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# 1 03-02-2010 , 02:57 PM
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Great underwater ocean - howto in maya?!?

Hi! Maybe somebody of you have an idea how to generate an underwater scene like this in maya?

amazing underwater scene

Actually I've done a simple nurbs plane, displaced by an ocean, with a dielectric material (ior 1.33) - with phyiscal sun and sky, rendered in mental ray.

the refrections looks nice, need a lot of compositing - but how, the hell (sorryuser added image could i push the scene, that it get that detail seen in the video above? (its done in 3dmax with the dreamscape plugin)

would be great, if we could discuss that thing and share our knowledge! thanks alot

# 2 05-02-2010 , 08:30 PM
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I have no clue how to do that, but would also love to know how to even begin making a scene like that. It would come in REALLY handy for what I want to do.

# 3 05-02-2010 , 09:19 PM
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Caustics baby!

# 4 07-02-2010 , 06:44 AM
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Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Last edited by NextDesign; 07-02-2010 at 06:47 AM.
# 5 08-02-2010 , 09:23 AM
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Thanks for your replies. I've seen this dvd of gnomon, the most problem is the ocean-surface - i can make it look like in this tutorial, but that wont look real, far away of the animation in the 3dmax-example.

steve green, amazing artist who did the animation, talks about using the enviroment sss shader in 3d max. if i use a dielectric or mia material - i'll get parts of the ocean, that refract 100 percent, a sharp cut, and the rest will reflect the underwater surface (deep blue in my scene). i've activated the translucent function in my mia material, but that wont get me further - the look doesnt change.

maybe somebody has an idea of a shader network for an underwater ocean surface, that gets close to the 3dmax example? would be great, if we could share our ideas!

thanks again!

btw: i thought caustics are just useful, if i have a ground, where you see them - does they be visible in the ocean surface too? please let me know, what exactly you mean, greets!


Last edited by stingray2006; 08-02-2010 at 12:58 PM.
# 6 21-12-2010 , 02:17 AM
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I realize this is old but did you ever find your answer?

I'm a noob and all I have been doing since I started learning Maya in February is to try to create photorealistic underwater scenes....and gather information on the methods to do so. So I realize there is not a lot of info that is easy to find....

I haven't yet explored volume caustics but...

To simulate a realistic underwater surface, the best method I found was from a rather obscure post by Duncan Brinsmead of Autodesk here:

https://forums.creativecow.net/archivethread/61/650236

If you are wanting the light rays...either a foglight or parti volume with an creation expression (ocean1.time = time/2; ) into time has worked ok for me...

It's interesting on your link how it appears his light rays are tied into his ocean movement.

I'd have to think about how to do that in Maya...

If you read this and get anywhere with your scene I would love to hear and or see your results if you are open to sharing them in this thread.

# 7 10-02-2011 , 05:43 AM
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