Tutorial 10: Bottle Dynamics: Part 2

 

In this tutorial, you will create materials for the sea surface and apply a subsurface effect to make the bottle look more realistic as it sinks into the water.

 

Start up 3ds Max and continue on from the previous lesson or open the DSBottlePart2Start.max scene.

 

Start Scene opened

 

To get nice-looking water, you will first assign a DreamScape SeaMaterial to the surface.

 

Select the water object and open up the Material Editor  .

Select a free material slot and click the Standard button to bring up the Material/Map Browser. Double-click on DreamScape: SeaMaterial to change from the Standard material type to this one.

Apply the material by selecting the Sea Surface and clicking the Assign Material To Selected button.

 

To see the full effect of this material you will need to add the DreamScape effect and a DreamScape light.

 

Open the Environment and Effects dialog and scroll down to the Atmosphere rollout. Click the Add button and add the DreamScape effect.

In the command panel go to /Create/Lights/DreamScape/Sun and drag out the Sun light in the Left Viewport.

Render the scene from the Camera viewport to see how the DreamScape SeaMaterial looks.

 

 

Render and light placement

 

Now the sea material is looking better but it could use some more details. To add detail you will add a bump map and a subsurface effect.

 

In the Material Editor, select the SeaMaterial and scroll down to the Maps section in the DreamScape SeaMaterial Parameters rollout. Click on the None button next to Bump Map and pick DreamScape: Sea Bump from the list.

Make a quick render to see the added detail the bump map gives you.

Set the Map Scale to  0.1 in the Parameters rollout for the DreamScape Bump. Render again.

 

 

 

Map Scale of 0.2 on the Left and 0.1 on the Right.

 

Now as the bottle dips into the water, the water just looks too clear. You will add some murkiness to the water by using the DreamScape SubSurface effect as the underwater color.

 

Go to the Underwater Color dropdown in the DreamScape SeaMaterial Parameters rollout and choose DreamScape Subsurface from the list.

 

This will set the material to use the DreamScape Subsurface effect as the underwater color. Now you will have to set up the DreamScape Subsurface effect in the Environment and Effects dialog.

 

In the Environment and Effects dialog, click the Add button in the Atmosphere rollout and pick DreamScape: SubSurface from the list.

Make a quick render to see the results.

 

You may see some effect, but probably not all you had hoped for.

 

In the DreamScape SubSurface Parameters rollout, click the radio button next to Physically Based Model to enable this method.

Click the User Defined radio button and set the Scatter color to RGB50,80,110. This will darken the water a bit..

Set the Back Scatter to 0.4 to make the water more murky. Increasing this value will cause the SubSurface system to add more 'particulate matter' into the water itself, making it appear more cloudy.

 

 Now the water is a nice color and you can see the submerged part of the bottle is a little tinted in color.

 

To increase how murky the water gets, adjust the Density to about 200.

 

Now, if you add a Raytrace material to your bottle and maybe put a message inside, you can get off this desert isle.

 

 

Final Render with a Raytrace Material and a cylinder for a message