how do i achieve this style of water within blender ?
hello everyone i come on my knees bc i honestly just dont know what to do or where to go tbh,
so the situation is this... I want to have my water in blender be like the picture, but every video i have seen on youtube just shows you how to "anime" or "stylized" the water which isn't what im trying to achieve, and the way i want to go about showing my water is very not simple but more complex, like in the picture, i want hard brush strokes being shown on the water, and i want it to "blend" with brushstrokes and not just a gradient if that makes sense.
BUT and very BIG BUT the issue that i also realized was that i wanted to water to react like normal water still, so the reflections are also reacting the same way as the water is with harsh lines and not just blended in or "clean" honestly im very lost with this even describing it is hard mb.
i wanted to animate the water as well, so ti would also be a moving texture situation im asking for a lot rn i know but honestly i have NO IDEA where or what to do and evey video ive seen just doesn't show how to do this at all (or the ones ive seen at least)
now im at a cross road of if i should just hand paint/ animate the water and use an image plane and just project that on it constantly or if there is a way to achieve the look with blender itself.
thank you for reading<3
tldr; how can i achieve this water effect in blender with animation?
also that is not stolen art it's a picture i drew
Posted Jun 8, 2026, 4:46 PM UTC