In this tutorial we are going to use Realflow 4 to create a simple animated object that interacts with a wave using Realwave and creates a wake.
1. Once Realflow is open, create a Realwave surface.
2. Then select the import object menu and scroll down and choose Rocket.
3. With the Rocket selected rotate the rocket to be parallel with the Realwave plane. I used (0,-90,90) because it let the fin of the rocket to be point up.
4. Once the Rocket is parallel, position the Rocket below and outside of the Realwave plane. I placed my rocket at (0.0,-1.0,5.0)
5. Now with your Rocket located in the correct position and rotation. Go to frame 1 or 0 and set a key frame on the Rocket x,y,z position. You can do this by going to the object‘s node Tab and holding RMB (right mouse button) over the position tab and selecting add key.
6. After you have set the first key to you object go to frame 60 and move the rocket to the other side of the Realwave plane. Then go ahead and set the key frames for x,y,z again. When you finish test your animation by scrubbing the timeline or pressing space bar to play the animation. Your rocket should move underneath the water.
7. You‘ll notice when you play the animation the wave does not interact with the object, that’s because we have not yet press simulate. Go ahead at frame 0 press simulate, you will now notice that your animated rocket creates a very small wake.
8. To change the wake size create by an object from under a wave go to the objects Realwave tab. (This is only created if a Realwave Surface is in the scene.) In real wave options scroll down to the Depth Effect option and change the value from its default of 1.0 to a value above 1.5. The higher the value the more pronounce the effect is. Values in this set up, above value of 4 are not really noticeable in how the object reacts the wave.
9. This step is optional. Mouse over the Realwave node and RMB and select > Add Wave > Fractal. This place a default fractal pattern of movement ot the wave. Go back to frame 0 and Reset the simulation and re-simulate. Notice now with the moving water the wake changes. Go ahead and select the fractal and change the weight to 0.5 and the height to 0.25. Then select the rocket and change the Depth Effect to 3.
So this concludes how to create an underwater wake. Hope you had fun. Go ahead and play with different value to see what effects you a can get.