Escalight - 3ds Max tutorial, Photoshop, Flash, V-Ray, Blender, Free 3D models, etc

by Didik Wijaya
This tutorial needs you to understand basic use of 3dsmax.

After you create Particle System in Part 1 dan texture in Part 2, finally we've come to Part 3, last installment of waterfall tutorial. What you will do here is just making couple of adjustment. You will add Space Warp to make particle spread wider in the bottom part of waterfall. Also you will make flowing animation for water in river. You will create this animation using simple technique, just by using animated texture.

1. You may continue your exercise in Part 2, or simply download Part 2 finished file here (42kb, zipped, 3dsmax 8 format). First, you will modify shape of waterfall a little bit. In Command Panel, click Space Warp button in Create tab. Make sure Forces selected in drop-down list. Then, click Wind button. Click and drag in Front viewport to create Wind icon. Use any size and location for this icon.

2. Select Blizzard Particle System in viewport. After that, click Bind to Space Warp button located at top of your screen. Press H to open Select Space Warp window. Hightlight Wind01 to select this Space Warp and click Bind button. Now, Wind Space Warp will affect particle.

3. You may notice that Wind's effect is too strong. Select Wind icon, activate Modify panel. In Parameters rollout, reduce its Strength to 0.01. As result, Wind still affecting particle, but in a very reduced strength. Shape of waterfall will be altered, especially in the bottom part of waterwall. Look at Left viewport to see the effect.

4. In the next step, we will create flowing water animation in river area. Before you go further, make sure you activate Auto Key and change Default In/Out Tangents for New Keys to Linear. Look at image below for reference.

5. Open Material Editor by pressing M in keyboard. Select "flowing water" material. Open Maps rollout. Click on Map# (Noise) button to open another rollout. Move slider to frame 100. Then, in Coordinates rollout set Y Offset=500, and in Noise Parameters rollout set Phase=5. When finished, de-activate again Auto Key. Because the other Noise map is an instance, we only need to change once.

Y Offset is to simulate flowing water movement. We tell 3dsmax to move texture along Y axis. Meanwhile, Phase is used to add water ripple effect, to make water look dynamic.

6. You may wonder what Default In/Out Tangents for New Keys used for. We set Linear in order to make water animation looks linear, just like water flow in river. If we look at Curve Editor, linear animation is created just like image below.

7. Last step is to add motion blur to particle. Select particle in viewport. Right click and choose Properties. Object Properties window will be opened. Set Motion Blur to Image with Multiplier=5. Click OK. Try a test render. Image below shows before and after Motion Blur.

Our Waterfall tutorial is finished. You may want to render the animation as a movie. It's a very nice waterfall effect you have already created. Congratulations!
Waterfall Part 3 finished file available here for download (42kb, zipped, 3dsmax 8 format).

Waterfall Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3

Any question or comments regarding this tutorial should be sent to:
Didik Wijaya, email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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