Hi.  I don't live near the ocean and have never been to one, but I'm animating ocean waves for this animated project I'm working on.  Basically the camera is moving across the ocean towards a small island, passes through the island and back out over the sea.  I have sort of figured out how to create the rolling waves motion (using the wave effects tab), but am not sure what direction the waves are supposed to be going in.  I know that closer to the island the waves would head towards the island, but what about on the open oceans.

Thanks.

David

Wind and tide effect the waves. If the wind is calm, the tide and far off waves can create large rollers, but the wind effects the waves by making chop and then you can have mixed seas, where the shape of the ocean bottom and land create channels where the tide moves unevenly. I'd use large rollers away from shore, and shorter more tightly spaced waves closer in to shore.

Thanks for the advice. I've tried to create a realistic water texture but am coming up with a horrible blue monstosity. Do you know if there are any tutorials for creating realistic water textures? Thanks. David

Hello David. As far as I know you cannot animate terrains in Carrara unless you convert them to a vertex object. You can animate a simple plane, (not infinite) with an AVI or QT file in the displacement channel in a shader however. I have had good success in animating terrains from the top view using an altitude mask render in Bryce and exporting the greyscale animation as an AVI to use in Carrara. I've made small rivers and streams this way and I think it  should also work for animated seas. As far as realistic ocean water shaders be sure and check out this recent post. Patrick210 gives a very nice recipe for ocean water and a very helpful tut for simulating ocean waves with a terrain. HTH, Dan

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2660110