Interactive water effects using texture coordinate shifting

A system for generating a video having interactive water effects, comprising:

• a general purpose computing device;
• a computer program comprising program modules executable by the computing device, wherein the computing device is directed by the program modules of the computer program to,
• input an image of a scene;
• generate a reflection copy of the scene depicted in the input image to create a water region image;
• merge the input image and water region image, and sizing the merged image to fit a desired frame size, to produce a first frame of the video;
• distort the water region portion of the merged image to simulate at least one ripple originating at a site selected by a viewer;
• further distort the water region portion of the merged image to simulate a periodic wave;
• and
• generate a sequence of additional images, each of which comprises a distorted version of the water region of the immediately preceding frame in which each ripple and the periodic wave simulated in the immediately preceding frame is shown in a new location that simulates the natural motion of a ripple and wave across a surface of a body of water.

A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for generating a video having interactive water effects, said computer-executable instructions comprising:

• inputting an image of a scene;
• generating a reflection copy of at least a portion of the scene depicted in the input image to create a water region image;
• merging the input image and water region image, and sizing the merged image to fit a desired frame size, to produce a first frame of the video;
• distorting the water region portion of the merged image to simulate at least one ripple originating at a site selected by a viewer;
• and
• generating a sequence of additional frames, each of which comprises a distorted version of the water region of the immediately preceding frame in which any ripple simulated in the immediately preceding frame is shown in a new location that simulates the natural motion of a ripple across a surface of a body of water.

A computer-implemented process for generating a video depicting water effects, comprising using a computer to perform the following process actions:

• defining a orthogonal grid comprising a plurality of vertex points, said grid being sized to match a desired size of a water region in an overall scene depicted in each frame of the video;
• inputting a texture map that is used in conjunction with a model of a scene to generate an image of the scene;
• generating a reflection copy of the texture map and sizing it to match the overall size of the grid to create a water region texture map;
• merging the input texture map and water region texture map to create a combined texture map, wherein the input texture map is sized to fit and associated with an upper portion of the video frames and the water region texture map is associated with a lower portion of the video frames, and wherein the water region texture map is inverted so that the water region of the video frames will appear to be an upside down image of the upper portion of the frames when rendered;
• superimposing the grid on the water region texture map and associating each point of the grid with the closest water region texture map coordinate;
• and
• rendering a sequence of video frames using a combined texture map, wherein each frame is rendered using a separate combined texture map whose associated grid's vertices, except for the first frame in the sequence, have been assigned height values which are at least initially derived from the immediately preceding frame in the sequence, and wherein the water region portion of the combined texture map associated with each frame in which water effects are to be depicted is distorted to simulate movement of the surface of the water in the water region of that frame using the height values assigned to its grid.