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caustics help needed....


choochee
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I'm doing a basement with a window to the depth of a swimming pool and would like to implement caustics in the image. I'm using MAYA 5 and rendering the scene with mental ray but I'm still unfamilliar with generating caustics. Look at the scene and tell me if U know the best way to try and do it.... filepush.asp?file=n-trace_7.jpg

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Hi Yossi,

 

Does Maya have a means for assigning surfaces as caustic generators and caustic receivers? I think then it's just a matter of tweaking the amount of caustic photons to improve the quality. I'm coming from a Max perspective here.

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I'm curious as to how Fran should have known your skill level with maya? Generally, when a person asks for help on a specific issue, its because they don't know how to do it and are looking for any help they can get. Which she tried to offer, by the way.

 

Her additional suggestion to post in the maya section is a very good one considering that is the program you are learning and asking for help with.

 

Good luck on finding the answer.

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Hello choochee,

 

You may have found the answer to your questions in another forum...

 

If not hope this helps.

Although I’m not a Maya user myself, caustics are set up very similarly in most programs. First you need to define a photon transmitter and select light source, this is the place were the photons are going to be released from into your scene. Then as Fran mentioned you need to assign the Glass window as the transmitter and the pool (water geometry) as the receiver. Usually there is a separate switch to enable Caustics in the Mental Ray render, make sure that it is turn on.

 

 

Here’s a few links I found that may also help...

 

http://homepage.mac.com/tkluysk/ens/computer/cwdata/causticsSceneBig_2.html

http://www.3dluvr.com/intercepto/maya/tutorials/mray_caustics/caustics_introduction.htm

http://www.cgarchitect.com/news/newsfeed.asp?nid=1119

 

 

Good luck,

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Something is not rigth with where you have placed your caustics. There is no way you would get cautic reflection on the wall below the window unless there was a mirror rigth in front of the window to reflect them back there. Also I think you have put the floor caustics too far into the room. The angle that the sun would have to be to project that far would be almost under the water and if that was the case they would not be so intense. I'd also assume that at that angle there would be a falloff and blurring of the cautics as is got futher away from the source. Right now it looks like it is being projected from a gobo above. I think with a few tweaks your cautics will look pretty good. I think your caustics should not extend much past the pool table, maybe by a few feet.

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