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Underwater lighting - parti_volume
Tutorials > Rendering / Lighting > Shaders
Underwater lighting - parti_volume
callum ridley, updated 2010-07-18 01:12:33 UTC 199,438 views  Rating:
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In this tutorial we will be exploring the use of the Mental Ray node "parti_volume". in the past this has been somewhat troublesome for new and experienced users alike. however with this tutorial i aim to explain how to set it up in a way that will enable you to go ahead and put it to your own use.

We will also be covering the creation of caustics. Although i will be using it in the situation of moving open water the process of creating them works in any situation that you require caustics.

So lets get going...

Part 1 - Scene Setup

for all of the following make sure Interactive Creation is turned off

1. Create a polygon cube and scale it by 300.

2. Name this Cube "photonBoundry". see figure 1.1

photonBoundry
figure 1.1

3. Create a Polygon Plane and scale it by 60.

4. Name this Plane "seaBed". see figure 1.2

seaBed
figure 1.2

5. Create another Polygon Plane, scale it by 20 and this time translate it by x=10 , y= 17, z=10.

6. Name this Plane "waterSurface". see figure 1.3

waterSurface
figure 1.3

7. Create a Spot Light and rotate it by x=-75, y=50, z=0 and translate by x=15, y=36, z=15.

8. Name this Spotlight "photonEmmitter". see figure 1.4

photonEmitter
figure 1.4

On the next page we will be creating the water surface...

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Author: callum ridley
Submitted: 2010-06-25 19:30:42 UTC
Tags: parti_volume, Caustics, and volumetric
Software: Maya
Views: 199,438

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