Best Way To Animate And Draw Water?

[Dark-Virus]

ok i need to make an animation for a school project but i was wondering whats the best way to animate and draw water droplets sitting on a leaf, its more about drawing them but i would like to animate it slightly. any ideas or help?

[flaminggranny]

This might help. it's a Photoshop animation tutorial, but the principles are the same.

Water Drop on Glass

[Dark-Virus]

yes that does help thanx, but i was looking for a huge closeup and slot more colour. ill try and make an image of what i mean (its not gunna be good) but hopfully it will give the right idea.

[Dark-Virus]

somthing like this, only i want to make it with with right colours to give a better impression on it being a water-droplett.

[flaminggranny]

You're going to want to make the water transparent to give the proper impression. It should also distort what's under it.

Check this tutorial out for how to distort with masks

[ChillyCheese]

A water droplet isnt really a gradient of colors, is pretty much what the other guy said, a distortion of everything around it.

So if you were to do a droplet on a leaf it would have different shades of green and such on in, but not as a gradient, like solid blocks of color.

This is what I mean: (although I didnt do it very well)

[Dark-Virus]

yes! thats what im looking for i know i did a gradiant in the example but his really what im looking for, ive looked around a bit as well at photos of droplets and ive noticed i could do it two ways.

1. make the serface of the droplet reflect the colours or image of th background. and then the middle of the droplet being a close-up of the texture of the leaf its sitting on.

2. its pretty much the other way around, but instead of using close up of textures and maybe pictures for reflections it could be all colours just like the image above (this is what im looking for). the inside of the droplet is the colours of the background and the outer serface are the colours of the leaf its on. -i thik thats way looks better in flash and this is the way i want to do it.

[Dark-Virus]

im still not 100% about this i feel like im missing somthing.

[BillysProgrammer]

You need some opacity, try looking at Waterlollies for some really good ones :D

[Dark-Virus]

At 3/26/09 04:40 PM, BillysProgrammer wrote: You need some opacity, try looking at Waterlollies for some really good ones :D

thanx for the link, i knew i couldnt get away from adams work lol.

sample pic below - im pretty sure i can make somthing with this.

[Dark-Virus]

and now for the animation part. ive tryed somthing buy found a bit of a problem.
Shadow Problem
the shadow of the droplet is inside the symbol of the droplet its self, whats the best way to get around this problem - i need to make it so the shadow is only on the leaf and not in mid air too, masking?

[SK8ninja]

At 3/26/09 05:04 PM, Dark-Virus wrote:

At 3/26/09 04:40 PM, BillysProgrammer wrote: You need some opacity, try looking at Waterlollies for some really good ones :D

thanx for the link, i knew i couldnt get away from adams work lol.

sample pic below - im pretty sure i can make somthing with this.

Wow, you can notice improvements the whole time.

Just a liiittle more and you have it.

[ChillyCheese]

At 3/26/09 05:22 PM, Dark-Virus wrote: masking?

You got it.

[Dark-Virus]

At 3/26/09 05:47 PM, ChillyCheese wrote:

At 3/26/09 05:22 PM, Dark-Virus wrote: masking?

You got it.

nuuuuuuuuu, i hate masking lol. so how do i do that??? put the same animation of the leaf with-in the shadow symbol and make it to the symbol? cus if i wanted to edit it from there it would be kinda hard wouldnt it?