Easy Water (part 1)


866×600_v2.jpg

Water is one of those cool things you first want to do with any 3d program-especially one designed to make such realistic images as 3ds Max. There are a number of ways to do water, and water has more than one mood! In this tutorial, we’ll do simple water that you would use in calm scenes, and those with architectural visualization at the front of the stage.

That said, if you choose to add water to your scenes, it will make your illustrations, or animations, much more believable. The problem is, if you try to make water and it is too cheezy, it will be worse than no water at all.

This particular approach is really fast (both rendering and to create), and it gives the illusion of depth to the water while still using just a single plane. This example also produces a still. Animating is a lot more involved, as noise needs to be animated in different directions simultaneously, etc.

Setup: 3ds Max 9, V-Ray, using just the stuff Max ships with.

Reset 3ds Max.

Draw a plane in the top view, 1500′ x 1500′, and center it in the viewport. Set the segments to anywhere from 30 to 70, depending on how choppy/vigorous you want the waves/swells. To halp smooth out the render, increase the Density Render Multiplier to 7 to 10-again based on how smooth the wave crests and swells need to be. Honestly, you could use any dimensions you like, or none at all and use the arbitrary, default increments 3ds Max shipps with. It’s all relative!

At one corner, add a target camera pointing toward the opposite corner of the plane, close to the surface of the plane:


w2.jpg

Select the plane, and apply a volume select modifier (Vol. Select). Move he gizmo to where the camera is. Select Parameters -> Stack Selection Level -> Vertex. Select Parameters -> Select By -> Sphere. Finally, enable Soft Selection, and increase Falloff to 10000, or as shown:


w3.jpg

This will allow us to apply the wave effect more toward the camera, and less farther away. This is a great way to fake distance, keeping the rendered polys low.

Next, assign a gloomy grey default color to a new material and apply it to the plane: Use 120 for R, G, and B and change the Specular Color to pure white and increase it to 200 to make for a nice, shiny surface. Enable the Glossy map and tweak it up to 35%. Change the Reflection channel to 70% and add a Falloff effect to it. Select Falloff Parameters -> Front : Side -> Falloff Type -> Fresnel. This keeps reflections off the water as coming from the side, which gives the plane (water) the illusion of depth. Turn down the IOR to .6 from 1.6 (which is fine for pure glass, but this isn’t drinking water!). Next, add some sparkle to the edges of the light’s reflections off the water by applying a Raytrace material to the Side (bottom one, with the white color chooser) channel of the Front : Side section of the Fallof Parameters rollout:


w4.jpg

At the root/top of the water material, it’s time to add some more “depth” to the surface by setting the Bump map to 25%, and applying a Mask map to it. Rename the Mask material to water bump distance mask, and put a Smoke map into the Map slot under Mask Parameters, calling it ripples. Under Coordinates -> Coordinates -> Source, select Explicit Map Channel. Change Smoke Parameters -> Size, change to .005 for a shimmer. Change # Iterations to 20 (to make more random), Exponent to .4, and change Color #2 to pure white.


w5.jpg

Not very convincing, but we haven’t added waves and an environment bitmap. Select the plane, and add a noise modifier

This next approach is adapted from Elements. Add a Noise modifier to the water plane, and rename it Noise Left. Enable Fractal, set Z Strength to 18″, and Frequency to .5. Select the Noise modifier’s gizmo and rotate it 60 degrees clockwise in the Top viewport. In the Top viewport, rotate the same gizmo 45 degrees.

Copy this modifier by right-clicking on it, and paste a new one, renaming it Noise Right. Rotate Noise Right’s gizmo 90 degrees clockwise in the Top viewport.

Add an omni way up high above the plane, about 5000′. No shadows, and turn the Multiplier down to .3.

Finally, add a bitmap for the environment from <3ds Max install dir>\maps\skies\cloud sky.jpg. When you render, though, you’ll see the clouds the wrong way around for reflecting off the water:


866×600_v1.jpg

Load the jpg in Photoshop and rotate the canvas 180 degrees and re-save it. Now when loaded in Environment and Effects -> Background -> Environment Map, the clouds will look the way they should!

There was a lot to this one, so here is the file.


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3 Comments


  1. Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /homepages/16/d105165054/htdocs/atcp.us/blog/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4819

    Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /homepages/16/d105165054/htdocs/atcp.us/blog/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4819

    nice info. thank you for your information / tutorial


    Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /homepages/16/d105165054/htdocs/atcp.us/blog/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4819
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  2. Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /homepages/16/d105165054/htdocs/atcp.us/blog/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4819

    Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /homepages/16/d105165054/htdocs/atcp.us/blog/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4819

    I was curious if you ever thought of changing the layout of your website?
    Its very well written; I love what youve got
    to say. But maybe you could a little more in the way of
    content so people could connect with it better.
    Youve got an awful lot of text for only having 1 or 2 pictures.
    Maybe you could space it out better?


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  3. Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /homepages/16/d105165054/htdocs/atcp.us/blog/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4819

    Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /homepages/16/d105165054/htdocs/atcp.us/blog/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4819

    Maxie,

    What an odd thing to comment on… You are a very strange person!

    Thanks?

    :)


    Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /homepages/16/d105165054/htdocs/atcp.us/blog/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4819
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Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /homepages/16/d105165054/htdocs/atcp.us/blog/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4819

Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /homepages/16/d105165054/htdocs/atcp.us/blog/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4819

Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /homepages/16/d105165054/htdocs/atcp.us/blog/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4819

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Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /homepages/16/d105165054/htdocs/atcp.us/blog/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4819

Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /homepages/16/d105165054/htdocs/atcp.us/blog/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4819

Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /homepages/16/d105165054/htdocs/atcp.us/blog/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4819

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