Okay, first off I lost the water animation file that I used for the still shot on the previous page. It was on another machine that got recycled at my work. So who knows what happened to that file. I was lucky to still have the still shot of the animation. So I made a new file that was kind of a rough bird bath scene.

This tutorial is all about animated textures so lets start with building the water texture that will be animated. Here are the image map and bump map that I used for this tutorial. You can use any map you can make or find for water.

I used the maps above to make this shader for the water. If you don't know how to make a shader take a look at the realistic mars tutorial.

Once you have your water shader made then you will need to apply it to a simple geometry for you water surface. I have built a rough bird bath with rocks in it and then the water plane above the rocks. I have applied the water texture to the water plane twice.

Here is where the trick is with animated water textures. The first texture that shows up in you "Texture" tab in the "Object Properties" will need to be set to Comb. in the "Mix" setting.

The next texture that shows up in the list will need to be set to "Mult." in the "Mix" setting.

Okay, now lets move the "current time pointer" in the "Project Window" down the timeline. That will set a key frame in the texture timeline when we move the texture. Now select the geometry that has the water textures applied to it and select the first one in the list. With the first texture selected click on the "Position" button in the "Texture" tab. This will give you some handles to move the texture with. Drag the first texture to the left.

Let's do the same thing with the second texture that appears in the list. Make sure you move this one in a different direction than the first texture you moved.

That's it! You have just animated water.

I will have a test render up later for you to take a look at. Here is a still shot for now.