3dflashworld

Creating bubbles seems to be difficult but there is a very simple way to create them without having hundreds of small animated spheres in your scene. In this tutorial, I only use a particle system (spray) and a map applied to it.

Creating the Bubble MAP

First, create a sphere in the center of the scene with the following parameters:

X, Y, Z: 0, 0, 0
Radius: 100
Segments: 64
Now, add a spotlight to the scene with the following world coordinates:

Spot:
X, Y, Z: 400, - 200, 400

Spot Target:
X, Y, Z: 0, 0, 0

Then, set its color to pure white.

Here is how your scene should be:

The Scene

Now, open the Material Editor. Activate the SLOT #1. Lock Ambient and Diffuse together and set the color to pure white. Set the shading to metal, and change the following parameters: Shininess: 70 Shininess Strength: 30 Self-Illumination: 0 Opacity: 50

Now, apply the material to the sphere. Render in the front view with the Force 2-Sided option set ON. Save the rendering. Start Photoshop, Photostyler, or anything else to crop the picture to make it square. Save it. Here is what you should have:

	The Bubble Map

The Bubble Map

Now, you can close this scene. Creating the Spray Emitter Now, it's time to create the particle system. all the values used in this tutorial for the spray are subjective. You must adjust these values to fit your scene requirements. Create a spray using the parameters as in this picture:

Now, open the Material Editor. Set the Shading to Phong, Filter to light grey (R: 180, G: 180, B:180) and use the following values: Shininess: 0 Shininess Strength: 0 Self-Illumination: 100 Opacity: 100

Then, go to the Maps section. Load the bubble map you croped and saved as a Diffuse Map. Then, duplicate it to the Opacity Map. Go back to the Diffuse Map settings. Under Output, change the RGB Level to 2 (optional). Your map is ready !

The map as seen in the Material Editor

Assigning the Map to the Spray

Select the spray and assign the map you've just created to it. Render with the Force 2-Sided option set ON. Voilà !

The Final Rendering

Of course, there are many other ways to create bubbles. I think this one is the easiest for those who don't have any special plug-ins. And don't forget that all the spray values used in this tutorial are subjective.

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