The Classical Elements: Research Into Animating Water

After having a talk with my tutor I realised that I didn't have much reference to work from regarding water movement. He recommended that I look at Elemental Magic, a book all about special effects animation, in order to get some visual reference for the movement of water and to kick start my research.

I found the section of the book on water quite useful not so much in terms of the movement of water in the way I want it, but it did give me some really good insight into the behaviours of water and how certain events such as splashing water (above), waves, etc could be animated.

In particular I was very interested in how to animate waves, as these will play a part in my animation and will start off the main event within my story so I feel that this would be an important factor. The book mentions how water and nature aren't symmetrical, how it is us who look for symmetry in nature and often find symmetry where there isn't actually any. However, by using this non-symmetry rule it makes the waves and water look very realistic and it is something I don't really want, as I feel it will be too time consuming to animate nor do I feel that it would fit in with my characters. However, that doesn't mean the principle of animating waves isn't relevant. 

I'm finding this book extremely useful and I feel that it is very good starting point to begin experimenting with animating my own water sequence.