How to create an ocean using only SOPs

1. Create a grid.

2. Rename the grid_object1 node from to sop_ocean.

3. Dive inside the sop_ocean object.

4. Modify the following parameters on the grid geometry node.

   • Change the Primitive Type to NURBS.

   • Increase the Rows and Columns to 40.

5. Append a Mountain SOP to the grid and set the following parameters.

   • Set all three Frequency fields to 0.7.

   • Change the X value of the Offset parameter to $T and the Y value to $T/4.

6. Add a Point SOP as a sibling node to the Mountain SOP and a child node to the grid.

7. Change Y value of the the Position parameter to $TY+sin($PT/5+($F+3)).

8. Add another Point SOP and connect the Mountain SOP to its first input and the other Point SOP to its second input.

   

9. At the object level, create a SHOP Network using the tab menu.

10. Dive inside the SHOP network and switch to the Material Palette tab in the network editor.

11. Drag the Basic Liquid shader onto your geometry in the viewport. When you switch back to the SHOP network you should see the basic_liquid shader.

12. Dive into the Basic Liquid shader and add a VEX Fractal Dent using the tab menu. Connect it to the next input on the suboutput1 node.

    

13. Return to the SHOP network and rename the Basic Liquid node to ocean_shader.

14. Click the ocean_shader and select Promote Material Parameters. This will allow you to control all of the attributes at the top level, including the displacement.

15. Adjust the shader to look more like ocean water, rather than clear water.

    • On the Specular tab, change the Specular Intensity to 2.

    • On the Ray Trace tab, change the Reflection Intensity to 2, and the Refraction Tint Color to 0.34, 0.34, 0.2.

    • Set the Environment Map to $HFS/houdini/pic/RainySky.rat.

    • On the Displacement tab, animate the Z value of the Nose Offset parameter with the expression $F/10.

16. On the Properties tab, click the gear menu and select Edit Parameter Interface.

17. On the For Rendering tab, expand the latest version of the Mantra folder, and then expand the Shader folder.

18. Select the following parameters by holding Ctrl , then click the transfer arrow.

    • Displacement Bound

    • Displacement Space

    • Re-Dice Displacements

    • True Displacements

    A new folder named Shading will be created. To better organize your tabs, select the Shading folder and press Del . Then drag the four parameters you just added into the Properties folder and click Apply and Accept.

19. Set the Displacement Bound to ch("v_riverbed1/amp").

20. Make sure the True Displacement checkbox is turned on.

21. Navigate back to the SHOP network and drag the shader node onto the grid in the viewport.

    

22. At the object level, create a camera which frames the grid inside the entire frame.

23. Create a point light toward one of the edges, and add a spotlight further away for extra highlights.

    Tip

    Change the color of the lights to a light yellow to simulate the sun. This will give you a better result than the default white light.