Help me find underwater footage

Ponge

I'm doing a project in university where I need to simulate a heavy, almost cylindrical object rolling down stairs underwater. I'd really love to see some reference footage of something like this but so far my google-fu has turned up blank.

Does anyone know any resources I could look at, or even films that have something similair happen?

cmsamo

Dunno.... Unlikely to be able to find footage of something that specific... I googled for various combinations of "barrels rolling underwater" and stuff, and didnt get anything.

Can you build a scale model? A small fish tank, some quickly thrown together wooden steps (carve a block of wood) and a wrapped roll of coins, and you could film it yourself?

subedii

I'm not sure I've seen anything like that. Movies aren't a big help since they're "dramatised". NASA videos of underwater training are the closest I can find but they're done in neutral buoyancy tanks, so things don't actually sink unless a force is applied to them.

This is going to sound odd, but have you considered a game engine maybe? Games like Crysis have pretty in-depth physics engines and simulations at work, and it's easy enough to hit up the editor and mock up whatever scenarios you want.

I can't find any videos on youtube for stuff that takes places underwater, but if you just type Crysis Physics there are tonnes of videos to give you an idea of what can be done with the physics engine.

Although I think scale model like cmsamo suggested is probably your best bet.

Ponge

Thanks for the help so far guys. I need to shoot some underwater footage on greenscreen anyways so I'll mock up a test scene to try it out.

Out of curiosity though, is there a particular area of physics that i could look at for explanations or examples of underwater collisions?

Basically I'm trying to animate a divers helmet falling down a staircase underwater and I'm having issues getting it to look right.

cmsamo

The closest thing I can think of is to google for "fluid dynamics" since you're looking at understanding how objects interact with water. It's a complicated subject though. I've heard that 3d modelling packages like Maya have got fluid dynamics modules and toolkits that let you do "stuff" in 3d model, but it's not something I've really tried out myself, so I can't be more specific.