14 May 2010
Length: 1000
Width: 500
Length Segs: 200
Width Segs: 200
( We need a dense (80k faces) mesh because we’re going to deform it with the displace
modifier. )
Displacement
o Strength: 17
Image
o Map: Noise
Open Material Editor ( Rendering > Material Editor > Compact Material Editor ). Drag
and drop the Noise map from the Displace modifier into a material slot in Material Editor
and select ‘instance’ when asked. Apply the following parameters to the Noise map:
Noise Parameters
o Noise Type: Turbulence
o Levels: 10
o Size: 300
Step 4 Water Material
Now the water geometry is complete so let’s apply a material to it. Open Material Editor
( Press M in keyboard ), click on the second material slot, and create the material:
1. Click “Get Material” button and select ( doubleclick ) ‘Arch & Design (mi)’ from
the list.
2. Select the water plane and assign the material to it.
3. Select template from the drop-down list: Water, Reflective Surface
4. Transparency: 1,0
In the material settings, go to the ‘Advanced Rendering Options’ rollout and set the
following parameter:
Largest: 100
Smallest: 1
Quantity: 20
Steepness: 5
Background
o Use Map: YES
o Environment Map: Gradient Ramp
Open Material Editor ( press M in keyboard ). Drag and drop the Gradient Ramp map
from the background settings into a material slot in Material Editor and select ‘instance’
when asked. Apply the following parameters to the Gradient Ramp map:
Coordinates rollout
o Mapping: Spherical Environment
Gradient Ramp Parameters rollout
o Flag #1: Color: RGB 0, 16, 67 Position: 0
o Flag #2: Color: RGB 189, 225, 240 Position: 100
o ( delete the middle Flag by right-clicking and selecting ‘delete’ from the
menu )
o Noise
Amount: 1
Type: Fractal
Size: 2
Levels: 10
Output rollout
o Output Amount: 3
General Parameters
o Shadows: OFF
Intensity/Color/Attenuation
o Multiplier: 2
Now it’s a good time to make a test render to see how the water looks like.
Some kind of watery effect but it doesn’t look much like an underwater scene yet. Let’s
add Fog to make all the difference.
1. Click ‘Add…’ button, select ‘Fog’ from the list and click ‘OK’.
2. Use Map: YES
3. Environment Color Map: Gradient Ramp
4. Open Material Editor ( Press M in keyboard ). Drag and drop the Gradient Ramp
map from the Fog settings into a material slot in the Material Editor and select
‘instance’ when asked.
5. Mapping: Screen
6. Angle W: 90
7. Flag #1: Color: RGB 0, 11, 45 Position: 0
8. Flag #2: Color: RGB 70, 144, 255 Position: 100( delete the middle Flag by right-
clicking and selecting ‘delete’ from the menu )
9. Output Amount: 1,5
Before we render, let’s adjust environment ranges. Select the camera, go to the modify
panel, and apply the following settings:
Parameters
o Environment Ranges
Show: YES
Near Range: 200
Far Range: 810
Now we see the environment range in the viewport. It’s the area between beige and
brown line. The fog will appear between these lines. By default the density of the fog is
0% at near range and 100% at far range. Adjust the values or camera position if
necessary.
Render the scene and you should get something like the picture below. Fog works well in
underwater scenes. This time it serves two purposes. It fades the water edge to the
background and creates the nice blue gradient color.
You could also try different camera angles to get different kind of water surface.
Step 10 Underwater Light Rays
And of course we’re going to create some light rays to enhance the mood of our
underwater scene. Go back to the Atmosphere settings ( Rendering > Environment… >
Atmosphere ) and add Volume light effect:
1. Click ‘Add…’ button, select ‘Volume Light’ from the list and click ‘OK’.
2. Click ‘Pick Light’ and click on the area spot we created earlier
3. Density: 7
If you are not familiar with volume lights, I suggest you render now to see how the effect
looks by default (so far we’ve just increased the density a little). The next step is going to
have a dramatic effect to the volume light. We’re going to use projector map to block
most of the light and to use attenuation to fade the light to the background. Select the area
spot, go to the modify panel and apply the following parameters:
Intensity/Color/Attenuation
o Color: RGB 32, 137, 255
o Far Attenuation
Use: YES ( Now you can see the attenuation ranges appearing as
lens-shaped sections of the cone )
Start: 430 ( Sets the distance at which the light begins to fade out. )
End: 650 ( Sets the distance at which the light has faded to zero. )
Advanced Effects
o
Projector Map
Map: Noise
Open Material Editor ( Press M in keyboard ), drag and drop the Noise map from the
projector map slot into a material slot in the Material Editor, and select ‘instance’ when
asked. Apply the following parameters to the Noise map:
Coordinates
o Source: Explicit Map Channel
Noise Parameters
o Noise Type: Turbulence
o Levels: 10
o Size: 0,05
o Low: 0,35 ( Decrease this if you need more rays and increase this if you
need less rays. )
Render your underwater scene to see the light rays.
Basic Parameters
o Display Icon
Rad/len: 230
Width: 700
Height: 480
Particle Generation
o Particle Quantity
Use total: 1000
o Particle Timing
Emit Start: -10
o Particle Size
Particle Size: 1,5
Variation: 100
Grow for: 0
Fade for: 0
Particle Type
o Standard Particles: Sphere
Place the particle cloud so that it fills the view underwater. ( You can also change the size
of the emitter if necessary. )
As a final thing we’re going to use a glass material for the bubbles. Press M in keyboard
to open the Material editor, select a material slot, and create the material:
1. Click ‘Get Material’ button and select ( doubleclick ) ‘Arch & Design (mi)’ from
the list.
2. Select the particle cloud and assign the material to it.
3. Select template from the drop-down list: Glass (Solid Geometry).
Render the scene to see the bubbles. Some bubbles look ok while some look too bright.
Furthermore, these bubbles are perfect spheres so they are not really realistic as
underwater bubbles, but at least they are fast and easy to create!
Step 12 The Final Render of the 3D Underwater Scene
If you look closely you’ll see some jagged edges in the bubbles. Let’s adjust the sampling
settings to get a more polished render. Go to the render setup and increase antialiasing
quality by increasing Mental Ray’s sampling values ( Rendering > Render setup… >
Renderer > Sampling Quality ):
Beware, rendering time might be an issue with all these effects and sampling settings
(about 1½h with quad core 2,33GHz Q8200). Render your scene to see the final image. I
did some adjusting in Photoshop as well:
Contrast: +80
I removed a few overly bright bubbles from the lower left corner