Here we are! Lesson 1304 is your 52nd. It marks a huge milestone; if you did one lesson per week, this would be the end of a whole year in this FX course, but it also sees you conquering the animated ocean surface.
As you've already seen over the previous couple of lessons, even a cross-section is a tough animation job, so a 2D ocean surface in 3D takes that complexity to the next level.
Adding a 3rd dimension to your 2D cross-sections involves adding depth by bringing shapes toward, and pushing them away from camera. The video below will help you get started.
video 52_design3D
Things really get complex and time-consuming once you start moving your designs. Start with very simple designs and try to avoid animating anything until you have a design you're happy with. Once you start animating, it's a good idea to work very rough and loose to start, so it'll be easy to make changes and adjust timing. Once again, avoid moving on to the next stage (clean up) until the rough movement is working well.
video 52_anim3D1
video 52_anim3D2
In the past, traditional effects animators went to the river, lake or seaside to study water surfaces, taking photographs to use as reference. Back at their desks, they'd pin the photographs all around the walls and frequently refer to them as they designed and animated their scenes.
Over the decades, in order to study FX for animation, we have evolved from lugging photography and video equipment around, to simply using our mobile phones to capture stills and footage.
Even better, the evolution of technology has allowed us to get any reference footage imaginable streamed directly into our eyeballs without even leaving our desk. As if that wasn't enough, now that realistic 3D simulations are possible with readily available software, we can set up realistic effects scenes especially for reference. The video below demonstrates how that's possible with free software.
video 52_blender
If you're already into 3D software, whether Maya, 3DSMax, Lightwave, Cinema4D, Blender (the list goes on), it really doesn't matter which application you use; most these days have some elemental physics simulations built in as part of the package. If you're new to 3D programs, learning one will require a considerable time investment, but even if you don't like the idea of 3D taking over, it's well worth checking it out as an FX animator, if only to see what you're up against.
video 52_render3D
There is so much more to cover. While this wraps up our 3-part series on water surfaces, we have really only covered 2 basic types: rolling and choppy. In future video sessions we will look at other surfaces, such as churning foam under a waterfall, surface wakes left by watercraft, ocean waves breaking on the shoreline and river rapids!
As mind-bending and frustrating as hand-drawn water surfaces can be, continued practise means inevitable improvement.
