Water animation, again...

[Nacho]

Hello...

I know that people has asked before about water animations, and yes, I am a lazy ass and never saved that urls with that nice tutotials... I thought I was never going to need them, but hey! now an enterprise called Mappomedia hired me to make some backgrounds! And if I make them ok they'll pay me!



Here is what I get... My question is... is there a better way to do it? I would do it in a so much easier way with less colours, but I like that "oil painting" feeling... I remember sierra did it fairly well, are there any tutorials or something? Thanks for all, and, as it has black outlines, feel free to download the image, paint the river with a filling colour with a lot of tolerance, and make your attempt! It will be apreciated!

[ElectricMonk]

At the moment it kinda looks like a standing body of water with a bit of tide going in and out, not like a flowing river.
The movement should go from up to down (or the other way round, depending on which way the river flows), not from outside to inside. If that makes any sense.

[Nacho]

It has perfect sense... I was comenting it to Darth Mandarb the next second I posted it... So, we know the problem... A way to sollute it?  

[Gfunkera]

It does not appear to be moving downstream but it apears there are some bad waves on shore..... Maybe if your made some lines in there going down it would look better I think IMO

[Darth Mandarb]

I did this REALLY quickly ...



It's not complete, and uses less frames than I'd like, but I didn't want to post a HUGE gif file!

* Altered the movement of the 'wave' lines to make it more a 'pulsating' look.
* Added a leaf flowing down the river to show the direction of the flow.

What I'd do if I had more time:
* Add distortion lines around the leaf so it looks more like it's sitting in the water
* Add some slight color variations to the water to simulate flowing

[SSH]

If you just want to use PSP effects:
http://www.tut.pspug.org/tut7eff/water_v7.htm
or
http://www.rosiespitutorials.com/watutor.htm

Maybe not what you want, but it might give some hints!

[Kweepa]

Lovely looking background, so far!

But I wouldn't trust mappomedia:
http://www.agsforums.com/yabb/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=8685

[Nacho]

That bastards of Mappomedia! They were expecting to receive my two weeks work for free! BTW, thanks with the crits, I've been given some ideas, like the leaf... And I'll try that tutorial SSH, be sure...

Thanks to all... I am going to go on with the bg, by the way... I wanna see what do I archieve...

[ravenfusion]

Hah, with backgrounds like this one you definately deserve the money for your work (While writing this I accidently wrote monkey instead of money). That background is excellent.

[Nacho]

Here it is what I got thanks to SSH... I think that a new layer to put some pixels pretending to be waves should make it even better.

I am quite happy with this, as I am not a profi... I've seen worse animations in some oldies...

the floating leaf is going to be... but It will have to be an object, as this is expected to be a 5-frames animated background and the leafs needs at least 10 (If less, it seems a water-rocket, trust me...  )

[Ben]

Looks good-- I think the water moves too much in the distance, though. The distant waves are the same size as the close ones, and with the illusion of depth in the picture, it appears that there are stormy seas in one part of the river and calm in another part..

[Nacho]

Mmm... thanks for that... I'll take a look because, as you pointed, I used the very same figures for both parts of the river.

But I'm not sure of it, since the water in the long take is a waterfall, which must be very stormy, and the waters in the first take must be more quite.

I'll keep you all informed.

[Erwin_Br]

I think the water looks great, but I'm not sure if it fits in with the current style. The black outlines and colours you're using suggest more of a semi-cartoon style, while the water is more realistic looking.

The animation itself is fantastic, though

--Erwin

[Migs]

That Mappomedia thread is one of the funniest I've ever seen.

The AGS forums should have a separate archived category where we can save the most hilarious noob threads, so they don't disappear with time.

[Peter Thomas]

YES!

now who the hell let it die? we must revive it...

[Migs]

Where's that thread where RPGCreator (or whatever his name was) was talking about his ultra-100-level-1000-hour-RPG he was making with RM2k?  That was another great one.  I can't seem to find it.  Has it vanished?

[Pet Terry]

Looks great!

Surely you're going to make the whole background in the same oil-painted look?

[Nacho]

I've been taking a look to all the backgrounds in this series I've made so far... They have some kind of problem of messing styles,as Erwin pointed, but I can't really feel it like odd, at seems to have some kind of pattern...

I don't know how to explain it, ( ) but, even being noticeable, the messed styles don't look that bad.

BTW, yes Petteri, I'll put more effort for adding details in the BG, not all is going be "oil painted" but I'll test to make it more consistent all together.

[SSH]

Two things seem a little wrong with the animation to me:

1. The white bits seem to stay in the same place rather than move downsteam
2. The water below the bridge is hardly moving compared to that behind the bridge... this is maybe what someone was talking about before? I assume you used the same paramters for both parts... I guess that the closer bit needs some perspective correction for speed... probably only trial and error will get it right!

I don't think that the styles clash, btw.

[Nacho]

Looks good-- I think the water moves too much in the distance, though. The distant waves are the same size as the close ones, and with the illusion of depth in the picture, it appears that there are stormy seas in one part of the river and calm in another part..

NOW I SEE IT!!!  :o You meant the waters below the bridge, not the ones in the close take compared with the waterfall... Thanks for the explanation to you too,SSH...