Initial Ocean Experimentation

Trying to animate a 3D ocean seems like a big task, never mind a tidal wave.

I felt it was important to make sure I could animate the waves detailed in the storyboard before I began with character and set design, as if that couldn't be done the whole story would have to change.

I thought of using clear hair gel, which is a popular choice for water in stop motion projects, however theres no chance I could get the liquid gel to stand up and form a tidal wave.

It's a no go. Might work well for the ending scene where the main character is encased in water though.

Then I thought of felted wool. I've used this medium in previous projects, so I know it can be manipulated into pretty much anything.

Below are some initial experiments with the wool.

After some experimentation I have high hopes that the felt will work well to create an ocean and tidal wave if manipulated correctly.

While shooting the onion skin tool on DragonFrame glitched and turned the view of the wool into this:

Now if that doesn't look like an ocean I don't know what does. Seeing this gave me a huge confidence that the wool will be the perfect medium for the job. However this was a momentary glitch that I managed to screenshot. Replication may be tricky but I know it's possible so this is definitely an aesthetic aim for the ocean.