How I Made This Anime Water in Blender

enslaved moisture
If you manage to make something out of this, share it with us !
Discord: / discord
Twitter: / simon_3_d
Reddit: / simon_3d
If you don't feel like following the tutorial, it's ok. Life is Pay to Win kinda game so you can grab the project file here:
Gumroad: simon3d.gumroa...
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*It's an affiliate links, so if you get it through this, I earn a commission

[@Simon3D]

Since yo uwere asking for better resolution screenshot of the nodes, here it is: twitter.com/Simon_3_D/status/1622554398516813825?s=20&t=KasSRTWkEFf-GsjtK-wYMA (this is the best I can do. It's not super ultra 8k resolution, but it's readable)

[@coruptsociety]

Hey i followed up to 1:40 in the video to a t, have done several times, but when I play the timeline the ripples do not move, am I just being stupid? What am I missing here? Everything I have done has been exactly the same, looks the same but no luck with making the water move, can anyone help?

[@TripFontain]

Hey how do you get the ripples to interact with the caustics?

[@Dylawa]

Some CRITICAL NOTES if you want to follow this tutorial step by step and NOT go insane/want to tear your hair out: - Subdivide, but don't go nuts with it. The excessive geometry will bite you later. - If you're furious and bewildered by your dynamic paint not showing up despite all your settings being the same, or if you get your water to look nice but the ripples around your object just stop, play the animation timeline. It's easy to miss at the very bottom of the screen here, especially with KZbin's pause bar right in the way. Simon is playing his "animation" the entire time he's in the node editor. - To observe Simon's node creation step by step, on desktop pause the video, then use the < and > keys to go frame by frame. This seems to be common YT knowledge by now, but maybe this will help someone new - You'll notice some of the number slots in his math nodes turn purple, and you might not have any idea why, or you might not even notice it at first like I did. This is done by manually typing "#frame" followed by a mathematical operation (in most cases, it's #frame/1). This is what's actually going to get your textures to pan and control the speed of your ripples, so don't skip out on this. - Speaking of math nodes, any time a node says "multiply" or "divide", etc, it's a math node. There is no "add" or "subtract" node. Same with the purple "Add" node, only this one is a Vector Math node. - Depending on what you're trying to accomplish, step 4 (caustics) might be overkill for your project. In my case, I combined this texture with Blender's Ocean modifier, including sea foam, so caustics would have been way, way too much visually. Evaluate on an as needed basis whether caustics are for you, and if not, you're done once you reach step 4. All that being said, this is an excellent tutorial; it's just catered a little more towards those with moderate Blender experience, not beginners.

[@paras108]

Thanks for help

[@wes_lee4122]

thanks for the help. still, for some reason, dynamic paint not showing up despite all my settings being the same and animation playing all the time

[@Alchemic_Sound]

@@wes_lee4122 One of the problems I had was finding the "Color Attribute" node. When I looked it up, it is called the "Vertex Color" node. Once I did that, it worked.

[@obsidienne7593]

@@wes_lee4122 I had the same issue. To resolve it, I had to create the wetmap (in the canvas parameters, go to output, and if the layers are in red, click on the + to create them), and then in the color attribute, select dp_wetmap. Hope it can help!

[@coruptsociety]

Hey i followed up to 1:40 in the video to a t, have done several times, but when I play the timeline the ripples do not move, am I just being stupid? What am I missing here? Everything I have done has been exactly the same, looks the same but no luck with making the water move, can anyone help?

[@fittyyen]

I get to the end of these and think... Oh I should build this out, I'll add it to the EXPONENTIALLY growing list of things I want to try... I'll get to you one day shader studies

[@Simon3D]

Really appreciate you staying till the end ^^

[@Void-Element]

"Don't worry kids, the test won't be difficult" The Test:

[@Shalfatk01]

the result is *chef kiss* ! rly nice work there !

[@AllAcacia]

That "subscribe" was done so smooth I can't get mad

[@deadflea]

Amazing, looks great, that parallax effect is incredible... And also, the way the surface ripples seem to accurately distort the river bed is awesome..

