Above I posted some pre-alpha previews of possible directions the look of our creek could steer towards. None of them are intended as final result and are mere WIP showcases to help in making further design decisions.
I tried several different approaches to simulating flowing water with a toonish look. I used the Ocean Modifier, Dynamic Paint (set to vertex color), a flowmap and several different shader configurations – some based on shaders from Blendermarket and Gumroad.
Flowmaps didn’t help as much as I was hoping for, they might still be worthwhile for collisions though.
Dynamic Paint is an option for collision with rocks etc as well. I also tried an Ocean Modifier – great for simulating waves.
A full fluid simulation with Mantaflow is IMO a bit too much for our project, especially within Eevee.
Conclusion: ATM I think it best to use a shader like the ones I created above and use Dynamic Paint or Flowmaps for collisions and add some slight surface movement via an Ocean Modifier set to shallow water.
Planned next steps: As shown in the first video, collisions still need some looking into – friendly advice welcome. Reflections and transparency will be (re-)implemented in the next iterations.
