Thank you all for your kind comments and critics
@Kevin F: the method consists in appropriate use of geometry, textures and Lambert shader. Every drop was modeled with MAX over a duplicated mesh model of the leaves. I converted it in a editable poly, then I subdivided every area into little edges, I extruded the resulting faces once or twice to create little 'bubbles' over the surface and then meshmooted it. Working on a textured leaf model permitted to preserve map coordinates: in this way the texture that goes to 'cover' every drop gives also the illusion of refraction. Clever, huh?
Waterdrops have their own shader in TG2: it consists in a default shader with a Lambert shader that regulates translucency and luminosity.
To get a good leaf closeup I downloaded a very high res map from
mayang.com. From the original image I've created a greyscale bump map, a translucency map and a luminosity map. I applied very low displacement values, in order of a tenth of millimeter.
@Saurav: That's true, some edge in the background is not realistic. This is because I applied DOF with a 'custom-built' Z-depth map
I'll post an update with improved results
I'm re-rendering now a new version with improved waterdrop colors, making them a bit less 'opaque' (I suppose, at least
), I'll post it here soon
Thank you again for comments,
Lucio
