This tutorial explains some techniques for using noise maps for simple ways of creating these effects. I used 3D Studio Max 3 but as long as your software has animated noise map capability, you can create similar effects. Be prepared to experiment to get the effect you want.

THE SKY and CLOUDS. The sky showing through the clouds is a (blue) colour set as a background environment colour to the scene. The clouds are a noise map, mapped onto a dome which is created by making a hemisphere and then another, slightly smaller hemisphere which is subtracted from the first via a boolean operation (fig.5 right). Remember to 'hold' (under 'Edit' on the top tool bar) before doing this so you can 'fetch' if the boolean operation goes wrong!
The dome is sized to cover the ground (or in this case, the 'sea' as shown below, fig. 3).

Fig 3

The Noise map. Click on the Diffuse slot of the Materials Editor and choose Noise from the list, as shown below (fig.4).

Fig. 4

The noise map for the clouds is then duplicated as an (instance) opacity map, placed in the Opacity slot of the Materials Editor and mapped onto the dome using UVW spherical mapping (fig. 6 right). The black in the opacity map (fig 7)becomes transparent, allowing the blue sky to show through.

Animating the clouds The moving clouds are achieved by adjusting the noise parameters of the map at the chosen frames of the animation (fig.7) while the red animation button is on. Here, over 240 frames of animation, the clouds cross over the sun. In the settings below, note that I have used Fractal for the effect I wanted and the only setting that changes over these frames in the animation is the X offset which is -88 at frame 0 and 8.4 at frame 240.

Experiment with all these settings to see the different effects of changing them. You will vary them according to the size of your dome and the effect you require.

THE SUN has been deliberately placed in the scene not only to enhance it by giving the appearance of casting the primary gleam on the sea, but also so you can see the clouds moving across in front (fig.1). It is a self-illuminated sphere that has been placed behind the hemisphere as shown (the yellow disc) in the 3rd slot in the materials editor on the right in fig.9.

THE SEA as explained, is a plane lying at the base of the dome (fig.3 and fig. 8). The Noise map for the sea (fig. 9, right): Here there is no need for an opacity map as nothing in the underlying object or background needs to be revealed. Instead, a bump map (instanced) has been used to give the appearance of depth to the animated waves (fig.9, right). The appearance of the reflection of the sun on the water is just the shininess of the map (fig 9) with the sun sphere judiciously placed above the shine (fig.1).


Fig 8 The creation parameters for the plane (sea)
Animating the sea.
Using the same principles of noise map animation as done for the clouds, the size, shape and movement of the waves is achieved by adjusting the noise parameters with the settings shown on the right (fig.10): with the red animation button turned on, Phase was set at 0 for the first frame and 5 at frame 240.
In the case of the waves Regular was more visually suitable than Fractal which I used previously for the clouds.

You can play around with these settings to achieve the effect you want in your scene.

Fig 1.Click on this still to download the animation (160x120 resolution, medium compression, 9.3Mb).For faster download - 6.5Mb, but worse image quality, click on right.

Fig 2The dome consists of two hemispheres: the smaller one is subtracted from the slightly larger one by a boolean operation (fig 5 below). The sun is a self illuminated sphere placed behind the dome.

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Fig 5 Boolean subtraction Fig 6 UVW mapping

Fig 7


Fig 9 The material for the sea: a noise map, duplicated as an instance to the bump map slot. Note the glossiness & specular levels


Fig 10 By clicking on the Diffuse map slot, the noise map parameters are opened. Phase was the only setting changing over the animation: set at 0 at beginning of animation and 5 at end, frame 240.
The colours were changed to suit the sea.