3d underwater scene

8/9/2019 3D Underwater Scene

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/3d-underwater-scene 1/19

3D Underwater Scene

14 May 2010

In this tutorial we’re going tocreate an underwater scene in 3ds Max. We’re going to create a deep blue sea with lightrays and bubbles. Creating convincing underwater scene is a challenging task and I’m not

even trying to create a physically accurate simulation. Rather I’m using my artistic

freedom to neglect some real world rules to get the look and feel I’m going for.

Step 1 Mental Ray Renderer

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 > MentalRay Renderer ).

Step 2 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 thefollowing parameters :

•

Length: 1000• Width: 500

• Length Segs: 200

• Width Segs: 200

http://www.polygonblog.com/3d-underwater-scene



( We need a dense (80k faces) mesh because we’re going to deform it with the displace

modifier. )

Step 3 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

o Strength: 17

• Image

o Map: Noise

Open Material Editor ( Rendering > Material Editor > Compact Material Editor ). Dragand 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

o Noise Type: Turbulence

o Levels: 10

o Size: 300



Step 4 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:

1. Click “Get Material” button and select ( doubleclick ) ‘Arch & Design (mi)’ from

the list.

2. Select the water plane and assign the material to it.3. Select template from the drop-down list: Water, Reflective Surface4. Transparency: 1,0



In the material settings, go to the ‘Advanced Rendering Options’ rollout and set thefollowing parameter:

• Advanced Trasparency Options

o 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

Step 5 The Environment for Underwater Scene

Since we have highly reflective and refractive material we desperately need effectiveenvironment 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 refractionsI’m going for. So let’s create the environment. Go to the environment settings (

Rendering > Environment… ) and apply the following parameters:

• Background

o Use Map: YES

o 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

o Mapping: Spherical Environment

• Gradient Ramp Parameters rollouto Flag #1: Color: RGB 0, 16, 67 Position: 0

o

Flag #2: Color: RGB 189, 225, 240 Position: 100o ( delete the middle Flag by right-clicking and selecting ‘delete’ from the

menu )

o Noise

Amount: 1 Type: Fractal

Size: 2

Levels: 10



• Output rollout

o Output Amount: 3

Step 8 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 Perspectiveview 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 thecamera and spotlight around to get something like the picture below.



Apply the following parameters to the area spotlight ( Make a selection > Modify panel ):

• General Parameterso Shadows: OFF

• Intensity/Color/Attenuation

o 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:

1. Click ‘Add…’ button, select ‘Fog’ from the list and click ‘OK’.

2. Use Map: YES3. Environment Color Map: Gradient Ramp

4. 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.

5. Mapping: Screen

6. Angle W: 907. Flag #1: Color: RGB 0, 11, 45 Position: 0

8. Flag #2: Color: RGB 70, 144, 255 Position: 100( delete the middle Flag by right-

clicking and selecting ‘delete’ from the menu )

9. 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

o 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.



Step 10 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:

1. Click ‘Add…’ button, select ‘Volume Light’ from the list and click ‘OK’.

2. Click ‘Pick Light’ and click on the area spot we created earlier 3. Density: 7



If you are not familiar with volume lights, I suggest you render now to see how the effectlooks by default (so far we’ve just increased the density a little). The next step is going tohave 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

o Color: RGB 32, 137, 255



o 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 Effectso

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

o Source: Explicit Map Channel

•

Noise Parameterso Noise Type: Turbulence

o Levels: 10

o Size: 0,05

o 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.

Step 11 Underwater Bubbles

Our unrealistic environment might not be perfect for underwater bubbles but let’s see

how they look anyway. Create a particle cloud in the left viewport ( Create panel >

Geometry > Particle Systems > PCloud ). Select the particle cloud, go to the modify

panel and apply the following settings:

• Basic Parameters

o Display Icon

Rad/len: 230 Width: 700

Height: 480

• Particle Generation

o Particle Quantity



Use total: 1000

o Particle Timing

Emit Start: -10o Particle Size

Particle Size: 1,5

Variation: 100 Grow for: 0

Fade for: 0

• Particle Typeo Standard Particles: Sphere

Place the particle cloud so that it fills the view underwater. ( You can also change the size

of the emitter if necessary. )

As a final thing we’re going to use a glass material for the bubbles. Press M in keyboardto open the Material editor, select a material slot, and create the material:

1. Click ‘Get Material’ button and select ( doubleclick ) ‘Arch & Design (mi)’ from

the list.

2. Select the particle cloud and assign the material to it.3. Select template from the drop-down list: Glass (Solid Geometry).



Render the scene to see the bubbles. Some bubbles look ok while some look too bright.Furthermore, these bubbles are perfect spheres so they are not really realistic as

underwater bubbles, but at least they are fast and easy to create!



Step 12 The Final Render of the 3D Underwater Scene

If you look closely you’ll see some jagged edges in the bubbles. Let’s adjust the samplingsettings to get a more polished render. Go to the render setup and increase antialiasing

quality by increasing Mental Ray’s sampling values ( Rendering > Render setup… >

Renderer > Sampling Quality ):

• Samples per pixelo

Minimum: 4o Maximum: 64

• Filter o Type: Mitchell ( For most scenes the Mitchell filter gives the best results. )

Beware, rendering time might be an issue with all these effects and sampling settings

(about 1½h with quad core 2,33GHz Q8200). Render your scene to see the final image. Idid some adjusting in Photoshop as well:



• Contrast: +80

• I removed a few overly bright bubbles from the lower left corner

That’s it. Happy rendering!

3d underwater scene

Documents