Fishing Bobber - WIP

[Darter]

Here's a basic XPresso setup for creating this effect.

User Data settings on the XPresso tag determine the amount of rotation about each axis as the bobber moves down to the specified depth. For each axis, Min Rot determines the rotation when the bobber is at the surface and Max Rot determines the rotation when it is at the specified depth.

The expression is driven by moving the Line object on the Y axis.

Adding Random or Noise nodes would enable a given Y value to generate different sets of rotation values at different frames. Of course, variation can also be created by keyframing the User Data values.

[Tiziano]

Thanks Darter,
3dKiwi over on C4D Cafe suggested the vibrate expression as per the 'Duck Race' video tute that came with v9.

Between the two ideas I should be able to figure out what I'm doing :shrug:

[Darter]

Well I couldn't resist adding a Noise node anyway, so here's an updated file with a randomness option for the heading value. The noise parameters are adjustable via the User Data. Just hit play to see the effect.

I hope you find the result you're after.

[Tiziano]

I was just messing around with it too and added the vibrate tag.

Tomorrow I think I'll parent a small sphere to the bottom of the 'line' and a spline below the surface. I could then parent the small sphere to the spline and animate some forward and side to side motion along with the 'bobbing.'

Wish me luck and thanks for the great starts. :beer: (Fosters, right?)

[Darter]

Good luck and let us know how you go.

:beer: (Fosters, right?)Maaaaate....!

[Tiziano]

Good luck and let us know how you go.
http://www.jmtype.com/bobber2.mov
The original render is 26Mb but I got it down to less that 700k, hence the pixelisation.

Here's my second test of the Fishing Bobber. I made some very minor changes to the Xpresso late last night but at this point I don't remember what (added another clamp node to limit the y height maybe?).

The water mesh is a RealFlow3 RealWave.

I neglected to do an untextured animation test render so the motion is not exactly what I'm after though it's close.

Crits welcome.

Anyway, hours of texturing tests to make believable water. I think I got pretty close.
Those using Windows might see this a little dark. On my Powerbook it looks great, to me. :D

Many thanks go to Darter :thumbsup: for his amazing Xpresso work. It is WAY beyond me at this point but I'm dissecting it. Still not sure how to know what nodes to add when and why.

Edit-
Here's a wmv version for you Windows users:
http://www.jmtype.com/bobber2.wmv

[Darter]

Thanks for the update, this is coming along nicely.

I'm not by a lake at the moment but I think the ripples need to travel faster. The effect is already looking good, though.

If you haven't seen it before, a great water simulation using After Effects and displacement maps can be seen here:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=162372&highlight=spd+water

I felt compelled to do one last version of the expression, replacing the Noise node with spline-based control for the heading angle variation. This enables hands-on control and seamless looping of the frame sequence.

[Tiziano]

Thanks for the update, this is coming along nicely.

I'm not by a lake at the moment but I think the ripples need to travel faster. The effect is already looking good, though.

If you haven't seen it before, a great water simulation using After Effects and displacement maps can be seen here:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=162372&highlight=spd+water

I felt compelled to do one last version of the expression, replacing the Noise node with spline-based control for the heading angle variation. This enables hands-on control and seamless looping of the frame sequence.
WOW! :thumbsup: Thanks again. Do they sell Fosters in cases? Or is it kegs? ;)
Maybe my RFWave is to thick? I had seen TimC's post but now I'll look more closely at it. Since I have AE6.5Pro I probably also have WaveWorld somewhere. :hmm:

New topic, how does one learn Xpresso? I've gone through the tutes from Maxon and some on C4dCafe. I guess it's trial and error.

[Darter]

RealFlow is a total mystery to me but the water does look a bit too viscous. Maybe take that Powerbook out on the river and do a spot of fishing whilst tweaking RealFlow settings. TimC explains his approach using AE so that could be worth a look.

The Maxon and C4D Café tuts are a good start for learning XPresso. There are also Srek’s XPresso Anonymous tuts: http://www.bonkers.de/xpa/ and Lachlan’s tuts: http://www.today.plus.com/3d/tuts/. Another good resource is base80’s site: http://www.base80.com/.

Do the tuts and pull apart every expression you can get your hands on. Also have a look at the manual and familiarize yourself with the nodes. Once you have a basic understanding, the node-based nature of XPresso makes it easy to work things out.

[Dxotic]

Great work!

I have been meaning to get my feet wet with Xpresso.

It seems to be something that i need to be able to add to my arsenal.too busy right now.Thanks Darter i really appreciate those links. Just had a quick look at Base80 Blog
it looks like alot of useful info there. :love:

[Tiziano]

RealFlow is a total mystery to me but the water does look a bit too viscous. Maybe take that Powerbook out on the river and do a spot of fishing whilst tweaking RealFlow settings. TimC explains his approach using AE so that could be worth a look.

The Maxon and C4D Café tuts are a good start for learning XPresso. There are also Srek’s XPresso Anonymous tuts: http://www.bonkers.de/xpa/ and Lachlan’s tuts: http://www.today.plus.com/3d/tuts/. Another good resource is base80’s site: http://www.base80.com/.

Do the tuts and pull apart every expression you can get your hands on. Also have a look at the manual and familiarize yourself with the nodes. Once you have a basic understanding, the node-based nature of XPresso makes it easy to work things out.

There is a pond in the back yard. Great idea!
Srek's and Base80's tutes always seemed like I needed to have prior info before I could really get into them. And, I think the Lachlan tutes may just contain that :applause:

I went through the manual again last night. Sure, I get the words but ...?

Anyway, thanks for all and I'm going to have a real go at those tutes!

[Darter]

Dxotic: Thanks for the feedback. I’m glad you found the links useful, they have all the info you need to get up and running. Go on, dig in!

Tiziano: Lachlan’s tutes are definitely a good starting point. The manual is useful for getting an overview of what the various nodes can do and becoming conversant with those you end up using. A lot can be done with just a handful of nodes, though. It really doesn’t take long for things to click into place.

Good luck and beware, this stuff is highly addictive.

[base80]

Thanks Dxotic for paying a visit to my site (and yes I know exactly where people come from)
I did a tutorial about collisions that may be useful double_collision (http://www.base80.com/index.php/2005/08/15/tut_double_collision)

There is a tut about cables too (search: cable)

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