel free to email me your details, work etc..

Now, i've made a better horizon and got the camera moving..

http://www.doghouseanimations.com/pirates/3rd%20pirates.mov

Still i'm not happy with the water and am going to completely re-think my approach to this wet stuff..
I'm also working on a little pirate ship, making him a bit special..
Still having no idea of how i'm going to make wakes in the water, ideas are welcome..

[Archetype]

the waves are too high for the movementspeed
you need to size the waves down or increase the speed


if you use a procedural noise map to bump/displace out the waves
u can also use a copy of that map with tweaked levels to generate foam in accurate locations
btw im looking for something more steady than a freelance job unfortunatly.

i need to be sure of income as i live on my own nowdays

[mikeb]

Sorry i can't offer anything more at the moment. Still if something comes up, maybe you could still assist?!
& a procedural noise map to displace, got any examples of what you mean? Sounds interesting..

So i decided to scrap the way i was doing it and start again..

The sails and ship details will be dealt with as soon as i'm happy with the sea. My charaters for this animation are still only drawn on scraps of paper and my little script is still very "bitty"

Still i'm sure it will work out well (or i hope so at least).

This is the direction i've gone for
http://www.doghouseanimations.com/pirates/4th%20pirates.mov

http://www.doghouseanimations.com/pirates/4th.jpg

What do you think to this?

[Spinner]

Movement seems better for sure.

[mikeb]

There was an article in 3D World World's February 06 issue, of how to do a sea in C4D..

The outer is the orig. scene file and the inner bit is my version..

So here is what i've done with it..
http://www.doghouseanimations.com/pirates/3d%20world%20ocean.mov

http://www.doghouseanimations.com/pirates/3d%20world%20ocean.jpg

The next thing would be getting a ship:-
A- to sit on those waves (as its done by deforming a primitive)
B- to have a wake around itself

I'm still very much working on the sea lapping against a still ship nevermind a moving one?!

[Spinner]

That certainly has the rolling swell part under control. A wake is another matter all together. It's been stewing away in the back of my mind for ages and no great 'eureka!' moment yet.

[mikeb]

So now i've got a ship rolling around on the swell (if a little bit too much)..

http://www.doghouseanimations.com/pirates/5th%20pirates.mov

Next stop is waves lapping against the ship..

[Spinner]

You think thats too much ship roll?
I wouldn't have said so, myself, but its your eye that has to be satisfied.

[mikeb]

The ship was rolling good to the waves, i meant the waves were rolling too much (out of scale)..

So here is first attempt at waves lapping against a still boat..

http://www.doghouseanimations.com/pirates/6th%20pirates.mov

Done using visible lights (with no illumination). This process wouldn't work for the ships wake if it was moving but when its still i think i'm getting somewhere..

http://www.doghouseanimations.com/pirates/6th%20pirates.jpg

[Spinner]

I agree you've identified a colour change in the water as the main thing we see from water moving against a hull, without hull speed. Maybe light isnt the best way to create that effect in the water though. I get why you've gone that route but to look right the light cant be on the hull bottom, only in the water. Maybe a colour change might be better or maybe you can mask the light from shining on the hull?

[baatchaamdo]

what app/tools are you using for the ocean?
what renderer?

[mikeb]

Cinema 4D, and its renderer..

[charglerode]

From a C4D standpoint, I wonder if you could fake the splashing against the ship with cloth and a deflector.

[Spinner]

Mike,
Seen this one?
Link (http://www.finalgathering.com/movies/mov/sea.mov)

[wsansewjs]

I have to agree that rendering a realistic sea animation in conjunction with the rate, lighting, and textures is one of the most difficult tasks in 3D modeling/animations. That video is more like it. Let us all research and tackle this difficult task here for a long road ahead. Maybe we can reveal the secrets of how hollywood and studios were able to do it virtually on a zero/low budget.

-WJS :)

[mikeb]

I don't like being beaten and am doing tests again to come back to this project very soon..

[mikeb]

So here we go. Went back to the begining for a simpler idea.

I used a couple of plains around the ship and likned their defomation to the seas deformation, then applied a texture looking like the wake(s), using noise. The only one that needed displacement was the one at the very front of the ship.

http://www.doghouseanimations.com/pirates/7th%20pirates.jpg

http://www.doghouseanimations.com/pirates/7th%20pirates.mov

What does everyone think?

[Spinner]

Certainly looks good around your hull but I find the viewpoint movement too fast. I feel you could convey a sense of ship movement by matching the camera move more to the tempo you've set in swell and sound.
You're far better at this than I so please take it in the spirit its given but this clip I see less underway movement than any of the earlier. Is that anchor intended to convey a stationary position? Maybe it conflicts with the visual wake?
Its been enlightening for me to follow your progress and I definately feel you are making progress. It's come a fair way from the first version.
Not many risk doing their experimentation in public like this. Thanks for your generousity in sharing so much of your approach to a difficult task.
Cheers

[mikeb]

Doing my work in public like this actually makes me faster and points me in new directions..

So now i've started to add a bit more life to the clip, testing out some more sound fx, adding rigging (though i am still going to go all out with the ropes etc), added some sails and flags (though not the main sails yet)..

http://www.doghouseanimations.com/pirates/8th%20pirates.mov

There is more stuff i've done in the background, but you'll see more of that soon..

[Archetype]

looking quite good..
there is some odd popup motion at th start though

[Spinner]

Love the flag movement. It fits well with the swell roll.
Seagull calls add immersion (pun intended).

[mikeb]

Pop up fixed, and we like immersion.

I'm always looking to try something new and so i'm toying with the idea of using traditionally drawn characters for this clip.

http://www.doghouseanimations.com/pirates/9th%20pirates.jpg

http://www.doghouseanimations.com/pirates/9th%20pirates.mov

So what does everyone think, a good idea or not???

[Spinner]

Mike
I ran into this tutorial set on using the new ocean shader in Blender.
New ocean techniques (http://www.cogfilms.com/tutorials.html)
Well worth the download! He's got foam working on the mini crests and a bunch of stuff I haven't got my head around yet. lol

[mikeb]

A client has approached me looking for a couple of shots to be made of two 17th century ships, one chasing the other..

At the moment i'm unsure of the weather conditions etc but i'm back doing the sea..

I'll post the models as they're ready but firstly i'm doing sea tests again, using cinema 4d..

I have seen a couple of good examples and i'm looking into the add the sea plugin, but i still haven't seen many good examples of c4d seas.

Any ideas, hints tips?

[mikeb]

The best example of c4d sea is from the add the sea plug-in, its mainly the shader which is great. My only problem here is that if i buy the plug-in i don't think they give you this scene file..

http://www.add-the-sea.de/plugins/addthesea/reloaded/anis/4ATS.mov

They do give away this one-

http://add-the-sea.de/plugins/addthesea/reloaded/anis/stormy-sea1.mov

But this one isn't good enough..

[mikeb]

So here we go, with a new way of thinking..

http://www.doghouseanimations.com/pirates/10th%20pirates.wmv

More to come very soon..

[Skyraider3D]

Looking very nice Mike!

[mikeb]

Still tinkering with the water, now i've started to add the second ship, the black pearl..

I'll post the animated clip when it's rendered. For the moment here is a still..

http://www.doghouseanimations.com/pirates/11th%20pirates.jpg