Zak666Williams opened this issue on Jan 21, 2008 ยท 12 posts
forester posted Mon, 21 January 2008 at 1:03 PM
Attached Link: http://www.cornucopia3d.com/purchase.php?item_id=4587
No, it is not possible to animate those particular rapids. I have some that can be animated via Python scripting, but if you don't like these rapids, in terms of render time, you really won't like the animated version. The python script takes the first mesh and deforms it in each animation step according to the way if which the real water would change shape, but each frame still needs to be rendered, of course. As the others have said, since these water rapids are accurate scale models of real moving water and foam, they are necessarily complex meshes. They get their realistic appearance from the way light refracts within the meshes - and these light calculations take a long time to compute, particularly in Vue 6, with its more accurate light engines. The foam mat I provided in this package is about as fast a render mat as I could come up with. It is about 13 times as fast as the normal Vue 6 foam mats. (Cold comfort, I know!) But, mostly the source of long rendering times is the need to calculate how light bends within the water bodies, based on the sunlight or external light source. This is the "price" of physically accurate, realistic looking water, as far as I know. For your animation, you might do better to consider something less physically accurate. If the focal point of your animation is not the water anyhow, why not try something less realistic. Here are three suggestions. One - why not create a simple wrinkly terrain with the complexity of the terrain mesh made as low as possible, give it some water material, and try deforming the material at each animation step. Two, you would certainly have much better luck for your animation with wabe's excellent "Sea Splashes," which might be better labeled as "spray" in the English language (link is given). Three, you also might have better luck with Monsoon's Seascape packs, which are more painterly and more suitable for medium distances. I don't have any experience in attempting to animate Monsoon's products, however, so I am unsure of making this latter recomendation.