Sunset Animation in Blender with the Ocean Modifier

Today we’ll be making a Sunset Animation in Blender. I’ll be using the 2.81 version of Blender. We’ll be making use of the following tools and techniques :

• ocean modifier
• subdivide
• emission material
• bloom
• space reflections
• timeline
• frame rate
• insert keyframe
• play animation
• animation output formats
• render animation

Here’s an image of our final animation:

And here are the steps:

Step 1 – Add a Plane and an Ocean Modifier

Delete the default cube and save the file.

Add a plane.

Add an ocean modifier to the plane.

Scale the plane: S 0.5

Step 2 – Add the Sun

Add a UV sphere.

Go to edit mode.

Subdivide the sphere: Edge -> Subdivide

Step 3 – Scale and Move the Sun

Go to object mode.

Apply smooth shading : Object -> Shade Smooth

Scale the sphere: S 5

Move sphere along Y axis outside the plane.

Step 4 – Set the View

Select the camera.

Lock the camera to view.

Set the view so that you can see the sea plane along the whole width of the viewport and the sun behind.

Uncheck Lock camera to view.

Step 5 – Add Material to the Sun

Go to Rendered shading.

Change the world color to black.

Delete the light.

Add an emission material to the sphere. Set its color to hex FF4F0A (orange) and strength to 10.

In the Render tab select Bloom.

Check Screen Space Reflections.

Step 6 – Add Material to the Ocean

Select the plane.

Add a material to the plane and set its roughness to 0 and base color to black.

Step 7 – Align the Camera

Zoom out.

Align the camera to view.

Step 8 – Insert Keyframes to Create the Sunset Animation

In the Timeline set the end frame to 120. At 24 fps (frames per second) the animation will take 5 seconds.

Go to frame 1.

In the ocean modifier add a keyframe for time (RMB -> insert keyframe).

Go to the last frame.

Set time to 5 in the ocean modifier and insert another keyframe.

Play the animation.

Step 9 – Render the Sunset Animation

In the Output tab select an output folder.

Set the file format to FFmpeg video.

In Encoding -> Container select MPEG-4

Make a test render: Render -> Render Image

Render the animation.