Very Easy Improved Water Animation Tutorial

[Creative Ed]

Hey guys!

As allways I'm here to teach you a very very easy way for you to improve your water animations. In fact, it's so easy you don't have to do almost anything!

This tutorial is Beginner Friendly.

After the tutorial you'll have your water looking like this:

So Let's Start!

First Part - Applying the Effect

#1- Download the image below and put it inside the "Parallaxes" folder of your game:

Spoiler

#2- Download the image below and put it in your "Tilesets" folder. Make sure the name is set to "Outside_A1".

Spoiler

#3- Open your project and create a new map. This map must contain water in it and may not have transparent areas.

Spoiler

#4- Open the map's properties and below "Parallax Background" set the graphic to the "Improved Water" one. Check "Loop Horizontal" and "Loop Vertical" and set their values to 1.

#5- Test to see how it looks!

Hope you enjoyed the Tutorial! 

Spoiler

Also hope you enjoy a little extra I put in the "Outside_A1" Graphic. A grass tile animation that makes it look like it's moving due to the wind.

Now for the second part. I'm writing this part for the most curious ones that might want to make their own graphic for the improved water parallax.

Spoiler

Second Part - How to do it?

#1- Make a caustic image that can be tileable. Like this one for example:

#2- Grab a cloudy image, like one of the ones that already come with RPG Maker and place it in a layer below the image above. (Must be a multiple of 32 for the tiles to loop right.)

#3- Loop the caustics image until it fills the size of the cloudy image. Collapse all the copies into one layer if needed.

#4- Reduce the opacity of the top layer until you are satisfied with the result.

#5- Now open the "Outside_A1" image and reduce the opacity to about 70% in the water tiles. So it will enable the Parallax graphic to mix with the water one to give the cool effect.

And voilá! Effect done.

Thank you for your time, and let me know what you think!

Busted Ed


You can view the effect happening in my demo "Busted Ed's Tips n Tricks" that can be found here:

http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/19717-updated-bustededs-tips-n-tricks/

 

[GrandmaDeb]

Thanks for this nice addition to the tuts.


I found a resource with some transparent water tiles which seem like they are compatible with your improved water mapping system here:


http://kinbaginba.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-43.html


Just thought your fans would like some more fodder for inspiration.


Another thought was.....


Could the parallax underneath have shark shadows like Aindra's in it? That would add a whole different element. I realize they would not be animated, so maybe it would look too stiff... but perhaps in very small bodies of water it could work. Or floating jellyfish might be better.


Anyways, I don't want to hijack your topic. I like this idea and plan to try it. Thanks!

 

[Kes]

I love it!  You're a genius!

 

[Creative Ed]

Thanks for this nice addition to the tuts.

I found a resource with some transparent water tiles which seem like they are compatible with your improved water mapping system here:

http://kinbaginba.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-43.html

Just thought your fans would like some more fodder for inspiration.

Another thought was.....

Could the parallax underneath have shark shadows like Aindra's in it? That would add a whole different element. I realize they would not be animated, so maybe it would look too stiff... but perhaps in very small bodies of water it could work. Or floating jellyfish might be better.

Anyways, I don't want to hijack your topic. I like this idea and plan to try it. Thanks!

Hey, thank you very much for the feedback

I guess this topic went a little under the hood because people have to actually do the tutorial in order to see what really happens, so I guess I'll do a small gif to demonstrate.

Also, thank you for the additions of the water graphics and suggestion.

I think one could add some irregularities to the water like the jellyfish you mentioned, but for shark's shadows it would probably be best to use them as events, since they would be able to move that way  

I love it!  You're a genius!

Thanks!

 

[Creative Ed]

*Updated first post, with a gif showing the water's animation.

This is the gif:

*Edit, You can notice I made some moving grass too, you can check it out on my Busted Ed's Tricks n Tips Topic 

http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/19717-updated-bustededs-tips-n-tricks/#entry188528

Or by downloading the Outside A1 graphic in this post.

 

[lexietanium]

Hi i have a question. What if you're using parallax mapping to create maps instead of tiles, does this mean it wont work since i already have a parallax map? Or can you layer them?

 

[Creative Ed]

Hello lexietanium, yes that is one problem this technique has, but since you're using parallax mapping I'mm guessing you may be using a script that works with several layers, right? If so, simply make one layer with the water parallax, or even two if you want to give it even a more fluid effect, while having the spot where you want the water to be cut out from the "ground" layer

 

[lordamon]

Thank you!