A flowing river!!

[Sascha]

How did they do this?

https://www.facebook.com/groups/weatheredmodels/permalink/1150316358451616/

[gavino200]

It's fake. But very well done. If you watch it closely you can see a jump at the end the end of the video loop. 

[EdF]

I like the witchcraft reply.

[cteno4]

Interesting, almost looks like some thick goo, but it does not look like a very steep incline you might need to get something viscous to move down with gravity. Any other posts there (I’m not on fb so can’t see them)?

 

I have heard of water motion being done for waves by projecting a video of surface water (shot from above) onto an opaque water surface from underneath to make it feel like there is some motion happening. I guess you could try the same with a stream, shoot it from above and playback on a small screen that has the above water scenery on top.

 

water is so hard as it does not scale well in motion. Surface tension  doesn’t allow the same motion details at scale you see in real life.

 

jeff

[EdF]

Likely it's an app altering a still image of the whole module.

[cteno4]

Yeah I sort of though that as well.

 

but it now gets me thinking for a short bit a video loop on a screen might work. Could do some semi transparent water details with pva glue onto the screen and just regular detailing for the banks. Raspberry pi and an old monitor. Just have to shoot a stream from above that has the shape you want to model.

 

jeff

[gavino200]

9 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Yeah I sort of though that as well.

 

but it now gets me thinking for a short bit a video loop on a screen might work. Could do some semi transparent water details with pva glue onto the screen and just regular detailing for the banks. Raspberry pi and an old monitor. Just have to shoot a stream from above that has the shape you want to model.

 

jeff

 

Really?? 

 

Jeff, it's an ILLUSION. The video that you're watching is manipulated. There is no screen hidden in a tiny layout. Have you ever been to the movies?

 

On the top left of the screen is the word "Zoetropic"

 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=br.com.zoetropic.free&hl=en_US

Edited October 12, 2018 by gavino200

[cteno4]

Yes I said I thought it was just a blue screen. But it got me thinking about using a screen under the scenery as a way to do this for real. Sorry I was just pondering on how to do it for real in a scene.

 

jeff

[gavino200]

6 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Yes I said I thought it was just a blue screen. But it got me thinking about using a screen under the scenery as a way to do this for real. Sorry I was just pondering on how to do it for real in a scene.

 

jeff

 

Interesting. If the screen didn’t glow too much it might look good.

 

I only had a glance at the app, but I think you can select an area to be a virtual blue screen area. 

[kvp]

6 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Yes I said I thought it was just a blue screen. But it got me thinking about using a screen under the scenery as a way to do this for real. Sorry I was just pondering on how to do it for real in a scene.

It's not blue screen either. The app takes a static photo and morphs it according to movement vectors. So it's a nicely sceniced static river diorama, morphed with software.

 

On the other hand, both under table and over head projection works and i've seen working implementations from both types. One was even a terrain change simulation in a museum, so pretty close to a model diorama. Imho the under table one is more reliable and easier to set up for exhibitions and easiler to make it look ok with bridges and other stuff that would block an overhead projector. The under table projection could use a vacuum formed semi transparent white plastic screen taking the shape of the water surface and a small digital projector or even a film projector with a looped roll.

 

The cheapest and most low tech variant i've seen had a moving looped band, driven by a motor, but that only works for mostly constant width water that is either diagonal with the sides or both ends have to be hidden. On the other hand, if you can hide both ends of the water, then adding small features, like wildwater boating people is easy, especially if the ends are hidden by canyon walls. The ships will move together with the otherwise static water waves, which might not look 100% prototypical but it could be a nice feature for visitors.