Last lesson, you designed and animated a line as a 2d representation of a rolling surface cross-section. I hope you've been practising, because now things get a bit crazy as we apply the same thinking to the choppy style.
Once again, as was the case in the previous lesson, don't be deceived by the shortness of this article. By all means, watch the videos below and attempt the choppy style if you want to. However -- and I can't stress it enough -- I strongly discourage you from moving forward until you feel you fully understand, and can confidently animate, the rolling style.
Got it? Ready to dive in? Let's go!
First, let's look at the design of a choppy surface. Just like the rolling style, we need to think in terms of individual waves that are in various stages of their lives; some appearing, others disappearing, some rising, others falling and moving side to side.
video 51_designChop1
Choppy water has so much more going on, and therefore much more to keep track of. One possible method is to make random drawings of the cross section, then inbetween it carefully, as demonstrated in the next video.
video 51_animChop1
Another way is to construct the movement using points as shown in the video below.
video 51_animChop2
As mentioned a couple of times in these videos, these methods may or may not be suitable for a full 3D surface. However, what's most important is that you're getting a feel for how surface waves form and resolve, and how that affects the look of the effect as a whole.
This lesson, combined with what you learned in the previous one, serves as the groundwork for a broad range of water surfaces that you might need to animate in the future. While not all surfaces can be categorised as either rolling or choppy, these exercises (and constant practise) will get you thinking hard about how a wave or a swell should move on any given frame of a sequence. You'll draw on this knowledge each and every time you animate a water surface.
If you think you're ready for it, next lesson will tackle the big one. Taking what you know about these cross sections and applying it to a 3D ocean surface.
Scene layout for Assignment
