Water effects
 

Hi Guys

Am actually doing an underwater scene and I need some advice in making it more realistic. So far I have use the fog enviroment effects in Maya which you can see in the attachment. However am finding the water too clean. Ok its missing some fauna and vegetation but besides that its far from reality.

You can add some reflection in the ground caused by the water on the surface.. dont know if I say it right, cuz of my ENGLISH.
Here you can see what I mean, look at the ground http://wallpaper-s.org/17_~_Mitsubis...Underwater.htm

You can get this effect by maping a texture to a spotlight, and pointing the spotlight to the ground.

Also you should add some light coming from the top, light volumetric spotlights.. EXAMPLE: http://www.eyesontutorials.com/image...r_1024x768.jpg

And also your background should be like a gradient, a more bright blue going to a more dark blue. The bright blue towards the surface, and the dark one towards the ground.

hope this helps.

Hi thanks for your ideas

However I cannot have any rays of light since the action is deap below water so we wont see the water level. As for where the sun comes from is yet to decided. I played with the fog and water effects from Maya and I got more closely what am looking for. After looking at some pictures on the net I realise am missing so flotting particles around. I'll post a new screenshot of the overall scenery soon.

Thx

I would put (or raise the strengh) a bump map or displacement map on the rocks. It is way too smooth right now.

there's a great DVD from gnomon called:
"Maya Dynamics: Underwater Environments."

I was able to get it pretty cheap and it's got some great tips.