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Water Effect - Swishmax

Discover how effects can bring an image to life - follow this simple tutorial. No Scripting Required.

First Of All

Open Swishmax and set your canvas size to 400 x 400 pixels with a frame rate of 25 fps
In this tutorial you will learn how to use Masks to create realistic looking effects
have a picture ready to use for this project, like i have used in the sample above, i have chose a scuba diver, actualy it is my nephew i took the photo whilst diving with him one day, but their are many free stock photos you could use if you done have a suitable one youself.

Step.1

Using the Autoshape selection, Choose the rounded rectangle and drag out a shape
approximatley 355 x 260 pixels and name it mask, see fig.1 below.

Fig.1

Step.2

insert the image you have chosen to use, like my image was the Scuba Diver, place the imported image above the mask shape. see fig.2 below. note the image should cover the mask shape.

Fig.2

Step.3

Now copy the image you have imported, and paste in place, you now need to make the ripple effect.
the way we do this is by using the elipse tool and doing a punch effect,
so select the elipse tool and drag out a circle see fig.3a below.

Fig.3a

Now using the elipse tool again drag out a smaller circle and place in the middle of the first circle use a different colour so you can clearly see what you are doing. see fig.3b below.

Fig.3b
ok now select both shapes and make the colour fill of both shapes the same. once you have th 2 shapes the same color, right click and group together as a shape. you should see the following window popup

select yes you should end up with a final image looking like fig 3c below
Fig.3c
rename the shape ripple and make smaller so using the ancor points wich are placed at each corner of the shape, and whilst shift is pressed down resize the ripple shape. untill you have something like fig.3d below.
Fig.3d

 

Step.4

Now you have the ripple shape and the duplicated photo you previously pasted in place, group together the ripple shape and the duplicate photo together as a sprite and name the sprite as water effect. and make sure you check use bottom object as mask, ok inside the water effect sprite please make sure you have the photo above the ripple shape. place the water effect sprite in the center of the image, open the water effect sprite again, we are now going to add an effect to the ripple shape., double click on the ripple shape timeline and drag the move action out over 15 frames see fig.4a below.
Fig.4a

making sure the move action on the timeline is blue, select the ripple shape, the anchor points surrounding the ripple shape should now be red.
whilst holding down the shift button drag one of the anchor points so the ripple shape expands in size covering your image, and when the movie is played back the animation should loop continiously.see fig.4b below.
Fig.4b

 

Step.5

If you have followed correctly so far, you should now have something looking like fig.5 below
when you play your movie in the player.
Fig.5

 

Step.6

Ok all you have to do now is duplicate the effect sprite a few more tome altering the time line to less or more frames and move the sprites around the image a little to create the varied water effects like the one shown in fig.6 below.


i hope this tutorial has helped you in some way
Thank you for reading.