Feedback on Water Stream

General Discussion
#1

Hey all!

I’m new here and I’ve got to say this website is an amazing resource. I’ve been getting into RT VFX recently (been a game dev for a long time) and have been working a few effects. I was inspired by the recent waterfall Sketch posts and wanted to take a shot at one myself. I’m quite happy with the progress so far, but I feel a little stuck on getting the edges of my water fall to look believable.

Here’s the current progress:

(EDIT:
Updated progress:
WaterFallV1_4
)

My current gripe is that the edges of the waterfall, particularly near the bottom, “wobble” in a strange way to me. (Perhaps I’ve just been staring at it too long.) I know this is because of the noise I’m applying to get some distortions, but I’m just not sure of another way to get the edge to “flow” like a stream of water would. Maybe procedural noise is not the way?

Here’s the base texture for it that I made in Procreate, which is layered on top itself and panned at two different speeds to get a feel of water flowing at two different speeds.
image
And here is the mesh I made for it:

image
image314×717 73.6 KB

Overall, I’m happy with the effect, but I feel like there’s just one or two tweaks it needs to get it to feel finished. (I’ll be adding more splash things as I continue work on it)

Would love any sort of feedback or suggestions :slight_smile:

7 Likes
#2

there are many fun things to experiment with

  1. use two textures multiplied for interference
  2. erode/dissolve texture that is stronger on the edges
  3. distortion and you can localize it to the edges

texture A
image

mult with it’s own copy (1/2 UV) and edges behave similar to Boolean intersection due to alpha
texture A * texture A
pantwo
with a longer, more unique texture the output will have greater amounts of variation

here is an mask i made off sigs
Texture B
image

it is multiplied by a ramp then subtractive on 1 of the textures
Texture A * (Texture A - Texture B * Ramp)
panDissolveFade

noise as distortion applied to the dissolve
pandistort
Texture A * (Texture A - [distorted_Texture B] * Ramp)

8 Likes
#3

I love your quick gifs followed by a quick breakdown, specially when we can see it it evolving step by step <3

Though I have some doubts…

What do you mean by “(1/2 UV)”?

By longer, you mean you’re stretching the texture?

What is a Ramp?

1 Like
#4

the tiling, second copy UV is (1.0 , 0.5) stretched x2 longer so it can’t repeat with the first one

thinking like tiles; the texture I painted is too repetitious - i’d recommend more for the longer mesh so the pattern won’t be repetitious.

image
image128×512 48.2 KB

just means gradient like
image

2 Likes
#5

Thanks Torbach!! This is exactly what I was looking for! Very ingenious. I’m going to be toying around with these ideas and see what I’m able to come up with. :slight_smile:

EDIT: It works great! Rather than fading the extra mask texture out at the bottom, I faded it near the top with a ramp, which had the effect of the water spreading apart near the bottom of the fall:

WaterFallV1_4

5 Likes
#6

yes exactly
those three combinations can be used to create numerous illusions for flowing water

let me link you the LoL (summoners rift) waterfall breakdown (by @Mark_khalil) this gorgeous gem middle bottom

give you more fun things to consider

also note the example I made; it would work in reverse better i.e. water splashing up after hitting a pond

just let’s you know these illusions will help you get more creative ways to craft, not to mention work just as well for many flowing liquid or liquid like illustrations

splitting mesh, stretching UV’s or even wiggling them, all help give variation with flow, slower/faster or just splitting the waterfall into multiple bouncing falls

6 Likes