Looping waves (water) with noise texture - problem

[Whispermode]

Hello!

I'm trying to create a very subtle rippling wave effect on a water surface. And I need it to loop.

I've applied a noise texture with a transform node to the bump channel, and I'm keyframing translation on the 'Y'.

It looks great, but I can't get it to loop.

Am I right in saying that the noise (and other procedural) textures don't actually loop/tile? It looks like they're randomly generated...

If so, how might you guys do what I'm trying to do?

Thanks.

[protovu]

I believe that I have been able to do precisely as you describe using the Graph Editor>Modifier>Cycles.

[Whispermode]

I believe that I have been able to do precisely as you describe using the Graph Editor>Modifier>Cycles.

Thanks, protovu - this looks promising, but I don't think I explained it properly.

Effectively, I need the noise texture to return to its exact same state, so the animation itself loops rather than just the ability to loop something over time.

So, 120 frame animation. Frame 1 has a certain noise pattern. I translate on the Y by 1 unit between frame 1 and 120. By the time I get to frame 120 (or 121 actually), I need the noise pattern to have looped back to exactly what is was on frame 1.

...but it looks the noise texture is infinitely different as you translate i.e. I can't see any repetition at all. Which is normally great...

I think I'll have to just render out an image and tile it.

[promity]

Make it loop in the video editors.