Skill Level: Beginner to Intermediate

Time to Complete: 20 Minutes

Introduction

This tutorial will guide you to achieving a fairly realistic open water effect which can even be animated, using the 'Ocean' shader from the Lume Library.

Set Mental Ray as the rendering engine. Hit F10 to bring up the Render Setup dialogue box. Go to the Assign Renderer rollout in the Common Tab. Open it and set Mental Ray as the Renderer (Fig.01).


Go to the Units Setup dialogue box under Customize Menu. Set Metric as the Display Unit Scale and Meters as the default unit (Fig.02).


Create a Plane at the origin with dimensions of 10 m x 10 m. Set Scale to 10 under Render Multipliers. Rename it as 'Water Surface'. Create a Target Direct light (under Standard Category) and place it at X = 2 m, Y = 4 m and Z = 6 m. Place the Target of the light at X = -1.5 m, Y = 0 m and Z = 0.75 m. Set Shadows to Ray Traced Shadows. Check 'Overshoot' under the Directional Parameters. Create a Target Camera and place it at X = -7 m, Y = -9 m and Z = 6.25 m. Place the Target of the Camera at X = -0.175 m, Y = -1.125 m and Z =- 0.9 m.

Hit M to call up the Material Editor. Click on the 'Standard' button on the top right hand corner. The Material / Map Browser opens and select 'Arch & Design (mi)' (the top most entry) as the material type*. Rename the material as 'Water Surface' and assign it to the plane (Fig.03).


Under 'Main material parameters' change Color in the Diffuse section to R = 0.439, G = 0.522 and B = 0.486. Set Reflectivity to 0.7 in the Reflection section (Fig.04).


Open the 'Special Purpose Maps' rollout and click the button next to the Bump parameter. The Material / Map Browser opens. Select 'Ocean (lume)' as the bump map (Fig.05)


Set the parameters of the ocean shader as follows (Fig.06):

• Largest = 0.25m
• Smallest = 0.005m
• Quantity = 5
• Steepness = 6.25
• Plane Distance = 25 m
• Directed = Yes
• Direction angle =150
• Wave Speed = 0
• Flats = No

Hit 8 to call up the Environment and Effects dialogue box. Click the Environment Map button under the Background section. The Material / Map Browser opens. Select Gradient (Fig.07).


Hit M to call the Material Editor. Drag the Gradient map created to an unused slot of material editor. Check 'Instant' radio button (Fig.08).

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