Storyline Images - Ships and ocean waves in heavy sea

[Mille]

Well - One of the things i wanted to do for a long time now, was to make ship images. The most difficult thing therin lies in creating waves, that really look natural. Well, I think the last results i could achieve where quite good and i could bet that there are some storylines that might find this of some use in genral.
Even if I´m very happy with the waves itself, i have a big problem in creating spray on the crown of the waves. (I hope this is understandable, as i don´t have a better english word at hand).

I tried to do some postprocessing in gmp, and it makes the images a bit more dramatical. What distrubs me most in this is the fact, that the spray tool in gimp produces to similar results everywhere, so perhaps there are some of those graphic heros here, who have an idea, what can be done in gimp to imporve this.

[Mille]

My very first tries with a still sea

[Mille]

Well this was my try with a work on spray on top of the ways. As said, it would be nice if know a way to improve this in gimp.

I think this version looks more dramatical

[Urs]

Very Nice Looking! Hmm... Might this work for Saving Elensefar?

I'm afraid I can't help you with your gimp question, though.

[Kestenvarn]

Two of those shots look more appropriate for a stormy sea, which makes them seem out of place having such a clear picture.

I wonder how these would combine with the oilfy technique. The last one might turn out especially well - although, what's with the dropoff?

[thespaceinvader]

The top one looks off because the ship has no sail up, but no anchor down - it's drifting. It looks very strange that way... Also, the water here is much too reflective given the size of the waves.

The second one looks great.

The third one looks off because the ship has FAR too much sail up for the size of the waves, which would be caused by very high winds.

On the two with high swell, the sea just stops halfway into the background, like it's a sculpture that's been cut off (which i know it is, effectively, but you need to make the perspective such that it looks like the sea extends beyond frame in all directions).

Other than that, very good, the models are very nice. But again, i'll ask, are these models your own, and if not, are they GPL'd/do you have permission to use them?

[Telvannia]

ignoring the realistic error thespaceinvader saw these are amazing. Though as im sure someone will say they dont fit in to wesnoth with it current style:

Come and join spacenoth!

[Mille]

bloody bugs...

well you have three time the incentive to join now.

I have opened a thread at the Wesnoth forum as promised. I´m already working on some things

[Sgt. Groovy]

The top one looks bad because there are very big and very small waves, but nothing in between. The other are much better, especially the last one. Basically, the waves in the ocean are a bunch of sine waves in interference, and you have to get the spectrum (how much there are of each wavelength) righ to make it look good.

As for the spray and foam, that might be more difficult, they should basically appear in places where there are sharper ridges on top of waves. If you have the vaweform as a height map, you could try to make a derivate of it (a map whose values depend on the amount of change per unit of distance), and use it as a mask for a foam texture, projected from above. Maybe some sort of edge detection filter applied on the height map could work?

[Mille]

The top one looks off because the ship has no sail up, but no anchor down - it's drifting. It looks very strange that way... Also, the water here is much too reflective given the size of the waves.

The second one looks great.

The third one looks off because the ship has FAR too much sail up for the size of the waves, which would be caused by very high winds.

On the two with high swell, the sea just stops halfway into the background, like it's a sculpture that's been cut off (which i know it is, effectively, but you need to make the perspective such that it looks like the sea extends beyond frame in all directions).

- The first one was only posted as reference, how simple rendered waves look. So i know that its not good, it gives a good impression of the basic problem.

- Yes, the second, even if it is a simple scene, it looks nice.

- Regarding the third the number of sails - I´m not sure if you are right in this. I simply don´t know enough about sailing. If you can tell me which sails to desail, i could try, but i wouldn´t know, if this is possible right now

[Sgt. Groovy]

The top one looks bad because there are very big and very small waves, but nothing in between. The other are much better, especially the last one. Basically, the waves in the ocean are a bunch of sine waves in interference, and you have to get the spectrum (how much there are of each wavelength) righ to make it look good.

As for the spray and foam, that might be more difficult, they should basically appear in places where there are sharper ridges on top of waves. If you have the vaweform as a height map, you could try to make a derivate of it (a map whose values depend on the amount of change per unit of distance), and use it as a mask for a foam texture, projected from above.

Here's something I tried on my own. Top left is a height map, and top right shows it bumpmapped, and it looks a bit like a stormy sea. On bottom left the height map is superimposed with an image made from it by applying the Gaussian difference edge detection filter (shaded red for visibility), black being made transparent. On bottom right the same image is put on top of the bump map, showing that it aligns about where the foam should be, that is, if you would use the edge detection image as a mask for the foam texture, it would only appear on the wave ridges.

[Mille]

The top one looks bad because there are very big and very small waves, but nothing in between. The other are much better, especially the last one. Basically, the waves in the ocean are a bunch of sine waves in interference, and you have to get the spectrum (how much there are of each wavelength) righ to make it look good.

As for the spray and foam, that might be more difficult, they should basically appear in places where there are sharper ridges on top of waves. If you have the vaweform as a height map, you could try to make a derivate of it (a map whose values depend on the amount of change per unit of distance), and use it as a mask for a foam texture, projected from above.

Here's something I tried on my own. Top left is a height map, and top right shows it bumpmapped, and it looks a bit like a stormy sea. On bottom left the height map is superimposed with an image made from it by applying the Gaussian difference edge detection filter (shaded red for visibility), black being made transparent. On bottom right the same image is put on top of the bump map, showing that it aligns about where the foam should be, that is, if you would use the edge detection image as a mask for the foam texture, it would only appear on the wave ridges.

This sound interesting.
But Hups - I can´t see it :8

[Sgt. Groovy]

Sorry about the quirks, the server chaps my arse today. Let's try again:

Here's something I tried on my own. Top left is a height map, and top right shows it bumpmapped, and it looks a bit like a stormy sea. On bottom left the height map is superimposed with an image made from it by applying the Gaussian difference edge detection filter (shaded red for visibility), black being made transparent. On bottom right the same image is put on top of the bump map, showing that it aligns about where the foam should be, that is, if you would use the edge detection image as a mask for the foam texture, it would only appear on the wave ridges.

[Sgt. Groovy]

Argh, the images are not uploading, you'll have to wait for the picture.

[Sgt. Groovy]

OK, let's try for external source: