Adobe After Effects - Manual (Page 585)

Note:
Brightness
Contrast
Gamma Adjustment
Render Dry Areas As
Transparency
Grid Resolution
Grid Res Downsamples
Wave Speed
Damping
Wave Speed, Damping
Note:
Reflect Edges
Pre-roll (seconds)
Height Map controls
Height Map controls specify the appearance of the height map.
While adjusting Brightness and Contrast, keep the wave surface layer between the cyan and violet rectangles. If a peak pokes through the
cyan rectangle, it clips at pure white. If a trough pokes through the bottom of the violet rectangle, it clips at pure black. If you want to create a
displacement map, try to avoid clipping because it shows up as flat peaks and valleys, which look unnatural.
Adjusts the overall height of the water surface. Adjusting it brightens or darkens the overall grayscale output. If you use Wave World
for displacement, this control moves the surface of the water up or down.
Changes the difference between the grays of the peaks and troughs, making the difference more or less extreme. Lower values even
out the grays, and higher values create a wider range from black to white (until clipping occurs).
Controls the slope of the waves in relation to the Brightness. Results are visible only in Height Map view. Higher values
result in rounder peaks and narrower valleys, while lower values result in smoother valleys and pointier peaks.
Specifies how the water surface is rendered when a dry area exists. Dry areas are created when a portion of the ground
layer rises above the surface of the water. You can manipulate the dry area by using the Steepness control.
This control is useful for compositing a Wave World effect into a scene. For example, you can use a precomposed Wave World scene with
transparency as a displacement map for the Caustics effect, and as a track matte for the effect layer.
Controls the clarity of the water by adjusting how opaque the alpha channel is in shallower areas. For example, you can easily see
to the bottom of a pool filled with fresh water, but you can see only an inch or two into a pool filled with coffee. This control is most useful when
compositing a Wave World effect into another scene. For example, you can use a Wave World composition as a source layer for Caustics, and
also as a track matte for the effect layer.
Simulation controls
The Simulation controls specify the resolution of the water surface and ground grids.
Specifies the number of horizontal and vertical divisions that make up the wave surface and ground grids. Higher values greatly
increase the precision of the simulation but require more memory and increase rendering time.
Reduces the internal simulation resolution when the output resolution decreases, increasing the rendering speed.
However, the result may cause the output to look very different.
Specifies how fast waves travel away from their starting point.
Specifies how quickly the energy of a wave is absorbed by the liquid it travels through. The higher the value, the quicker the wave
energy is absorbed, and the shorter the distance the wave travels.
Specify the apparent viscosity of the liquid, and the apparent size of the body of liquid. For example, waves in water
move faster and farther than waves in honey; waves in a sink move much faster and fade out much more quickly than waves in a lake.
Wave World is optimized for small- to medium-sized bodies of water—anything from a teacup to a small lake. Large bodies of water, like an
ocean, include swells or wide, stable waves with no apparent slowdown. Even at the lowest settings, Wave World cannot generate swells because
the waves fade out relatively quickly.
Specifies how waves bounce off the edges of the layer and back into the scene.
Specifies when the waves start moving. By default, the effect starts with a still surface without waves or ripples. Use this
control to start the waves moving before the layer begins. The settings at the first frame of the effect are applied to the layer during the pre-roll.
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