Evaluation and conclusions from experiments on deformation

From my experiments I found many interesting things from the modifiers I tested. I have now accessed the strengths and weaknesses of each technique I used. These experiments will help me determine what modifiers that I should use for future products.

Experiment Results:

Experiment One: Free Form Deformation

From using free form deformation I have found it ineffective to use to animate water. The reason being that you have to animate each individual control point which is very time consuming. Also as you move the control points stretching occurs when the animation is scrubbed across the timeline but does not appear when making the movements in the window. This made it frustrating as I had to go back and figure out which movement caused this stretching and fix it. Overall the time it took to make two key frames of the control points was not worth the effort. As the animation looked too static and unrealistic. I would not recommend using free form deformation to animate things like water.

Experiment Two: Patch Deformation

Using patch deformation resulted in a lucky find when it came to noise. Before starting this project I wasn't looking at noise as a possible technique to use. By using the patch deform I really liked the effect it had on the plane. The only issue I had was that I was not able to subdivide the quad patches as much as a plane. This was because it kept crashing my 3ds Max when I subdivided too much. This resulted in me losing the maximum impact noise could have on the patch. This was ultimately the reason I moved away from using it for my final model.

Experiment Three: Noise Modifier

As I mentioned earlier I used the noise to deform the patch object. Here instead of the patch I used a plane which enabled the subdivisions that I wanted. I was very impressed with how the noise looked and the control I was given. I was really impressed with its built in animation process. This made animating very easy and produced an effective animation to simulate water movement.

Experiment Four: Wave and Ripple Modifiers

Before going into this I expected that the wave and ripple modifiers to produce the best results. However on their own the effect was a bit lack luster. Only when they were combined did the water look realistic. Both modifiers were easy to adjust and animate. To animate it only required adjusting the phase on one of them on the timeline as it would edit the other one along with it.

Experiment Five: Using the best of best

In this experiment I tested out the three modifiers that produced the best results. These being the wave, ripple and noise. I expected by combining all three that I would get the best effect. However this was not the case. This was because the phases from the noise was fighting with the phases in the ripple and wave. This resulted in parts of the water moving too fast and making it look like a rough choppy ocean. This was the effect I wanted to avoid as I wanted a nice calm ocean.

Conclusions:

From my experiments I have found out that the noise modifier on its own would be best to use for my final project. The noise modifier produced the best result and offers the ease and control that will help me make an effective animation. The only issue with the noise is that smooths the object. This will make me lose the poly art effect but this can be fixed by applying a poly art texture and bump map to the plane. This won't be a major issue in the game I am making as the player will never be able to go into the water.