[@Alchemic_Sound]

This video is dangerous. The ancient text that appears made my hand move the mouse to the subscribe button and no matter what I did, I could not regain control until "subscribed" appeared. Magic is happening here. Super cool video though! And you are amazing for putting a screenshot up. I was using an older version of blender to finish a project, so I had to do some work arounds and go frame by frame to see where it was not working, but it was super rewarding. Learned a ton and motivation has now skyrocketed. Thank you for this!

[@JoginderPal-lg5iq]

Bro.. this comment deserves a Heart...

[@julianalbum]

this is awesome!! i've never seen anything like it before and its really unique i also love the new video style with the editing it really shows your personality in the video

[@Simon3D]

Oh man ! Thanks alot :) was really worried about this one :D

[@StylizedStation]

pretty cool result, nice stuff

[@Simon3D]

Oh wow, hello there ^^

[@pes3ta]

DAAAAAAM it looks gorgeous

[@SmallWhiteRabbit]

Your tutorials are the best but slowly explained i would suggest.

[@Simon3D]

If you prefer slower pace videos, then I recommend checking my other videos where I go and explain step by step the process behind every topic in the video :) Maybe that'll be more to your liking ^^

[@frinkelmiles]

@@Simon3D Thank you my good sir *salute Emoticon*

[@justinxia4299]

I love your stuff man, it’s always super helpful!!!!!! Hope you make more of these videos !!!!!!

[@placebo_yue]

never seen the dynamic paint thing before, thanks for the tip, very useful

[@berto13sanchez45]

you are probably the bset blender user on this kind of stuff, man congrats, you are my inspiration

[@TotallySero]

your tutorials are seriously underrated as a tip u should try tutorials based on popular anime it will probably get the alghorithm right for u!

[@Simon3D]

Thanks !! Well, yt is just a hobby so I usually do what I feel like at the moment rather than trying to chase the algorithms ^^ but thanks for the advice ^^

[@jujuboohoo]

Wow thank you. Exactly what I want and I didn't even know it. Thanks, man.

[@MissLascah]

this looks so nice. i am an absolute blender beginner but to lern so much is so fun and rewarding ❤️😍 this water is supreme

[@Simon3D]

Cheers ^^ glad you liked it

[@Kimb4000]

I made it to the end and I subscribed. Thank you for the tutorial!

[@zaks7]

I am nearing the end of a long project and this is too complicated, so i just got it from your gumroad, thx

[@Simon3D]

no worries man ^^ you can also learn much by just studying the graph ^^

[@gekirobo8720]

BTW, "Col" for the paintmap and wetmap layers are now called "Attribute".

[@NohuHeXe]

Thank you for share this.

[@FilmSpook]

Amazing Work, my Friend, and Many Thanks for everything!! 🙏🏾

[@fredthefatherless8120]

Thank you very much!! Funny, I was looking for a tutorial like this and here it is.

[@Simon3D]

Glad you enjoyed !

[@fnafhexplushies8321]

That’s So Cool!

[@mannythemaniac1009]

I've gotta try this someday. Great tutorial!

[@Simon3D]

Show me the results once you get around making it !!

[@mathaeis]

This is so rad, thank you!

[@MasumCGI]

Awesome Tutorial. Deserve subbing

[@Simon3D]

Tell your friends haha ^^

[@Shattered3582]

2:01 i know how to fix that! i am still a beginner when it comes to simulations, and i can't really find many recent tutorials on water like this

[@Crabnuts]

this is insanely good

[@MAXGAMINGYT265]

Fixed your ancient text thing🤗💗!!! Awsm 👌🏻video

[@Simon3D]

Bless fam

[@MAXGAMINGYT265]

@@Simon3D hey thank you.God bless you too💗🤗

[@ChrisChoiThird]

This is so cool! Thank you.

[@8bbp]

Bought the file, gotta say it's a superb shader. However, one thing that is immediately noticeable, is the lack of translucency for the immersed objects. If you could add this, the shader would jump from A-tier category to God-tier category.

[@Simon3D]

That's a great review of the product :D the translucency is super easy actually but it needs a bit more geometry than just a plane :D but maybe ill work on it a bit more :) see if there's any avenue

[@8bbp]

@@Simon3D Very glad to hear those words! I wasn't sure that was even possible. Hope your motivation bar is still over 9000. Can't wait to see what you will (maybe) come up with!

[@blenderstuffs]

Wow that's awesome 🤩

[@raxo7546]

wow, that was an amazing tutorial, I like the style

[@rajabwali3373]

You got yourself a sub. Looking forward to more NPR shader tutorials.

