Realistic Pool Water

[Guest dialog]

Ok here is a question...looking to make an infinite pool for a penthouse tower.. 2 things I would like to achieve.

 

1. Water going over the edge look...

 

2. The water needs to look real...Do you use a plane over the edge?...use a plane for all of the water...use a box? I have seen mental ray tutorials on how to get the water to behave like real water as it gets deeper and deeper into the pool and how the light changes... how do you do this with VRay?

 

How about lighting a pool? Is it as simple as placing a light under the plane?

 

And modelling and material tricks would be greatly appreciated!

[Scott Schroeder]

For going over the edge, I use to planes welded together and round that edge a little bit. I'd add enough quads so you can soft select the verts at the bottom, apply a noise modifier, and get the soft waves going from the bottom to flattening out near where the water falls over the edge.

 

For the light, use vray fog. But be aware, it's a very finicky thing to master. Sometimes it works best to use a pool water that has been shelled to give it depth. Sometimes a simple plane works too.

http://www.pixelab.be/blog/2008/09/14/fog-bias-parameter-test-in-vray-material/

[Guest dialog]

Thanks Scott...I will try this out.

[J.C]

I just sweep the profile and fix the uvs so that my bump map follows the current no 3D waves to keep the mesh low, basically two planes not counting the bevel on the edge. For the shader I use layered noises and gradients one noise for the calm wavy water on top and another for the dripping water on the edge masked with the gradient shaders. It works well for me.

[Guest dialog]

I just sweep the profile and fix the uvs so that my bump map follows the current no 3D waves to keep the mesh low, basically two planes not counting the bevel on the edge. For the shader I use layered noises and gradients one noise for the calm wavy water on top and another for the dripping water on the edge masked with the gradient shaders. It works well for me.

 

Thanks for that as well.