Hey guys,
I need to complete an expansive waterfall shot pretty soon and I am at my wit’s end trying to get a good effect in Maya or AE. I’ve decided to try and give the old pouring salt trick a try but I do not have a handy dandy camcorder by my side to shoot my own film. So, I am hoping that someone here can give me directions to where I can get a file or 2 of salt being poured in front of a black matte background.
Thanks!
I agree. If you’re going the salt route you should definitely give this a shot. It’s a free unrestricted 30 day demo download. http://www.wondertouch.com/ You can mess with the waterfall presets and probably get some pretty decent results.
I’ve gotten pretty good water by shooting a particle-system and then overlaying it with itself several times, offset by a different number of frames. (If you can alter the playback rate for some of the strips, so much the better.) Add blur to some of the layers (but not others). Play with colors. Generally just fiddle around with it in the compositor. Lookin’ for a still shot? Just comp a series of frames down into just one. Pick the ones you like best.
Of course you do this while working with layer(s) that contain nothing but the “water.” Fatten it up in this way and lay it into the streambed. A nice sharply-specular layer in very crisp focus is sugar in the espresso.
What isn’t happening (and doesn’t have to!) is: “I mash the render button, wait X hours (again), and 
.” Bzzzt… nope, not happenin’. CG is just the first step… just the source of the raw materials.
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