We’re going to render our 3d underwater scene with the Mental Ray. By default 3ds Max uses the Scanline renderer so we have to change that. Change the renderer to Mental Ray ( Rendering > Render Setup… > Common tab > Assign Renderer > Production > Mental Ray Renderer ).
The Basic Geometry for the 3D Water
Create a plane ( Create panel > Geometry > Standard Primitives > Plane ) in the top viewport . Modify the plane ( Make a selection > Modify panel ) according to the following parameters :
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. )
Water Surface with the Displace Modifier
Add Displace modifier to the plane ( Make a selection > Modify panel > Modifier List > Object-Space Modifiers > Displace ) and apply the following parameters:
Displacement
Strength: 17
Image
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
Noise Type: Turbulence
Levels: 10
Size: 300
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:
Click “Get Material” button and select ( doubleclick ) ‘Arch & Design (mi)’ from the list.
Select the water plane and assign the material to it.
Select template from the drop-down list: Water, Reflective Surface
Transparency: 1,0
In the material settings, go to the ‘Advanced Rendering Options’ rollout and set the following parameter:
Advanced Trasparency Options
Glass / Translucency treat objects as…: Thin-walled (can use single faces)
Finally we’re going to change the bump map settings to get smaller and steeper waves. In material settings, go the ‘Special Purpose Maps’, click on the Ocean shader, and apply the following parameters:
Largest: 100
Smallest: 1
Quantity: 20
Steepness: 5
The Environment for Underwater Scene
Since we have highly reflective and refractive material we desperately need effective environment as well. Without environment, the rendered water surface would just appear black. Next we’re going to cheat in 3ds Max. We’re going to create a highly unrealistic environment. However, it just happens to produce the kind of reflections and refractions I’m going for. So let’s create the environment. Go to the environment settings ( Rendering > Environment… ) and apply the following parameters:
Background
Use Map: YES
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
Mapping: Spherical Environment
Gradient Ramp Parameters rollout
Flag #1: Color: RGB 0, 16, 67 Position: 0
Flag #2: Color: RGB 189, 225, 240 Position: 100
Delete the middle Flag by right-clicking and selecting ‘delete’ from the menu
Noise
Amount: 1
Type: Fractal
Size: 2
Levels: 10
Output rollout
Output Amount: 3
Prepare the 3D Underwater Scene for Rendering
Let’s prepare our underwater scene for the first rendering. Create a Target camera ( Create panel > Cameras > Target ) in the top viewport. Right-click on the Perspective view and press C in the keyboard to change it to the Camera view. Create ‘mr Area Spot’ ( Create panel > Lights > Standard > mr Area Spot ) in the front viewport. Move the camera and spotlight around to get something like the picture below.
Apply the following parameters to the area spotlight ( Make a selection > Modify panel ):
General Parameters
Shadows: OFF
Intensity/Color/Attenuation
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. Step 9 Underwater Fog
Go to the Atmosphere settings ( Rendering > Environment… > Atmosphere ) and add the Fog:
A . Click ‘Add…’ button, select ‘Fog’ from the list and click ‘OK’.
B . Use Map: YES
C . Environment Color Map: Gradient Ramp
D . 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.
E . Mapping: Screen
F. Angle W: 90
G . Flag #1: Color: RGB 0, 11, 45 Position: 0
H . Flag #2: Color: RGB 70, 144, 255 Position: 100( delete the middle Flag by right-clicking and selecting ‘delete’ from the menu )
I . 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
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.
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:
Click ‘Add…’ button, select ‘Volume Light’ from the list and click ‘OK’.
Click ‘Pick Light’ and click on the area spot we created earlier
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
Color: RGB 32, 137, 255
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
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
Source: Explicit Map Channel
Noise Parameters
Noise Type: Turbulence
Levels: 10
Size: 0,05
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.
The Basic Geometry for the 3D Water
Create a plane ( Create panel > Geometry > Standard Primitives > Plane ) in the top viewport . Modify the plane ( Make a selection > Modify panel ) according to the following parameters :
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. )
Water Surface with the Displace Modifier
Add Displace modifier to the plane ( Make a selection > Modify panel > Modifier List > Object-Space Modifiers > Displace ) and apply the following parameters:
Displacement
Strength: 17
Image
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
Noise Type: Turbulence
Levels: 10
Size: 300
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:
Click “Get Material” button and select ( doubleclick ) ‘Arch & Design (mi)’ from the list.
Select the water plane and assign the material to it.
Select template from the drop-down list: Water, Reflective Surface
Transparency: 1,0
In the material settings, go to the ‘Advanced Rendering Options’ rollout and set the following parameter:
Advanced Trasparency Options
Glass / Translucency treat objects as…: Thin-walled (can use single faces)
Finally we’re going to change the bump map settings to get smaller and steeper waves. In material settings, go the ‘Special Purpose Maps’, click on the Ocean shader, and apply the following parameters:
Largest: 100
Smallest: 1
Quantity: 20
Steepness: 5
Since we have highly reflective and refractive material we desperately need effective environment as well. Without environment, the rendered water surface would just appear black. Next we’re going to cheat in 3ds Max. We’re going to create a highly unrealistic environment. However, it just happens to produce the kind of reflections and refractions I’m going for. So let’s create the environment. Go to the environment settings ( Rendering > Environment… ) and apply the following parameters:
Background
Use Map: YES
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
Mapping: Spherical Environment
Gradient Ramp Parameters rollout
Flag #1: Color: RGB 0, 16, 67 Position: 0
Flag #2: Color: RGB 189, 225, 240 Position: 100
Delete the middle Flag by right-clicking and selecting ‘delete’ from the menu
Noise
Amount: 1
Type: Fractal
Size: 2
Levels: 10
Output rollout
Output Amount: 3
Prepare the 3D Underwater Scene for Rendering
Let’s prepare our underwater scene for the first rendering. Create a Target camera ( Create panel > Cameras > Target ) in the top viewport. Right-click on the Perspective view and press C in the keyboard to change it to the Camera view. Create ‘mr Area Spot’ ( Create panel > Lights > Standard > mr Area Spot ) in the front viewport. Move the camera and spotlight around to get something like the picture below.
Apply the following parameters to the area spotlight ( Make a selection > Modify panel ):
General Parameters
Shadows: OFF
Intensity/Color/Attenuation
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. Step 9 Underwater Fog
Go to the Atmosphere settings ( Rendering > Environment… > Atmosphere ) and add the Fog:
A . Click ‘Add…’ button, select ‘Fog’ from the list and click ‘OK’.
B . Use Map: YES
C . Environment Color Map: Gradient Ramp
D . 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.
E . Mapping: Screen
F. Angle W: 90
G . Flag #1: Color: RGB 0, 11, 45 Position: 0
H . Flag #2: Color: RGB 70, 144, 255 Position: 100( delete the middle Flag by right-clicking and selecting ‘delete’ from the menu )
I . 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
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.
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:
Click ‘Add…’ button, select ‘Volume Light’ from the list and click ‘OK’.
Click ‘Pick Light’ and click on the area spot we created earlier
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
Color: RGB 32, 137, 255
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
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
Source: Explicit Map Channel
Noise Parameters
Noise Type: Turbulence
Levels: 10
Size: 0,05
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.
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