Modeling Water

[cholme@me.com]

I have seen some amazing renders of images with water. I was wondering if there is a tutorial or something available for how to model and render water. Specifically, I am designing a water feature and would like to give it a realistic look so I would need rippled water on the surface of metal. I would also love to know a technique for doing something with splashes.

Thanks for any help.

[Soup]

SketchUp isn't really the best for modeling the fluidity of water. It's easy to make a box with a displaced surface, but if you want more dynamic looking water (ie: splashes) then you'll be better off using a different program. There are some great water simulation tools out there

[FenixPheonix]

For instance, you could export the container from Sketchup to Blender, set up the simulation using that, and then export a frame of the resulting mesh back to Sketchup. I haven't tried it with water, but I've used it for some organic modeling I couldn't do in Sketchup. It'll be very high-poly, but well worth the effort. You could just hide it if it's too high poly for your computer to handle (which can happen. Sketchup isn't very good at taking huge amounts of polies.)

[cholme@me.com]

FenixPheonix - Thanks for the tip, it sound like a good plan... a couple problems. I downloaded Blender and it makes absolutely no sense to me. Any tips where to begin? And I am using a Mac, and there is not Blender/Indigo installer. Is there a way to get back to SketchUp from Blender?

Forgive me if I sound ignorant to a lot of this... I am a furniture maker, not a computer guy. I am pretty tech savvy, but the Blender UI just make no sense to me.

Thank again.

[Zom-B]

I think some ISL based solution would do the best work here! Using Indigo Subdiv to get a (final) high poly count with displacement. By this you keep your Sketchup Polycount low!

If you are maybe start a Therad in the Material SubForum, you'll get some ideas from more skilled ISL guys around here. Galiante is the guy who puts such magic right out of his hat usually

[cholme@me.com]

Thanks for your input. I downloaded Blender and frankly it seems very difficult to use.

I know I may never get photorealistic in SketchUp, but it would be nice to get decent results. I tried modeling a glass of water and the water keeps rendering black. Is there something I am missing? I tried it flat and also with thickness.

Any Ideas?

[Headroom]

The last two or three pages in the Indigo Technical Manual describe in detail what needs to be considered when modeling a glass of water. My guess would be that it's a precedence problem.

[cholme@me.com]

Perhaps this is one of my problems... Technical Manual? I only have the SketchUp Manual. Where can I get the Technical manual? Under documentation on the website there seems to be only the manuals for the specific exporters.

[Soup]

Clicking on the Documentation link will take you here: http://www.indigorenderer.com/documentation

[cholme@me.com]

I see what was happening. On my computer, the pull down menu items don't open the actual page, just the pull down list which doesn't have the indigo manual.

Thanks for the info, I will read it.

[cholme@me.com]

Ok... I am doing something wrong... perhaps someone can help. I attached a SketchUp model and my rendering of a glass of water which I did according to the specs in the Technique Manual. I used 2 different materials for the Glass and Water, applied the presets in Indigo (Water and Glass accordingly) and it clearly is not working.

HELP!!!

[snorky]

a storm in a teacup!
hehehehe

turn off soften edge from glass!

[cholme@me.com]

THANK YOU!!! I didn't think of that.