Skill Level: Beginner to Intermediate Time to Complete: 20 Minutes Application: 3ds Max 6 and later Introduction: This tutorial
will guide you to achieving a fairly realistic open water effect which can even be animated, using the Ocean shader from the Lume Library. Set Mental Ray as the rendering engine. Hit F10 to bring up the Render Setup dialogue box. Go to the Assign Renderer rollout in the Common Tab. Open it and set Mental Ray as the Renderer (Fig.01).
Fig.01
Go to the Units Setup dialogue box under Customize Menu. Set Metric as the Display Unit Scale and Meters as the default unit (Fig.02).
Fig.02
Create a Plane at the origin with dimensions of 10 m x 10 m. Set Scale to 10 under Render Multipliers. Rename it as Water Surface. Create a Target Direct light (under Standard Category) and place it at X = 2 m, Y = 4 m and Z = 6 m. Place the Target of the light at X = -1.5 m, Y = 0 m and Z = 0.75 m. Set Shadows to Ray Traced Shadows. Check Overshoot under the Directional Parameters. Create a Target Camera and place it at X = -7 m, Y = -9 m and Z = 6.25 m. Place the Target of the Camera at X = -0.175 m, Y = -1.125 m and Z =- 0.9 m. Hit M to call up the Material Editor. Click on the Standard button on the top right hand corner. The Material / Map Browser opens and select Arch & Design (mi) (the top most entry) as the material type*. Rename the material as Water Surface and assign it to the plane (Fig.03).
Fig.03
Under Main material parameters change Color in the Diffuse section to R = 0.439, G = 0.522 and B = 0.486. Set Reflectivity to 0.7 in the Reflection section (Fig.04).
Fig.04
Open the Special Purpose Maps rollout and click the button next to the Bump parameter. The Material / Map Browser opens. Select Ocean (lume) as the bump map (Fig.05)
Fig.05
Set the parameters of the ocean shader as follows (Fig.06): Largest = 0.25m Smallest = 0.005m Quantity = 5 Steepness = 6.25 Plane Distance = 25 m Directed = Yes Direction angle =150 Wave Speed = 0
Flats = No
Fig.06
Hit 8 to call up the Environment and Effects dialogue box. Click the Environment Map button under the Background section. The Material / Map Browser opens. Select Gradient (Fig.07).
Fig.07
Hit M to call the Material Editor. Drag the Gradient map created to an unused slot of material editor. Check Instant radio button (Fig.08).
Fig.08
Open the Gradient Parameters rollout and set following parameters (Fig.09): Colour#1: R = 242, G = 245 and B = 253 Colour#2: R = 107, G = 130 and B = 248 Colour#3: R = 194, G = 191 and B = 183 Colour 2 Position: 0.2 Under the Coordinate section check Environ and select Spherical Environment in the Mapping drop down list. This replaces the default Screen projection (Fig.10).
Fig.09
Fig.10
Hit F10 to call Render Settings dialogue box. Set the Output Size to 35mm 1.66: 1 (cine). Set the Width and Height to 1024 x 614 (Fig.11).
Fig.11
Set the active view to Camera 01. Turn off any Final Gather or GI and hit F9 to render the camera view (Fig.12).
Fig.12
In case you need to use FG or GI or both, for example, in conjugation with mr Physical Sun & Sky, set the Diffuse Level under Diffuse section to a lower value, such as 0.25 or so. In reality, the water has no diffuse characteristics; it is seen only due to the light that is reflected from and refracted through it. Higher Diffuse values cause water surface to be over lit when trying to simulate the reality using FG or GI. For any surface, the following relationship exists: Diffuse + Reflection + Refraction = Total Light Remitted from the surface. This is in agreement with the first Law of Thermodynamics which states that the total energy received by the surface is the sum of that absorbed and transmitted. Thus, no light is permitted to be created spontaneously. Camera View Rendered: Arch & Design (mi) Material is available only in Mental Ray 3.5 and later (i.e. 3ds Max 9 and later). If you are using older versions follow this alternate procedure: Select Architectural (1st entry from top) as the Material Type from the Standard button. Enter the R = 112, G = 133 and B = 124 values for the diffuse colour and 75 for the Shininess under Physical Qualities Rollout. Assign a Ocean (lume) shader with the same parameters to the Bump Slot in Special Effects Rollout.