How to make realistic flowing water in max

Will Faucher

Hey,
I've been looking around for tutorials as to how I would go about making a realistic flowing river in Max. Don't mention Realflow, not an option for me. There must be some way to get it animated looking right... right?

Mark Dygert

Examples would be good. Turbulent white capped waves? Churning rapids? Ripples on a pond? Water fall? Water from a sprinkler? Rain?

Can you use particles at all? Is it for a game or just rendering?

Will Faucher

Ah, good point there vig, forgot the essential part of my question. I plan on making a river going down the side of a mountain, and off a cliff (You won't be seeing the waterfall part of it though). I'll try to find a youtube link. So something close to rapids, but not churning rapids. I can use particles, yes. This would be for rendering.

Thanks!

*Edit*

Imagine the water being the little path in the middle here. Something like that.

Mark Dygert

humm probably a mix of:
- Animated UV's? You can put a sequence of images in the material slots in max too.
- Two or more animated noise modifiers (one for big waves, another for tiny surface noise)
- Animated transparent ripple textures around rocks, or you can push these out of particle emitters.
- A few more particle emitters where you need spray or splashes.

Will Faucher

I'm guessing that those techniques, along with a nice mental ray shader (caustics, reflections, refraction, etc) should get the job done well then, huh?