Water VFX brief: Week 1 Tuesday

On Tuesday my day consisted of gathering as many extra tutorials as possible for the upcoming tasks:

Waterfall particle effects scrapped:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LnCU_SzmLo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC6CjIMm8ao

I ended up not following these tutorials in particular as the particle effects were too misty, and were unfit to be used for a small scale water feature where the water is pouring more gently.

Particle events:
https://wiki.unrealengine.com/index.php?title=Particle_Events

I deemed this video to be useful in the future for when I make a trickling water particle effect that generates a splash particle effect upon hitting the water surface.

Rain particle effects:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qmb2FrFunME

This video was chosen in case I decide to add rain, but also to serve as a base guide to creating a trickling water effect.

Ripple particle effects:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz_9ySkEUGY

This video in particular was used as a inspiration and guide to creating a ripple effect, however, I ended up heavily changing the blueprint shown in order to make the ripple react directly to the water coming into contact with an actor.

Infiltrator breakdown; droplet effect:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=442&v=RURQSR788Dg

This video was less helpful as it didn't teach me anything, but still helped me consider the shape of the water droplets and splashes.

Waterfall shader:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOr7E0noyVw

I ended up using this tutorial as a loose guide to create a scrolling texture for falling water, however I will be comparing it to the effect of using a particle effect for slower and smaller amounts of water in order to keep it as realistic to the intensity of water as possible.

Buoyancy tutorial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1660&v=kkxJeyG2whw

This tutorial was considered in case I wanted to make lily pads and other things float on top of the water, but will most likely be kept to a stretch goal if I have time closer to the end of the project.

Waterfall preview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdXIAg2iLiM

I found this tutorial unhelpful, but very interesting as I'd love to know what the spline in the middle of the waterfall is for, and how the ends of the mesh generate the splash particle effect on play. Just like the buoyancy tutorial however, I will most likely shelf this enquiry until I decide on whether I'll be using a panning texture for the stream effect or a particle effect, as they will require different blueprints to react with the water surface.

Finally, I found a complete blueprint guide to creating a fluid, reactive surface in UE4:

https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/Engine/Rendering/RenderTargets/BlueprintRenderTargets/HowTo/FluidSurface/index.html

I decided to test this out, and if it worked I would scrap my previous water shader for this one, adding in any edits that I needed to create the perfect water.