Underwater scene

Started by René, July 15, 2018, 12:39:42 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Dune

I would use lights. I made this a while ago, using three slightly shifted (0.7) suns with different colors and soft shadows. Shadows were cast through a 2D, very thin (2cm), almost black cloud layer (only secondary), just under the water surface, with a voronoi mask.

René

Yeah, I remember that one well, very beautiful and effective image. The water in this picture is shallow and I think that's one of the problems I struggle with because I'm at a depth of 150 meters. Maybe I just want too much: caustics, Jacob's Ladders, murky water, etc. Thanks for the tips, I will continue to experiment for a while.

René

Quote from: luvsmuzik on August 10, 2018, 12:59:39 PM
A wire frame grid object does the trick if you can somehow distort it to resemble voronoi cells.....you wizard modelers could do this, I know. The soft shadows stay crisper anyway for me.

That is interesting. I've made a few rough and ugly wireframe models of a water pattern, and what do you know; indeed, a caustic-like effect is created. Actually it looks more like bokeh, so I have to invert the effect. Now I wonder what happens when I use wireframe of a water surface.

René

Quote from: WASasquatch on August 10, 2018, 12:49:16 PM
Though there are shadows in caustics. Technically it's what makes the caustics. We just see the light as the "active bits" rather than noting the shadows.

Okay, I'm not an expert in this area  :) although I did some reading on this subject. If it would help to create caustics I would dive into this matter but if it is simply not possible then all knowledge of the world will not help. :-\
How would you explain caustics on the bottom of a boat? Reflections?

René

New

Dune

Terrific! I like the distant blur, very appropriate. Are these sponges and such real species, I mean, some have a bit of an artificial (blue) stem, e.g.

René

#36
All of them are xfrog species and they all really exist. I checked that; not to establish whether they are real, :) but to get an idea of where they are growing and how they relate to each other.
I have added chromatic aberration in Photoshop

Hannes

Beautiful! Yes, chromatic aberration helps. However, I'd love to see the scene with Ulco's method. By the way, Ulco, what do you mean by shifting the suns by 0.7. What did you shift?

Dune

Their position, say sun 1 is blue and at 30, the sun 2 (green) would be at 30.7, etc

Hannes

Just the heading, or the elevation as well?

WAS

#40
Quote from: René on August 11, 2018, 04:56:29 AM
Quote from: WASasquatch on August 10, 2018, 12:49:16 PM
Though there are shadows in caustics. Technically it's what makes the caustics. We just see the light as the "active bits" rather than noting the shadows.

Okay, I'm not an expert in this area  :) although I did some reading on this subject. If it would help to create caustics I would dive into this matter but if it is simply not possible then all knowledge of the world will not help. :-\
How would you explain caustics on the bottom of a boat? Reflections?

I don't want to get into a argument. It's why we call them caustics, instead of just refraction (like a kaleidoscopes refractions), because they involve refraction and shadow of objects. The transparency and refraction effect the basic shadow as well. Ocean floor caustics includes shadows when light is refracted away, shifted and concentrated with other light. This creates shadows... The light itself is refraction. The combination of the two is caustics.

This is also why the shadow on a boat includes different depths as well as focused highlights of refraction from redirecting light. You'd imagine at a distance your focused highlights are actually going to be pretty drowned out and you're mainly getting shadow forms. For example, you mentioned 150m? You won't see any focused highlights, and the filtered colours will be non-existent. Mainly just shadows.  In fact, in most the ocean; darkout.

Without actual refraction from the reflective surface shadows and lighting highlights is the only way to fake it. Wouldn't be realistic with ocean surface lot like the day with refraction highlights

sboerner

Fascinating discussion! Following with great interest. And beautiful images, René (and Ulco). The whole conversation about caustics makes me wonder whether Planetside has any long-term plans for a physically based rendering system. Might that render it (pun intended) unnecessary to fake these sorts of optical effects?

Oshyan

I *think* you may be able to use two Suns, one with shadows for Surfaces (soft shadows enabled), and the other with shadows for atmo (soft shadows disabled).

- Oshyan

Dune

I used just position, not elevation, Hannes, but it doesn't really matter, as long as there's a bit of difference between the locations.

Hannes

Thanks, Ulco. And yes, fascinating discussion!