Editor's
note: This tutorial
assumes you have the basic knowledge
of the software you are working
with. It's meant to be a walkthrough
of one technique to recreate the
effect of a drop falling into a
water tank, rather than a detailed
step-by-step tutorial. |
| |
Hi,
here is my little tutorial, it's
my first tutorial, so be patient
please. |
|
|
| The scene consists
of
2 objects: |
| 1. The drop. |
| 2. The water tank
(where the drop will fall). |
The
drop is a simple primitive. |
The
water tank requires
special attention to the
topology for
correct deformation. In this
case, the general shape should be
concentric circles (for the ripples).
The simplest way that I found to
model the tank was this: |
|
Notice
we have 4 morphs, the first one
is when the drop falls and the following
ones are progressions of the subsequent
behavior.
We have also made the weightmap,
it will control the displacement
amplitude, very strong in the epicentre
and subtle toward the ends. If you
don't like weightmaps, this can
also be done
with a gradient and distant to object
(in x and Y) in Input Parameter,
alpha mode. |
|
In
Layout we load both objects and
add a Null for setting the depth
of field later. |
We
go to Surface Editor and make
the water surface, nothing
complicated in fact: |
|
|
Besides
this I´ve added fast fresnnel
for the reflection and edge transparency
of 1.
|
| I´ve used edge
transparency because it blends
the water tank with the background
and also desaturates the object's
edges. |
| Here
is the gradient in color channel: |
| For
the illumination I´ve used
2 lights. |
 |
A
distant light to back lighting and
a spotlight that will only give
a nice specular glow to our drop
for what should just affect this
object. Here the parameters of both
lights: |
| |
For the animation
we begin with the drop that falls to the
tank center. At 1/4 of the path we use squach
to simulate the superficial tension (this
can also be made with an endomorph) the
other 3/4 of the path return to its original
state. When the drop has passed through
the water we dissolve it to 100%.
|
| Then
we go to the water object and we
add morphmixer, trying to coincide
the beginning of the first morph
with the the drop fall; and then
we animate the subsequent behavior
with the other three endomorphs,
something more or less this way. |
|
|
|
Here
the envelopes. |
Once
we have animated the drop interaction
with the water tank, we solve the
ripples with displacement texture: |
 |
| |
|
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