[@blendermanong7784]

Great subscribe push!!! Didn't see that coming.

[@Simon3D]

Haha yeah, thought it's better than just "hey guys remember to like and subscribe blablabla" glad you liked it ^^

[@francjirachi]

this is a great tutorial, thanks

[@francjirachi]

also 1% :)

[@Simon3D]

You are the MVP !! ^~^

[@lefthandedneo]

Extremely beautiful 😍

[@たまたま-m3j]

I need to see more details.

[@Simon3D]

I'll work on it ! And make sure I show more in the next video :))

[@Andee...]

I'd love to see the shader part a bit slower (with some small explanations), but still a cool video nonetheless

[@Simon3D]

Hey ! You may check out my other videos. They are much longer form with more chill step by step process and explanation of each step :))

[@agusprayoga7344]

thank you so much to share this tutorial.. Keep it Up !!!! Awesome !

[@nezbro2011]

I might use this on a Stardew Valley piece I'm working on, might be exactly what I needed!

[@Simon3D]

I'd love to see that !!

[@nezbro2011]

@@Simon3D If I remember and I use this method I'll try to figure out a way to tag you in it.

[@h-unte-r_]

Blender 4.2v Yes i did it Thank You for this tuttorial with speed explain, my brain is firy🤯🔥

[@efrailustun]

Gorgeous. thx so much

[@Simon3D]

nah man, thank you !

[@lowhorizons]

i cannot get dynamic paint to show anything happening and i cannot figure out why. i have the objects setup as brush and canvas as shown, move the object, play the animation; no paint shows. what am i doing wrong?

[@astrokidddddddddd]

Thank you so much for the tutorial

[@DonTeriyaki]

is there like an extended version. its a little hard to follow even at 1/2 speed.

[@Severely_Distracted]

Amazing tutorial

[@belpetr1]

This is awesome!

[@black-peashooter]

if only this was a slow tutorial with real steps 😔😔

[@courageofhyrule]

Going to use this in a Zelda themed piece asap 😎

[@Simon3D]

Would love to see that ! Make sure to tag me on TT :)))

[@rakdos5371]

Amazing Tutorial！

[@samazoid]

'this weird ancient text' made me lol

[@ccledman]

Absolutely superb. I think maybe we can try to apply this idea to and unity shader, for example.

[@Simon3D]

Definetely !

[@GaryParris]

excellent work :O)

[@pedroalmeida6728]

Dude you are insane holy shit

[@Warbandit100]

Makes sense and works as intended, but sadly not what i'm looking for, still, nice vid.

[@izzaazzurri]

This is soo awesome🔥🔥🔥

[@hellkjo]

absolutely incredible, thank you for the tutorial

[@gmdb3]

I a friend ask me for a channel for anime style fx for blender, I'll definitely recommend him your channel

[@Simon3D]

Thanks !!

[@MrGuyweinstein]

awesome! i just purchased it, how do I apply this to a plane in a pre-existing scene? I'm new to blender and unfamiliar with how materials and such work

[@Simon3D]

Fastest way would be to append the material from this blend file into your scene - and there assign that material to your plane :) if you want you can tune in tomorrow for livestream and I can show you how its done step by step :))

[@lakeseaberry]

hey there, the dynamic paint doesn't work for me (I'm using rigged model instead of suzanne), could you please help?

[@DriveSafelyZA]

I've never been in the Elite 1% of anything. Finally, my dad will be proud of me. Edit: Amazing tutorial, btw.

[@gabrielrolim]

great!

[@DM_Designs]

Awesome bro but please upload 2-3 tutorials every month

[@Simon3D]

Its gonna be hard especially now that I'm sunk in Hogwarts Legacy haha :D but new video should be out this month for sure :))

[@DM_Designs]

@@Simon3D but can you please post it's low speed video because it's even difficult to follow your picture nodes

[@DM_Designs]

@@Simon3D make a video on anime sky this time but not the night one try a daytime

[@Simon3D]

Will see, the next one is about fire :))

[@DM_Designs]

@@Simon3D i think there are already many tutorials about it but still excited would love to see it you're a genius my friend 😁

[@johnnyjpeg]

Very Nice! I like the fake depth. I was wondering if you could maybe play with some alpha and perhaps a shader to RGB node to also display the parts of the mesh underneath the water surface in a neat and stylized way. Also i would be interested if your dynamic paint solution could be replaced by a geometry-proximity node in geo nodes.. would maybe be a bit more zeitgeist-ish.

