Hi !
Blender V 2.43 has incredible new tools. I wanted to check the real displacement feature on a seascape.
Here is a trial done with this feature :
http://3d-synthesis.com/movies/Crazy_Boat_MPEG2.mpg
http://3d-synthesis.com/movies/Crazy_Boat_DiVX6.avi
http://3d-synthesis.com/movies/Crazy_Boat_QTimeS3.mov
(rendered in 62 hours on Intel P4 -3 GHz 2GB Ram).
A Greyscale picture is used as displacement mask . The shape of the boat is black for the water hole around the boat. The procedural texture of the waves is moved by an empty.
This texture is also animated in depth by a Z offset in the Material Ipo.
The see level is grey 128, the waves around and on the front side are drawn as a white shape.
The bubbles are on a secondary mesh, more subdivided than the sea, animated using the boat propeller as reference object.
It has been done quickly, and the water could be improved a lot. I really have to study COG tutorials… He has done the best seascapes I have ever seen !
Philippe.
I think it looks really neat. Also there is more in there than just the displacement. Very nice scene for just a test.
How did you generate the displacement map? Was in made procedurally using the boat animation, or was the boat animated to match the displacement?
The boat follows a circular trajectory around an Empty (that we’ll name Empty A) used as parent, which has a RotZ ipo.
A second Empty B is parented to the Empty A use as center of rotation. The boat is parented to Empty B.
This Empty B is also used as reference for the Black and white (greyscale) texture used for the water deformation under the boat. So, the texture follows the boat shape.
Empty B can be rotated and resized to match the shape of the boat with the deformed water mesh.
Then, the boat can be resized and also animated around it’s own center to give some randomness in the animation.
The hull of the boat must have some thickness to avoid some waves passing through it (a hull in the hull).
Philippe.
that is very cool. nice job.
Very nice Roubal!
I’m not understanding how you combined the displacement modifier with the procedural wave texture. Is your greyscale texture (which is mapped to Empty B) used as an alpha mask to make a “hole” in the water texture, or did you generate all the displacement with a single image texture that includes the boat profile?
Hi CD38 !
The procedural wave texture is used to create the waves themselves. They move by following an empty, and the effect is visible in real time, because of the Displace modifier.
To add more randomness, and not only a translation, I have also set a Z offset animation to the material supporting the waves texture. I could have used as well a mix of X and Y offset for the animation of the direction of the waves instead of an Empty, but using an empty as reference gives more visual control in the 3D view.
The shape of the hole under the hull of the boat is given by an other texture on the same water material. This one is not procedural. It is a drawing in greyscale.
As several Displace modifier can be used at the same time, I used one for the mask (drawing) and one for the waves.
The mask texture has NO parameter button enabled in the Map To panel. Only a displace modifier is applied to the mask.
At first glance, I thought also of using alpha to avoid other effects than displacement, but if no button is enabled, the mask has no effect at all on the color, spec, or other parameters.
Displacement could also be done the old way, by enabling the Disp button in the Map To panel, but the effect would be only seen at rendering,and it is very hard to setup an animation this way. Also, Disp cursor uses the Nor factor as a multiplicator, so if the Nor button is enabled, visually it has an effect on the waves (fake bumps may gives ugly shadows on the displaced mesh).
Philippe.
Let me see if I understand-- you used the image mask in the second displacement modifier actually to drop down the part of the sea that’s under the boat. Very clever! Instead of a black mask, one could even generate a gradient to carve out a 3-d hole that truly follows the contours of the boat. I imagine you could generate such an image with a rendered Z-buffer from above the boat model. In fact I wonder if this could all be done with compositing nodes in the first place.
I don’t see the Map To:No parameter in my RC1. Couldn’t you achieve the same thing just by turning off all the buttons?
I like your solution for creating the wake as well.
CD38 , You wrote :
I don’t see the Map To:No parameter in my RC1. Couldn’t you achieve the same thing just by turning off all the buttons?
YES, it is what I meant when I wrote NO parameters ! No parameters at all ! AHAH, very funny !o)
Rendering an image with the Z buffer is an interesting Idea, but drawing a simple black shape on a grey background with a white rim around the black shape is not so hard!
The Z buffer would give probably an accurate greyscale for the hull shape, but anyway you will have to draw by hand the rim of water around the boat…
Philippe.
YES, it is what I meant when I wrote NO parameters !
:o I was wondering if the hotkey for it was the ANY key on my keyboard.
Thanks for the answers Philippe. I go try this technique now!
Clever way to make the map! Nice and simple(ish)