Flycatcher
08-19-02, 04:37 PM
... but it didn't start out that way!
Had a little play with Crapman's Difference Cloud method for making water.
I then couldn't resist making my own rather different alpha in an attempt to create a whirlpool effect. This didn't work out. Although the alpha looked OK, the ripples deformed too bumpily so that the overall vortex effect was obscured. However, by stretching the x-axis of the plane, dropping it, then applying some curved smudge brush-work I was able to use it to create a tolerable impression of the lip of a waterfall. Hence this quickie - nothing special and just a little practice piece in creating water by this method. It only took 15 minutes start to finish, including creating the alpha in PSP and rescuing something from the failed whirlpool.
http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1029799900hai.jpg
While writing the above, I realised why the original whirlpool idea didn't work out. I had forgotten one important step - to increase the mesh size on the Plane 3D to the maximum before applying the masked distortion; tested and works fine - except that Z bombed out on me while later working on this large, dense mesh. So if anyone would like a whirlpool alpha, here it is:
http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1029800146uzx.jpg
You will of course need to convert it to BMP or PSD before you can use it in ZBrush as an alpha mask to apply deformations to a Plane 3D. You can then clear the mask and apply further noise, modelling, materials, applying white-caps, etc. as required including stretching the x-axis for perspective, pulling the centre of the whirlpool down slightly along the z-axis to create a true shallow-conical vortex... which, alas, is where my PC froze twice - so no example, I'm afraid.
I don't have the time/patience to run through it again today. If anyone with more computing power/memory on board gives it a go, please publish your results here - I'd love to see a completed picture using the technique. Consider it a Scylla and Charybdis challenge!
EDITED: See further down page for my second attempt.
Had a little play with Crapman's Difference Cloud method for making water.
I then couldn't resist making my own rather different alpha in an attempt to create a whirlpool effect. This didn't work out. Although the alpha looked OK, the ripples deformed too bumpily so that the overall vortex effect was obscured. However, by stretching the x-axis of the plane, dropping it, then applying some curved smudge brush-work I was able to use it to create a tolerable impression of the lip of a waterfall. Hence this quickie - nothing special and just a little practice piece in creating water by this method. It only took 15 minutes start to finish, including creating the alpha in PSP and rescuing something from the failed whirlpool.
http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1029799900hai.jpg
While writing the above, I realised why the original whirlpool idea didn't work out. I had forgotten one important step - to increase the mesh size on the Plane 3D to the maximum before applying the masked distortion; tested and works fine - except that Z bombed out on me while later working on this large, dense mesh. So if anyone would like a whirlpool alpha, here it is:
http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1029800146uzx.jpg
You will of course need to convert it to BMP or PSD before you can use it in ZBrush as an alpha mask to apply deformations to a Plane 3D. You can then clear the mask and apply further noise, modelling, materials, applying white-caps, etc. as required including stretching the x-axis for perspective, pulling the centre of the whirlpool down slightly along the z-axis to create a true shallow-conical vortex... which, alas, is where my PC froze twice - so no example, I'm afraid.
I don't have the time/patience to run through it again today. If anyone with more computing power/memory on board gives it a go, please publish your results here - I'd love to see a completed picture using the technique. Consider it a Scylla and Charybdis challenge!
EDITED: See further down page for my second attempt.