[@Simon3D]

Definetely could be replaced by geonodes ! However there are plenty geonodes experts out there so i just wanted to present another solution :)))

[@johnnyjpeg]

@@Simon3D Yes you are right.. also geo-nodes is way more intimidating and dynamic paint deserves more attention in general.

[@faridnuri9632]

very nice tutorial thank u a lot

[@CatBug-h4d]

is there any way to export the end result into something like Marmoset, to do a final render?

[@orangred3928]

One question, how to pixelate the lower part of the monkey where the water reflection falls and changes color? Please teach me, I couldn't find it anywhere

[@jameshuggins3302]

Epic!

[@ped-away-g1396]

omg that "subscribe" artefact 🤣🤣

[@MartuDaArtist]

Could I make similar thing in Unreal? I do not know nothing about these things, but I wish to know.

[@Simon3D]

Definetely!! If you are into water shaders I recommend Ghislain Girardot - @ghislaingirardot when it comes to water shaders / simulations in Unreal Engine - he is the god ^^

[@MartuDaArtist]

@@Simon3D Thanks man! I have had interest so long and now I finally installed unreal on my pc.

[@epicredhot5675]

how do you make it so that moving the brush object automatically leaves the "afterimages" from the drying function? when I try, it just moves around the current "frame" of paint around the brush

[@Simon3D]

You can pause when the settings for brush amd canvas are on screen and just copy over to your project, but make sure you alsp have your scene saved, because the painting created cached data in your scene destination

[@PotatoImaginator]

Cool ! I will try this ^_^

[@Simon3D]

Let me see your result once you're done ^^

[@PotatoImaginator]

@@Simon3D Sure :)

[@wheatley_the_weasel]

I tried to follow all the steps but it didn't come out the way it should have, and just looks like weird webbing. How do I fix this?

[@Exaldear]

Used the pic provided, and I've see your later tutorials (Great work btw) but it would be handy to know what drive numbers you use.

[@barkz_xyz]

1:54 love it.

[@Simon3D]

Appreciate your appreciation ^^

[@P134-i3p]

Sir, you are great! GREAT GREAT GREAT!!!!

[@MrK_87]

Don't suppose you could post a screenshot of that final layout? Even pausing at 4K it's pretty much unreadable.

[@Simon3D]

Yeah hmm, I only had 2k res screen while recording, but actually, once I get home from work, Ill post it in more detail on my TT under the tutorial post if you want to take a better look ! :)

[@MrK_87]

@@Simon3D might be a dumb question, but what's your TT? Got a link? :)

[@Simon3D]

Its in the vid description ^^ @Simon_3_D :))

[@pashi777]

Is there any way we could loop this so it just keeps goin and goin?

[@Simon3D]

yep you just need to loop the procedural noise that moves the texture

[@blox1613]

In the shading menu I can't find Color Attribute. Can you help me?

[@lightmanleaf3761]

I tried to follow your tutorial and made one. However, it is too fast. The last overall node chart is too small to read. Would you please post them in separate screen so that the node description and parameters could be seen. Thank you.

[@Simon3D]

I agree.. its not the most useful tutorial of mine. I'll pin comment here when I upload more screenshots with breakdown to my Twitter for everyone to see.

[@lightmanleaf3761]

@@Simon3D thanks please let me know when you post them. Thank you

[@Simon3D]

@@lightmanleaf3761 check the pinned comment

[@lightmanleaf3761]

@@Simon3D thanks a lot. Waiting for your next anime topic tutorial

[@nrnayem5028]

bro it would be really helpfull if u try to break it down a little slowly ..it really helps somewhat beginner like me😅😅but thanks anyways for sharing this awesome water effect i will try to make it

[@Simon3D]

Ill try to improve that in future videos since quite a few people had a problem with it ^^

[@AlphaSierraHotel117]

More stylized tuts, please!

[@Simon3D]

YES SIR !

