Ah. I apologize. I should've read on. Thank you for responding :)

@8 bit adventurer as my earlier comment mentioned, at its core it’s a repeating wave of pixels that offsets the underlying image 1px on the y axis.  I masked certain areas like the branch to keep them stationary, and I did cleanup by hand where the effect created jagged shapes or strays.

I know I'm way late, but what is the secret to such a clean ripple effect? I've been trying to create fluid water for ages and never could manage it.

This is very moving, beautiful tribute to an extremely sad event

Amazing effect! The Story is really sad though... As someone who has been close to death a few times in his life, I really feel the emotion in this... I hope you can cope with the feelings...

superb! 

Very interesting.

There’s a scrolling mask that offsets the underlying image 1px on the y axis.  There is a second mask over the branches and parts of the duckweed to prevent them from moving.  The frames were cleaned up slightly by hand, mostly to eliminate strays.

Beautiful tribute.

I love the water effect so much, too. How'd you do that?