Ocean Tutorial
Written by Peder Naalsund 2003
As published in 3D Professional no. 8 Febuary 2003
As published in 3D Professional no. 8 Febuary 2003
Start in modeler by creating the ocean object, mine is 50 km square.Make sure it has a fair amount of segments. In this case you only need enough segments to bend the plane a bit to create the illusion of a curved horizon. Also tap the TAB key to subpatch the object. Hit q and name the surface Ocean.Save the object and switch to Layout
Here is what my Ocean object looks like in modeller.
Load the Ocean object and open the Surface Editor.
The basic surface attributes should look like this.
Bump Channel.
Make sure you set the “Layer Opacity” for each layer.Now click on the T for the bump channel and create a texture with 3 turbulence layers.
Settings for the three layers in the Bump Channel.
Now save the texture as a preset for later use.
Camera
Select the Camera and click “Item Properties” You will have to change the Zoom Factor, I used 1.5 for my D1PAL resolution, feel free to experiment.
Now you have to move the camera real close to the ocean object. I placed the camera about 1 meter above the ocean object.
The Sky
Now for the Sky, select Backdrop from the scene tab and press the “Add Environment” button and add SkyTracer2. Open the presets panel and select a setting you like or create your own. I selected the Alto Cumulus from the Volumetric Clouds presets.
Lighting
Make a clone of the Sun from skytracer2 (at this time named SKT_sun) the names will now be SKT_sun(1) and SKT_sun(2). Leave all the settings the same.
Select the Lights “Item Properties” and set up the following:
SKT_sun(1)
Change the Light Type to Point Light. Make sure only Affect Diffuse, Affect OpenGL and Affect Specular are selected.
SKT_sun(2)
Change the Light Type to Point Light. Make sure only Affect OpenGL and Lens Flare are selected.Open the “Lens Flare Options” panel. Only Fade Off Screen, Central Glow and Central Ring should be selected. Also set the Flare Intensity to about 50%
Close the panel and open the “Global Illumination” panel.
Set the ambient intensity to 0.0% and check “Enable Lens Flares”.
Throw in a boat, island or some seagulls to make the scene more interesting.
In the “Render Options” panel make sure the “Ray Trace Reflection” is checked.
Now render and enjoy.
Sunset
First use “SaveAs” to create a copy of your project.
Lower the sun’s position close to the horizon.
The new settings for SKT_sun(2).
Set the ambient intensity to 0.0% and check “Enable Lens Flares”.
Optional extras
Throw in a boat, island or some seagulls to make the scene more interesting.
Rendering
In the “Render Options” panel make sure the “Ray Trace Reflection” is checked.
Now render and enjoy.
Sunset
First use “SaveAs” to create a copy of your project. Lower the sun’s position close to the horizon.
The new settings for SKT_sun(2).
Next we’ll need to set the SKT_sun(1)’s intensity to 0.0%.Make sure the SKT_sun(2)’s intensity is 100.0% and enable Affect Diffuse and Specular to let the light illuminate our scene.
You might also want to increase the Lens Flair’s intensity a couple of times or more. (experiment).Also change the Light Color to an Orange or Red color.
In the Lens Flare Options panel increase Ring Size to about 3%, turn on Anamorphic Distortion and decrease Lens Flare Intensity to about 75%.
To animate …. Create an envelope (under the Bump Channel’s position tab), that moves the textures in the bump channel slightly on the Y axis during the animation!
Have fun!
Peder Naalsund
