How can i make a bubble column like in an aquarium? I want it to look real , the bubbles
wobbling as they go up
digiman
Could use a particle emitter and map the type to an object. Then create a sphere object with a UV texture (mapped to an empty) to create unique distortions to each bubble. I don’t necassarily have the skill for all the details, but I would suspect something in there might help some.
[Edit] Sorry that’s a bit brief, short on time until I get home from work. A little more specifically what I was trying to suggest… In the Bounce and Tumble blender book there is an example on makeing fire. He maps to billboards, well this would be the same except map to an object. So make an emitter, set the type to an object. Add the material, create a procedure texture on that material and map it to empty. Set the texture to be clouds and map it to normal. Now moving the empty about should animate and create varied distortions to the bubbles shape. I still might not be very clear, but when I get home tonight I can try to setup an example (if I don’t have to work late), though I’m sure someone more helpful will beat me to it.
A blend example if you have the time would be great
digiman
I was displeased with the variance in the bubbles when mapping to an object (and the normal didn’t work quite as expected), so I switched back to billboards with procedural textures. My texture admittingly sucks (because I didn’t spent much time on it), but they key is the use of stencils. Yes, they’re all still round, but I think just creating a handful of stencils in gimp various shapes and creating the same handful of emitters might be enough to trick the eye. Using texture images for the billboards too would maybe save a lot of effort on the procedural textures.
I haven’t explained much in the .blend, just because I’m not sure if this is helping or if you’re way beyond this already. If nothing else just hoping to help trigger some ideas. Someone with more texture experience might need to help, but I’m going to fiddle with things more here out of curiousity. I also just did a quick google and found this:
[Edit] Texture update that is a little better (adjust the stencil to semi-mask the inside of the bubble to get a more crisp ring.
Attachments
Bubbles2.blend (347 KB)
Stupid me, i forgot to tell you that i will be using the animation for the game engine, particles are not supported. Is there another way to make bubble column.
digiman
Not sure I can help much with the game engine, I’ve intentionally neglected to study it yet… However, just last night I was browsing one of the chapters in my book on the game engine (and I read a few paragraphs)… Anyways, I saw that you can animate the UV textures (like 2D animation flipbook, the example was a wizard with lightning between his hands). Meaning, you could create a plane that would face your camera/player and then create (in Gimp, or therabouts) the bubble animation sequence that would play on the plane. Unfortunately that’s all I’m aware of, though, it admittingly wouldn’t hurt me to read the chapter, such that I might be able to help some, however, I would think it best if a veteran with the game engine chime in.
Heya…
In my animation (see this thread), I’ve taken the hard way - to randomly specify paths of bubbles… This is made by a supporting script(s). Scripting took me about a week’s time but now I can tell you that I have great set of possibilities (after some additional adjustment), including making the bubbles run directly upwards 
I am not an expert in GE but I think the approach will work there as well.
Here I started another thread for discussing/explaining techniques/methods I used. Hope this is useful to you too! :o
Regards,