What is Psunami?

Red Giant Psunami is a plug-in that simulates photorealistic oceans and skies. Psunami creates the illusion of real water and air by modeling the true physics of large-body water and atmospheric systems. This is accomplished by creating a genuine 3D environment within After Effects, with polygonal modeling, geometric displacement mapping, a 3D animatable camera, animatable Light sources, and raytracing with reflections and texture mapping.

Within this environment, you can fully animate the camera in three dimensions, precisely control Waves and Swells in the ocean surface, simulate Haze and Rainbows in the atmosphere, and animate two 'suns' for Light control. Up to three still or animated Image Maps can be used to create your own skies, or to incorporate other images along the ocean surface through displacement mapping.

About raytracing

Raytracing is the rendering technique Psunami uses to achieve its photorealistic results. This process is available in most of the professional 3D applications used for special effects production today. When a scene is rendered with raytracing, the computer shoots out virtual Light rays from the camera's viewpoint, and traces the bends and bounces of these Light rays around the scene back to the camera.

If a Light ray is visible to the camera, the surfaces illuminated by the ray are rendered in the final view. The renderer takes into account whether surfaces are reflective, translucent, or transparent, and alters the ray accordingly. If enough rays are sent out into the scene (potentially millions), the results can be highly realistic.

Shadows, reflections, and refractions (the bending of the light ray through transparent surfaces) are calculated automatically as part of the scene, greatly increasing the realism. Raytracing is especially suitable for calculating objects and scenes with lots of reflective surfaces, like glass and water. As you might guess, calculating millions of rays can be a time-consuming process, and requires substantial computer horsepower to render frames in a reasonable time. Psunami has been specially optimized for speed in your host environment, making it one of the fastest 3D raytracers available today.

Acronyms in parameter names

This manual contains a few acronyms that you should be aware of. These acronyms appear next to individual settings in Psunami's parameter list.

- (RTM) Read The Manual: This indicates that you should really, really pay attention to the information explained in this manual. It's crucial to understanding that parameter and how it works within your project.
- (M) Meters: The unit of measurement in which Psunami calculates that parameter.
- (KS) Kilometers: The unit of measurement in which Psunami calculates that parameter.
- (S) Seconds: The unit of measurement in which Psunami calculates that parameter.
- (M/S) Meters per Second: The unit of measurement in which Psunami calculates that parameter.

Use the Render Modes

The Render Mode pop-up is very helpful. Make sure you understand all the different modes. They are explained fully in this manual, but here's a quick rundown of the important ones:

- Wireframe: This shows you the geometry of the waves in wireframe. This is probably the faster render mode and will show you the shape of your waves.
- Texture (No Geometry): This does not show any geometry, only a flat ocean surface and the normal sky. This is great for setting up texture maps, positioning the suns, or adjusting the water color. It renders fairly quickly but won't show you what your waves really look like. If you have big waves don't be surprised when the camera is suddenly underwater when you switch to Realistic mode.
- Realistic: This is Psunami in all its glory. Full 3D waves, fully texture mapped and raytraced. This mode can take quite a while to render, so it's not the best way to set the scene up. Generally, switch between Wireframe and Texture mode while setting things up, and occasionally switch to Realistic to make sure you're on the right track. This will make your experience using Psunami much more pleasant and speedy.