Objectives - 3D Water Animation


3D Water Simulation for animation

Through exploring and contrasting different options on water simulation that can be applied to an animation project done in Unreal or Maya.
The objective would be to find a technique that suits to the animation project, but also build knowledge for future projects.

Intro: personal interest on water simulation
I've always had certain fascination on the  power of water to transmit emotions: water can transmit calm and introspection but can also show action, threat, epic and fury, transmitted through the power of the waves and foam. Or mystery of the creatures and secrets that are hidden underneath it.
Calm waters in Samil (Vigo, Spain)

Turbulent waters in Howth (Dublin, Ireland)


I tend to pay attention at the way water and waves are portrayed on paintings and comics. Each artist has a different view of how to express the emotion that the water transmits. For example below we can see the difference between Hugo Pratt's shows a calm, clean and cold water of a river. It contrasts with Herge's drawing, that shows a more lively water with the foam represented by white traces.

The shapes of the waves and foam generate patterns that are relaxing (or exciting) and hypnotic. There is some mystery on the way they break down organically. There is a combination of randomness and pattern that has attracted many scientists to try to de-code it. Famous are the paintings done by Leonardo trying to understand their patterns.

In the past I have had the opportunity to study the fluid simulation from a technical point of view using CFD Software (Computational Fluid Dynamics) using software such as ANSYS' Fluent.

In this case I want only to scratch the surface on how Maya or Unreal represents it and from a more artistic approach. The objective is to produce a convincing water flow, not building an accurate model for physics studies.

Comparison of techniques

Animation Project
Another objective will be trying to I'll try to find a proper animation technique that fits well on the animation project that we are producing: a fairy flying around a town over a canal.

 There will also be a character that falls into the water, so probably exploring some particle effects for splashing water and small waves.
Methodology
General approach:
Review / overview literature of different techniques for water simulation both in Maya and Unreal
Produce a document comparing these techniques and defining some parameters to compare them:
  • Difficulty
  • Performance
  • Accuracy
  • Feasibility
  • Realism
  • Versatility
  • …


There are two type of experiments that I have in mind:

    Include a simple solid object into a rig of water and see how it interacts

    Pouring water in a glass of water, and see how natural it feels.



Comentarios

Publicar un comentario

Entradas populares de este blog

The Solution: Alembic Cache

Imagen
ALEMBIC CACHE INTRO Today I'll show the complete workflow for simulating the splash of water in Maya using Bifrost and then importing it into Unreal Engine. On the last episode our hero was left in a sea of doubts, wondering if he'd have to abandon the idea of simulating the water in Bifrost and start a singing career instead. Well, either that or finding a new approach for the water simulation. Actually I researched a few options to do the water splash simulation in Maya and found a few some interesting options. The most promising and similar in approach to Bifrost (use of particles) looked like NVIDIA Flex. I however didn't follow that path. I leave some links on the bottom if you want to explore it. Doing a short recap, I was stuck on how to export the simulation done in Bifrost to Unreal. The solution came from an option in the Bifrost Fluid simulation to convert the simulation into a mesh and using an export called Allembic Mesh. Thanks Michael Connolly for
Leer más

Bifrost - Splash simulation (I)

Imagen
BIFROST - WATER SPLASH SIMULATION (I) Bifrost is a tool for Maya that allows for fluids simulation. Therefore it is related to physics. It was acquired by Autodesk in 2012. My purpose is exploring it in order to make a convincing splash of water on the animation project, particularly on the scene when the fairy falls into the wates of the canal. I have watched and read through some Bifrost material with mixed results. I have finally followed this simple video that finally allowed me as a valid starting point. The experiment simulates the splash of water produced by a rigid, heavy, sphere over a small water container. Youtube link to TunnelvizionTV's video that I have followed:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvZKiI1BEGk SUMMARY 1: Create a container Cube. 2: Create a liquid emitter. It will only be used to fill the container. 3: Create Bifrost Liquid (with the liquid emitter box selected). 4: Set the Cube as Collider , so that it is able
Leer más
Imagen
Water Planes in Unreal Engine with Starter Pack Materials INTRO For the Water plane, in the end I decided to disregard the previous research works done in Maya Maya (Octoplug, Ocean Shader, etc.) And decided to use the water materials included on the Unreal Engine (4.22/4.23 at least). The default materials look really good for water effect and have very nice waves effects. They however need a bit of tweaking, as their blueprints under the scenes have certain "hardcoded" values that make them only usable under certain dimensions without losing some of their look. So it would be great to convert those hardcoded values into parameters that we can tweak to adapt to our needs. On this entry, I'm going to explain how I used the Standard materials for my scene on the project. Even though initially looks like drag and drop, it is not exactly like that and may require some tweaking if you want to make it look nice. SETUP: ADD FEATURE OR CONTENT PACK  Include the
Leer más