Water techniques

[JBM]

What kind of water techniques do you use? I use a few, but it is alway fun to try something different.

A small build I made a week ago uses bricks on the side to create smooth water
https://www.flickr.com/photos/191692252@N03/ ... ed-public/

I also see a lot of people using hundreds of 1x1 round studs as water, I do that sometimes too.

[ffilz]

I'm some kind of old fashioned guy or something...

I like blue baseplates, or better, the various river plates. I will do some trans rounds as bubbles under a water fall, and find trans plate or trans tile water attractive.

I DO like my studs out waterfall, here in it's orginal use (I don't have pictures from it's first appearance earlier in 2003):

https://brickshelf.com/gallery/ffilz/Shows/G ... 160046.jpg

And re-purposed into castle:

https://brickshelf.com/gallery/ffilz/BricksC ... 0_1772.jpg

But my build style seems to be a but unique, a style that stock sets can fit into though these days I often enhance the sets.

[Rick-Ricks]

I've used everything from SNOT, to [url=https://flic.kr/p/8vqRUe]bricks[/url], to [url=https://flic.kr/p/8BpgEf]rubber bands[/url], to the [url=https://flic.kr/p/7oGN9V]container for the robo pod set[/url], to [url=https://flic.kr/p/dpdbKy]mirrors[/url], to [url=https://flic.kr/p/8GJk22]using mindstorms motors to animate water[/url].

[minoboys]

I like using the snot water technique where you flip blue bricks on their side. It's relatively cheap and it has a great calm water effect, but it also looks great in waterfalls. I used it in some of CCC Entries this year and it turned out great. Here are the links to some of my CCC creations that used the technique.

http://samw.org/cc/CCC%20XVIII_Jo_A%20Day%2 ... %20Sea.htm

http://samw.org/cc/CCC%20XVIII%20Jo%20Clearer%20Waters.htm

http://samw.org/cc/CCC%20XVIII%20Logging%20 ... 20Fall.htm

For smaller areas of water I used 1x2 clear and trans clear blue plates. Like in this blacksmith moc of mine.

http://samw.org/cc/CCC%20XVIII%20Jo%20Worki ... 0Forge.htm

[JBM]

yeah I have a lot of 1x1 round studs. so I usually dump them.

[minoboys]

Sorry, what do you mean by "dump them"? If I had a lot I'd use them.

[jtooker]

Sorry, what do you mean by "dump them"? If I had a lot I'd use them.

I'm assuming this: [url]https://www.flickr.com/photos/136858226@N06/ ... ed-public/[/url]

I've seen so many water techniques work well based on the scene. My general favorite is [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/136858226@N06/ ... ed-public/]transparent plates & tiles on blue[/url] - you have a lot of control of the look based on what color(s) of blue you use as well as the balance of transparent plates vs. tiles on top. [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/136858226@N06/ ... ed-public/]Just transparent plates[/url] can look a bit bland.

But I also have used [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/136858226@N06/ ... ed-public/]sideways trans-blue bricks[/url], and [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/136858226@N06/ ... ed-public/]sideways regular bricks[/url]

[mrcp6d]

My favorite is the trans-blue, trans-light blue, & clear 1x1 round plate stacks on top of blue plates. I think it works well for many sizes of MOC, allows a sufficient ability to play with color transitions (especially if a stack of 2-3 1x1's is used), and frankly doesn't require anywhere near as much engineering to integrate it into the MOC as some of the other techniques. You can also get some good looking waves/swells like I created here: [url]https://www.flickr.com/photos/mrcp6d/9422900 ... ateposted/[/url].
You certainly do need a ridiculous amount of 1x1 tiles in the 3 colors though! I've got more than a 1000 of each.

I've also used bricks in SNOT for algae covered/slime ponds like here: [url]https://www.flickr.com/photos/mrcp6d/1197571 ... ateposted/[/url].

If trans-light blue water works for the build, I think plates and tiles over trans-medium blue looks fantastic like I did here: [url]https://www.flickr.com/photos/mrcp6d/4995812 ... ateposted/[/url].
The 8x8 trans-medium blue plate that makes it work is getting pretty tough to acquire though.

I can't stand the "dump them" option as it just seems really lazy for one, and secondly really doesn't work well for MOCs 32x32 and smaller. I will admit that it's a great option for large convention displays though. However......, while it was for flowing lava rather than water, placing trans-neon orange and trans-orange fire elements and 1x1s on top of mostly yellow elements worked quite well for me I think here (warning! not castle! ): [url]https://www.flickr.com/photos/mrcp6d/1770224 ... ateposted/[/url].

[minoboys]

Thanks for sharing. I just made a topic about my CCC XVIII entries. Check it out if you want to see how I do my water.