[@Caine132]

my brain goes *POOOOFF*

[@EarthKingPrime]

I cant get the interaction of objects to work. What did you copy to the paintmap and wet map? can you elaborate? thank you, sir

[@Simon3D]

You gotta create new paintmap and you can use that in your shader editor later, it doesnt matter what you call it as long as you are using the same in dynamic paint and in shader editor

[@EarthKingPrime]

@@Simon3D thanks it worked, and what is the driver on the values?

[@Simon3D]

Its usually #frame/(some number) the higher the number the slower the animation

[@EarthKingPrime]

@@Simon3D thanks, everything works perfectly!

[@kevinliyanaarachchi11g47]

thank you so much

[@TheColinStein]

Looks great but a little too fast with not enough information to follow along. But boy, did I try! Even at .25 speed, couldn't see everything.

[@Simon3D]

Yeah, it was more about sharing concepts rather than step by step approach. If you prefer slower pace tutorials my channel has plenty of those as well !! Hope you find something for you ^^

[@wizhard2768]

I followed the tutorial as best as I could but the water keeps coming out black (I'm not talking about the white lines of foam but the water) does anyone know why that is? It's even more difficult for me considering that I don't understand English very well.

[@fictionahead2321]

can u please do make a VFX on kassadin slash effect in blender

[@Simon3D]

Hmm that would be interesting. Ill think about it ! :))

[@coruptsociety]

Hey i followed up to 1:40 in the video to a t, have done several times, but when I play the timeline the ripples do not move, am I just being stupid? What am I missing here? Everything I have done has been exactly the same, looks the same but no luck with making the water move, can anyone help?

[@fahmidafaramadhani1296]

why doesn't the color attribute appear in my node shader?

[@Yvola]

all good, but the interaction should expand rather than shrink to look more realistic

[@deborahbesghini1803]

Hi Simon, I bought your file since in blender; but appears it is not working on the newest Blender! Could you help me?

[@Simon3D]

Dm me on twitter with screenshots of whats not working and ill see what i can do ^^

[@SquidgytheGreat]

This is amazing thankyou, where on the nodes would I adjust to make the water transparent? Is that possible?

[@Simon3D]

It sure is. You'd just need to change material from opaque to alpha blend / hashed. And then add a setup with mix material and transparent shader node. You can check my other videos for that I use this setup for aloooot of my videos :))

[@SquidgytheGreat]

@@Simon3D where is that on your current node setup? I don't see an option in the nodes for alpha or opaque? Apologies for my confusion

[@Simon3D]

Yeah on this node setup there is no transparency. If you are new to blender I recommend you watch my electricity tutorial (the shader part of it) where i go through where to enable transparency and also which nodes where to use to be able to control the see thru value - the alpha

[@SquidgytheGreat]

@@Simon3D thankyou so much! In the end I added a transparent BSDF to a mix shader with the emission and that seemed to work! Amazing tutorials!!

[@InkStep]

Is there a way to make the water surface interact with the lighting and shading from the rest of the scene? I have a bridge going over a pond in my scene and am trying to figure out how to have it cast its shadow onto the water. PS: I'm a pretty new when it comes to shaders so I would really appreciate a detailed explanation.

[@alonsohv]

The diffuse node is the node that youre looking for. It takes into acocunt light when generating the colors, just feed the colors into the diffuse node shader and voila.

[@blakeXYZ]

Part of the elite 1%? What an honor! Jokes aside, this is a great tutorial. You've jam packed a ton of great knowledge in just 4minutes! Also what a creative way to push your subscription lol. Can you share what you have in store for future videos? Cheers

[@Simon3D]

Oh man !! Thats such a nice comment ^~^ thanks alot ! And as for the future, I have few things Im researching how to make but nothing concrete yet ^^ however stay tuned !! It may come soomer than you think :D

[@bortas2006]

Hi nice tutorial, just wondering if you can do this in maya?

[@Ashdraj]

you know if its possible to export it to any game engine?

[@Simon3D]

So far, I think there is some tool that bridge gap between Blender and Unity, but I would rather just understand the principles how it works in Blender and just recreate it in another game engine

[@Ashdraj]

@@Simon3D Oh, im not using unity, im trying to make it in roblox, but i think you can sort of drag the texture across the mesh using scripts

[@Simon3D]

@@Ashdraj ohh then i won't be of any help :D I have no idea how importing into roblox works