Help w/shallow sea water

[novelh]

I am creating this little villa on a Caribbean island and I need to depict a shallow 3'-5' deep beach setting. Below is a sample of the look I am trying to replicate.

I created a surface for the water and another surface for the sandy floor below. The effects that I get vary greatly from a mirrored look to ink water and very deep water. I never seem to get the light blue "fluorescent" feel as in the sample picture above. Please note that the water material I am tweaking is the same as the one in the bath tub shown below. I know that the reflection of the sky and the angle of the shot contribute to the final look but what can I do to more closely match the sample. If you have another method all together that you think might help please fill me in. Thanks

[novelh]

Here are some more shots

[gfa2]

What rendering engine are you using? As far as the bathtub vs. the ocean water looking different, the bathtub isn't reflecting the sky like the ocean is so they are going to look different. Plus if you are using fog in your refraction the volume difference in the two is also going to make a difference.

[novelh]

What rendering engine are you using? As far as the bathtub vs. the ocean water looking different, the bathtub isn't reflecting the sky like the ocean is so they are going to look different. Plus if you are using fog in your refraction the volume difference in the two is also going to make a difference.

 

Mental Ray in Max 2008. There is no fog in the refraction.

[shaneis]

Here you go, straight from the horse's mouth...

 

http://mentalraytips.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html

[shaneis]

Thinking that you would find it easier to work on if you had a good texture for the sand... good ones here,

 

http://www.cgtextures.com/

[SandmanNinja]

I've seen it mentioned on here before, but I've never gone to that site.

 

It's really great!

 

Considering a membership next time I have the extra cash.

 

I normally use Image Google to get ref images, textures, etc and sort them as I get them, but that's a nice package right there.

[novelh]

Thanks for the links. I did follow the water tut from Zap's Mental Ray tips which is how I got the water in tub. But I know that things are different on an open ocean. I thought there might be something I overlooked when creating a beach.

[novelh]

What I finally did was create a 4' deep box by about a mile long and applied the water material to it. Then I created a mesh for the sand at about the same dimensions so it would fade to infinity. Anyway here is a shot of the water.