Rocky River (Hand-Painted Style)

[joseph (J)]

Done entirely in Blender, the vast majority of what you see is procedurally generated. (I sculpted the landscape, everything else is shading nodes.)

Based on a concept by 2D FX artist Quentin Cordonnier. I followed his breakdown step by step, adding my own artistic choices where I felt like it

Procedural Material Details / Node Setups

Rock/riverbank material

Waterfall base

Waterfall

Top sparkles

The main water shader is too complex to fit in one screenshot. The ripples around the rocks are a slightly modified version of the waterfall base. For each ripple, I shrink-wrapped a plane with a few subdivisions to the water surface. As the water is constantly displacing and shifting, this allows the ripples to stay in the correct place.

Thumbnail

[Renzatic (Professor Emeritus Billy H. Wafflesmith XIV Esq.)]

That is pretty damn nice. Great job!

[joseph (J)]

Thank you, I really appreciate that

[Renzatic (Professor Emeritus Billy H. Wafflesmith XIV Esq.)]

It does look like it’s properly hand painted, something I’ve never been able to quite achieve. It’s good stuff.

[joseph (J)]

Thanks Hopefully the node setups I posted can be useful to you, let me know if you’d like any other node setups or anything, I’d love to help you in your efforts to recreate this look

[joseph (J)]

Miscellanous Screenshots

1: the rocks I used with the NatureClicker add-on inside the water.

2: A different angle.

3: A clay render with outlines, which shows a little better how the shrink-wrapped planes worked

[piranha4D (Pir)]

That is super cool, it really looks handpainted. Thanks for sharing the node setups!

[adiidiin]

awesome! the water animation is so satisfying to watch

[joseph (J)]

Thank you I hope the nodes are helpful!

[joseph (J)]

Thanks isn’t it? If it wasn’t melting my computer I would have made it longer haha

[seahorseshoes]

Wow, really beautiful work!!

[joseph (J)]

Thank you, I really appreciate that

[bartv (Bart Veldhuizen)]

I featured you on BlenderNation, have a great weekend!

Best of Blender Artists: 2022-26

[Metin_Seven]

Love it!

[joseph (J)]

Thanks man, it’s an honor

[bendati (Benjamin Ebadati)]

Really Great

[joseph (J)]

Thank you

[bartv (Bart Veldhuizen)]

You’re on the #featured row!

[joseph (J)]

Thank you, I’m delighted

[Metin_Seven]

Congrats! Well-deserved.