Hmm Need help with this.

from WinCustomize Forums
I have this idea, but I'm not a skilled graphic artist so I heed help on graphics...

Basically, what I need is a fancy pot with water shooting up from it, it should be DesktopX type animated picture, and the height of water shooting up should be varied from no water shooting from pot at all to about 6 times taller than pot itself.

This explains much better than I can by words...


All I need is single picture with 20 frames, from no water to full height. It should be static in certain heights, but pretty smooth animation when changing length. I'm not sure how to pull off making water look good while static.
skinning
7,187 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
make all your frames the same size.
you can use a singe png for the static (default mouse away for example)
and the png strip for the animated mouse over (for example)

Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Is this going to be a meter of some kind? That could be very cool.
The fountain would be more realistic (if I understand what you want) if the water was always animated at the top and would just change height between the bowl and the top.
The Political Machine 2024
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I think Zubaz is on the right track. If this is a DX project, and not just an animation, you could split it up.

As Zubaz suggests, a spill-over type animation to always be at the top. A static "pot" at the bottom.

In between pot and spill-over you could have an animation simulating upward flow in a column. If this animation of flow is formed as a column of uniform height, with graphic bits moving upward each frame, you could then simply set a DX object to show the animation, and change the height of the object. Such an animation should be able to withstand some vertical stretching or compressing well, and the spill-over anim could ride along the top.

Hard part remains, though, in making the anims.
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Ohh yeah. 3 parts: The static pot. The ever-flowing middle section that can handle being compressed/stretched, and finally the top part that's always at top but disappears if it's at zero mode.

Well yeah. It's for a little idea of mine.

I suck on making realistic stuff so I certainly need help on that department.

Sorry about no reply I has been busy for a while.
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Sounds like a cool idea. You should look online for pictures of water and fountains, and look for the subtleties that make the difference between realistic looking water, and fake looking water.

I'm anxious to see how this will turn out.
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I played around with bryce and I can't get water to look good. I am far from being an expert so I'm not sure what to do now.
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I tried and tried... I just can't make water look good. Most times it just looks like glass. Maybe I'll just give up and use vectors for stylized water fountain.
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Try looking up some photoshop tutorials, you can usually find a site that has a couple hundred tutorials and then keyword water.

One more thing, your smoothness will depend on frame count. They are not independant of each other. More frames, more smoothness.
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I just couldn't make water look good. I tried lot of stuff.