This beaver now has bones and moves okay, better in water. I've got it in the default water texture from C3, but now I need to add some movement and a nice bottom. The rock texture in the possibities post is just the ticket... Any suggestions would be appreciated. I will add fish, river or pond props, and plants when I get time. This was a test in adding bones more than anything else. R.

All you need is a texture map of pebbles tiled to a plane. Alternatively, try the 'heavily worn stone' preset from C3. Add in a few larger pebbles (just distort a sphere in the VM). Great beaver! :-)

nice beaver...:)...lol..cmon how often do you get to use that line..;)...itll be fun to see what you come up with in the end...yeah, bones, fun..lol..

your beaver is very cool now,i can remember your first wip thread.if you have the anything grows plugin then try to give your beaver realistc fur.very cool!:)

Thanks for the feedback, my wife isn't much of a critique. "Nice" is about all I get out of her. Yeah, I have to watch what I say about this here beaver, half of what I type gets the edit. I'm thinking about filming a creek by the house and running the quicktime over a plane or cube as a rotoscope... then the pebble texture under. The movie would have to be semi-transparent...but it would give me annimated water. It seems to me that there are two schools of thought with many of these images. Some 3Drs feel a scene should have objects and textures that are 100% computer generated - hand made. The other school uses photos, scans, digital movies, etc. to populate their scenes. What do people think about this observation? R.

I think you can use whatever you think will work best for you. I am on the only computer generated school of thought, but I think your idea is interesting and it might work quite nicely. Is this for a client? or just for fun. If it's for a client, then you need to find the most cost effective path that will please this client. If this is just for fun, you can do whatever feels good to you, since you need to only please your self. About the wife, I get the same response from mine.

Bev. in water 2. Here is what I've done with the scene. The water is just not working out... I want to have the water darker like the first pic, then become more transparent in the foreground...like a gradient map that controls the transparency of the water...something like that. The grayling are so bright that when I take them out of the water, they shine!! Textures are driving me crazy! I want to include insects, more grass, a darker bank with plants, overhangs, and the pebble beach is too bright. Suggestions appreciated. R.

I think you have a good foundation. I would use falconperigot's suggestion an add a couple of "modeled" items in the creeks bottom. The texture you are using for the bottom right now is to clean and flat. Try adding some underwater vegetation too. I really like the texture you have on the fish. That looks very good as it is. The beaver looks good to. I think you need to add some branches to the den, (thats what it's called right?) They are mainly made out of twigs branches and mud.

I think this looks good. You could use a gradient for the water. Alternatively you could try elevation in the X or Y direction to control the transparency/reflection. The planes I've used here are 40 ins square. You may need to play with the Blend and Height, depending on the size of your water object, and where it's placed. (The top blend in the shader is Reflection) HTH, Mark

Message edited on: 07/29/2004 07:56

As far as which way is better, compositing or all CG... would Jurasic Park have been as mind-blowing, if it was all animation? Or does the interaction between real-life and CG bring an extra level of "realism" to the scene as a whole. I agree that it should be whatever floats your boat... I mean, beaver. (That IS fun to write about... isn't it! ;) ) You could also look at what the Shader Pack's FakeFresnel does for looking at an angle to water. There was a thread the other day discussing it and showing an example... I forget who's it was, but it was recent. Good luck!

I've seen a few beaver ponds. They always have a mud-packed dam, behind which is a kind of mud-bottomed pond with alot of debris and dead plants, like you'd find growing in the meadow that they flooded. The lodge is as close to the middle as they can get, but they often burrow into the bank instead.

This really doesn't look like your typical beaver pond. I just think beaver ponds aren't much to look at. The bottom is muddy and covered in dead plant matter. I wanted something colorful and contrasting. I'll post the photoshopped image soon. R.