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I am lookin for a pool water tutorial (creating water seems to be a bit more difficult than taking a photo ). I remember that there must exist at least one, but I but cannot find it.

this one?
http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/view ... hp?t=23905

That was quick! Thanks!

You have two ways of doing it now: with refraction and fresnel effect but without caustics or with caustics but without refraction and fresnel. The first one is just a standard one layer water material straight from the wizard (should be clean in exterior shots ~ at SL 13) The second one is Nuno's method, using ghost layers.

One thing to take in consideration is the color of the bottom of the pool which is pretty much what gives the color to the water. Water is almost transparent.

Good luck.

P.S: Well, there's still another way of doing it, very fast rendered but without caustics and without refraction but with fresnel effect, which is made just by a reflective opaque layer plus a ghost one in additive mode.

Fernando, is there a way to brighten up the standard water material? It appears very dark even in my exterior tests (even on a white pool bottom), particularly if I use HDRI pics.

Could we see a picture of your setup or the render? Water material should be almost transparent and fresnel reflective. Maybe the HDRI is too dark? Try incresing its intensity.

Oh! I have to say I only use a plane to make the water (subdivided and with a noise modifier applyed)

Here's the renders and the standard water setup (right from the wizard, I only added a noise map for displacement). The HDRI pic is RADSKY-017.hdr, Dosch; it worked well for my other purposes, increasing it's intensity made it even darker.

As I see it's reflecting the background as it is and the water material is ok. Try to use the physical sky for a change or build some geometries to be reflected to see if the material reflects correctly but I think it has to do with the color of the HDRI.

The AGS + ghost layer is great.... Some displacement makes it much better... A standard AGS material with an extra layer (weight 20-25%) of classic water (Nd 1.33) and a displacement map, maybe another layer with a low weight to fake caustics or water color...
For night scenes, I have added an emitter too.
Just make some tests, you will find something nice... Daylight scenes are easy, night scenes are really difficult with this "light through dielectric " problem of Maxwell.

Fernando Tella wrote:As I see it's reflecting the background as it is and the water material is ok. Try to use the physical sky for a change or build some geometries to be reflected to see if the material reflects correctly but I think it has to do with the color of the HDRI.

He's right. Look how dark your sky is. That's what the surface of the water is reflecting.

The wizard water does indeed reflect the sky – but somehow strange, doesn't it. Imagine what Maxwell water would make out of the sky and the trees on the picture below. The ghost layer water comes much closer to the natural appearance.

Stick to what you like best, but I still think the sky is too dark.

This pool was made with a material very similar to the wizard water:

Fernando, I love the picture - but the water looks definitely not correct to me, seems rather like deep arctic ocean than pool water.

I am still confused about the way the wizard water behaves; can't interpret the different appearances at all.



Very low transparency (even if not tinted at all), not a bit of shade. Any help anyone?

with the current state of Maxwell Render - it is not possible to render water physically correct (caustics, transparency, shadows) within normal rendering times and SL. Or I guess more correct: you can render it physically correct, but it looks wrong. AFAIK you are forced to cheat to achieve something that looks natural.