Waterfall Special Effects Using Particle

This tutorial will show you how to create a waterfall scene using particle system in 3dsmax. This time, we will not use Particle Flow, instead we use traditional Particle System called Blizzard. Based on complexity of waterfall we will create, it is enough to use simple Particle System like Blizzard.

1. Before you begin, download required file here. This file contains start and finished waterfall animation. Open file waterfall_start.max. There are several objects in the scene. All created using simple object like box and plane. You will use plane in the middle of other objects as water source for waterfall. Consider it like a river that ends as waterfall. Those 2 boxes already got material applied. They all use standard material available in 3dsmax. Later, you can change these 2 boxes with other objects to create river banks for example.

2. Let's start. In Command Panel, make sure Create tab is active. Change drop-down list to Particle System. Click Blizzard Button. Then, click and drag in Top viewport to create Blizzard icon. Don't worry about its size and location. We will change that. Make sure Blizzard icon is still selected. In Command Panel, click Modify tab. Now, you can modify Blizzard's parameters. In Basic Parameters rollout, fill in Width=480, Length=35. Then, set particle appeareance in viewport.as Mesh. Also set Percentage of Particles=100. By changing percentage to 100%, you can see all particles in viewport.

3. Leave Modify tab for a while. Using Select And Tranform Tool, move Blizzard to the edge of waterfall. Look at image below for reference. Make sure this icon a little bit overlap with the edge.

4. Now, go back to Modify panel. We will change another particle's attributes. Click Particle Generation rollout to open. Change several values like image below. In this step, we change particle quantity, speed, timing, and size. In Particle Timing, we set Emit Start using negative value (-100) because we want waterfall already 'appear' since frame 0. And we set Life=100 to fit with total frame available.

5. Open Particle Type rollout. We use Facing as Standard Particle type. Because you have already set particle display as Mesh, now you can see particles appear as small square face(facing). Facing is a special, because its normal always parallel with viewport view. Try to make perspective viewport active and scrub slider. Then, activate another viewport and watch how facing behave. Last particle parameter you will need to change is Rotation. Open Rotation and Collision rollout. Set Spin Time=0 to make particle face won't rotate. We don't want particle to rotate.

6. Image below shows our waterfall scene this far. Scrub slider to watch a lot of small square face falling from the edge.

Now, you will texture this waterfall. There are two area need to be textured, one is the particle system itself and the other is the river (the plane in the middle). Let's start this Page 2 tutorial.

7. Continue your exercise. We will try to texture particle first. Select particle in viewport. Open Material Editor (press M in keyboard). Select one of empty material slot. Name this material "falling water". While particle still selected, click Assign Material to Selection button. This material will be applied to particle. Activate Show Map in Viewport button if you wish.
In Shader Basic Parameter, activate Face Map. This option will apply each particle with the same material. You must activate this option, or else you can't have nice water effect. Click color box right next to Diffuse. Change its color to pale blue (R=208, G=219, B=236). After that, click small button right next to Opacity. Material/Map Browser window will appear. Choose Gradient by clicking it twice. You will then go to Gradient Parameters rollout.

8. In Gradient Parameters rollout, change Gradient Type to Radial. Leave other settings as default. When finished, try to render Perspective viewport.

9. Next step, you will create another material for the river. First, select Plane and got to Modify Panel. Add UVW Modifier. Use Box as mapping type.

10. Open Material Editor again. Select an empty material slot. Name this material "flowing water". Apply this material to Plane and activate Show Map in Viewport if you wish. In Blinn Basic Parameters, click small button right next to Diffuse color box. Material/Map Browser window will appear. Choose Noise by double clicking it. You will be sent to Noise Parameters rollout.

11. In Noise Parameters rollout, select Noise Type=Fractal and change Color #1 to dark blue (R=82, G=109, B=163). After that, go to Coordinates rollout above, set Tiling in X axis to 3.

12. Click Go to Parent button once. Open rollout Maps. Click and drag Map# (Noise) button from Diffuse, and release it on Bump. Use Instance as duplication method. Now, you have a copy of the same material in Bump map. Don't forget to set Bump amount to 100.

13. Try render Perspective viewport. Image below shows textured waterfall. Not quite like a waterfall? Don't worry. We will fix that later in Page 3.

last installment of waterfall tutorial. What you will do here is just making couple of adjustment. You will add Space Warp to make particle spread wider in the bottom part of waterfall. Also you will make flowing animation for water in river. You will create this animation using simple technique, just by using animated texture.

14. Continue your exercise. First, you will modify shape of waterfall a little bit. In Command Panel, click Space Warp button in Create tab. Make sure Forces selected in drop-down list. Then, click Wind button. Click and drag in Front viewport to create Wind icon. Use any size and location for this icon.

15. Select Blizzard Particle System in viewport. After that, click Bind to Space Warp button located at top of your screen. Press H to open Select Space Warp window. Hightlight Wind01 to select this Space Warp and click Bind button. Now, Wind Space Warp will affect particle.

16. You may notice that Wind's effect is too strong. Select Wind icon, activate Modify panel. In Parameters rollout, reduce its Strength to 0.01. As result, Wind still affecting particle, but in a very reduced strength. Shape of waterfall will be altered, especially in the bottom part of waterwall. Look at Left viewport to see the effect.

17. In the next step, we will create flowing water animation in river area. Before you go further, make sure you activate Auto Key and change Default In/Out Tangents for New Keys to Linear. Look at image below for reference.

18. Open Material Editor by pressing M in keyboard. Select "flowing water" material. Open Maps rollout. Click on Map# (Noise) button to open another rollout. Move slider to frame 100. Then, in Coordinates rollout set Y Offset=500, and in Noise Parameters rollout set Phase=5. When finished, de-activate again Auto Key. Because the other Noise map is an instance, we only need to change once.
Y Offset is to simulate flowing water movement. We tell 3dsmax to move texture along Y axis. Meanwhile, Phase is used to add water ripple effect, to make water look dynamic.

19. You may wonder what Default In/Out Tangents for New Keys used for. We set Linear in order to make water animation looks linear, just like water flow in river. If we look at Curve Editor, linear animation is created just like image below.

20. Last step is to add motion blur to particle. Select particle in viewport. Right click and choose Properties. Object Properties window will be opened. Set Motion Blur to Image with Multiplier=5. Click OK. Try a test render. Image below shows before and after Motion Blur.

Our Waterfall tutorial is finished. You may want to render the animation as a movie. It's a very nice waterfall effect you have already created. Congratulations!