Whirlpools are an uncontrollable force of nature.

I always imagined this is how the world would end - whirlpools have always terrified me.
Probably because they come from myth and we?ve never really scene a big one like this.

Call them an underwater tornado. I remember summers growing up - my friend had a kiddie wading pool in his backyard and we used to play with our boats in it. Once in a while we would stir our hands in the center of the pool and form a nasty whirlpool. I remember seeing those boat models gets sucked into the vortex and slam on the bottom of the pool. The forces of a whirlpool are horrifying.

Since then I?ve experienced them in the rivers here in Colorado and while tubing down a fast running creek I almost got sucked into one at the base of a fall.

About the image:
The ship model came from an old Infini-D disk of models I had lying around. The ship is very lo-res so I tried to make up for it with texture maps. I created a brand new bunch of maps for the sporadically lit cabin windows and textures on the boat.

I painted in the boat wakes and a few whitecaps and wind effects. I tried numerous times to create a wake terrain, but the angle of the boat being sucked into the whirlpool terrain makes it very difficult to match the terrains. Also I really wanted to capture the wind and spray that is created by the vortex and the smudge brush in Photoshop was needed for that.
Hopefully I didn?t cross the line in post, but I would be happy to show you the naked Bryce render and you can see how very little I painted in.

The whirlpool terrain was done in photoshop starting with the twirl filter but needed to have the center inverted to get the depth of the vortex and then it was seasoned in the Bryce terrain editor.

Most of the waves and ocean you see is a custom altitude sensitive (whitecap and color depth) DTE texture that I made for this image. The only painted in whitecaps are also showing wind effects - all the rest are in the texture.

I really enjoyed participating in this challenge.

thanks.

Scott

Looks great Scott. Hey, Scott, are you the Scott Tucker in Susan Kitchen's book with a sidebar explaining how Bryce helped in photography?

Wow, this is fantastic. I usually try to make suggestions, but I really have none here, it's great. btw, I used to try to make whirlpools, too, but we did it in a jacuzzi and it didn't work very well, it was too hard to get enough momentum.

Wow, that is so dramatic! Great job and an excellent composition too.

This is really intense, Scott! I'm really in terror in front of big water movements... don't know why, I think is somewhat inside me, so your image strike me double with its forceful impact. Stefano

incredible work!

It's great and it gives you the creeps!

Glad you guys like it - it was a blast to create and dreamwarrior it gave me the creeps too - especially working on it late at night. Yes jasonmit - that's my little blurb about photography in Susan's book. Yeah Stefano - big water movements are really scary to me too. Whirlpools are like an underwater tornado and unlike a tornado - there is NO survival since we don't BREATHE underwater. I think that's another reason we all have an innate fear of whirlpools. Haloedrain I think it worked for us in the kiddie pool because the walls are rubbery and give (which adds momentum to the swirl). Heck do it in your sink sometime - get it going fast and then pull the plug - it is scary looking. Thanks for your compliments too cambert and woodhurst. I really appreciate all the comments. Scott : )

Great atmosphere! It is really a very good picture!

This is a terrifying force and I reckon it's one of those memories we are born with just like our innate fear of snakes and spiders. A great image Scott. Catlin

Scott, great visual horror story. In Oregon, near the Idaho border is a lake called Owyhee Resevoir. It has a real one of these things. When the resevoir is full, the spillway is fed by a big hole, just like a big bathtub drain, large enough to swallow a pleasure craft. Local urban legend has it that two fishermen lost track of where they were drifting and just barely got their motor started before being sucked into the drain which empties into the river some 300 feet below. A scary prospect, indeed.

Thanks colette - I love the fog and haze controls in Bryce. I agree caitlin - the fear is inborn. Noone wants to drown and there is something menacing and almost evil about whirlpools and tornados. A primal fear I think. That is very scary kevnj - yeah just like an enormous bathtub drain - hopefully the story is just legend. Stefano is right - big water is scary no matter how you look at it. I am enjoying seeing everyone's feelings on this subject. For those of us with religious upbringings I think the other reason whirlpools are scary is they seem to go down somewhere we don't want to know about. Scott

scary pic.

One question Scott - how did you do the whirlpool? Did you make it from a terrain? OK, that's two questions..............8) Catlin

I wrote a short story some years ago titled "Gorgo" (Italian for Whirlpool/Maelstrom). I was really terrified while writing it. The story was very similar to yours, kevnj. I did it for a company selling marine clothing, they sold it along the clothes and the story sold all too well among sea-people (so I really think there's something fascinating and awe-inspiring in this really "uncontrollable force"). Then, of course, there is "Maelstrom" by Edgar Allan Poe... Again, great theme, Scott. S.

Yes Caitlin the whirlpool is a terrain - you start with a circular gradient and the twirl filter in photoshop or KPT3 if you have that. Maybe I will write a quick tut for this. It should be similar to the tornado tuts you see out there. The key is to invert the gradient in the center of the whirlpool so it has depth instead of height. Cool Stefano - yeah I'm sure it gives you the creeps to write about a whirlpool too. I'm gonna have to look up Malestrom - Poe of course gives me the creeps. Thanks again Stefano - I'm glad the theme is inspiring this thread. I think part of the human experience is to enjoy being scared. Why else would rollercoasters be so popular? Scott ; )