3D Water – The Ocean
In this 3ds Max tutorial we’re going to create a 3d water surface that could be a lake, a sea, or an ocean. The 3d water is illuminated with the Daylight system. It might sound complicated but it’s actually pretty simple (at least in 3ds max 2010) since the default settings work so well.
Step 1 Mental Ray Renderer
We’re going to render the 3d ocean with the Mental Ray. By default 3ds Max uses the Scanline renderer so we have to change that. Change the renderer to the Mental Ray ().
Step 2 The Basic Geometry for the 3D Water
Create a Plane ( ) in the top viewport . Modify the Plane ( ) according to the following parameters :
- Length: 500
- Width: 500
Step 3 Camera Above the Water
Create a Target Camera ( ) in the top viewport to the center of the plane. Go to the right viewport and place the camera and the camera target according to picture below.
Activate the Perspective view and press C in the keyboard to activate the Camera view.
Step 4 Material to the 3D Water Surface
Open Material Editor () and create an ocean material:
- Click “Get Material” button and select ( ) ‘Arch & Design (mi)’ from the list.
- Select the ocean plane and assign the material to it.
- Select template from the drop-down list: Water, Reflective Surface
Step 5 3ds Max Daylight System
We’re going to illuminate our 3d ocean scene with the Daylight system. Daylight is a system that mimics real world sun. Create the Daylight system ( ) in the top viewport. A new dialog appears. 3ds Max suggests that you use mr Photographic Exposure Control with EV=15. Just click YES. ( If the dialog doesn’t appear, apply the setting manually ()). Modify the following parameters of the Daylight:
- Daylight Parameters
- Sunlight: mr Sun
- Skylight: mr Sky(A new dialog appears. 3ds Max suggests that you use mr Physical Sky. Just click YES. If the dialog doesn’t appear, apply the setting manually ( ))
- Position: Manual ( )
- Place the daylight so that it shines straight from the top like in picture below.
Step 6 First Render of the 3D Ocean
We have the ocean and the daylight system so it’s a good idea to check how the rendered image looks like. Your image should look similar to picture below. In the background you see the mr Physical Sky environment map which was added automatically in the previous step. The brown line represents the ground in the background map. Thanks to Metal Ray’s lume shader the plane looks like and 3d ocean already. However, there are some things I’d like to change:
- Horizon should be lowered to hide the ground
- Smaller Waves
- More blue and saturated colors to both ocean and the sky
- Little brighter image
Step 7 The Horizon
The horizon can be lowered in the parameters of the Daylight ( ):
- mr Sky Advanced Parameters
- Horizon
- Height: -0,1 ( )
- Horizon
-
Step 8 Smaller and Bluer Ocean Waves
Open Material Editor () and make the following changes to the ocean material:
- Main Material Parameters
- Change the color to blue ( )
- Special Purpose Maps
- Click on the (Ocean (lume)) shader and make the following changes:
- Largest: 2,5
- Smallest: 0,12( )
- Click on the (Ocean (lume)) shader and make the following changes:
Step 9 Color, Saturation, & Brightness
Color, saturation, and brightness of the image can be adjusted in the parameters of the Daylight:
- mr Sky Parameters
- Multiplier: 1,1 ( )
- mr Sky Advanced Parameters
- Red/Blue Tint: -0,1 ( )
- Saturation: 1,3 ( )
( Notice that the default colors were more realistic, these color changes are purely for artistic reasons ; )
Step 10 Antialiasing of the Ocean Waves
If you look closely you might see minor aliasing problems in the distant waves. To fix this, just increase antialiasing quality by increasing Mental Ray’s sampling values ():
- Samples per pixel:
- Minimum: 4
- Maximum: 64
Create a Torus Knot ( ) to see how standard objects look in the water. Go to the Modify panel and apply the following parameters:
- Base Curve
- Radius: 23
- Segments: 300
- Cross Section
- Radius: 2,5
And if you feel like it, do some color correction in Photoshop:
- Brightness: 35
- Contrast: 25
Now our 3d water is complete. Next we’re going to see what else we can get out of the daylight system.
Step 11 Sunset Render
Let’s explore further the power of the Daylight system. Let’s simulate sunset by placing the sun near the horizon. Now we can actually see the sun and notice how the daylight system changes color and intensity based on the angle of the sun. ( you might want to decrease the sampling values ( ) temporarily to speed up the rendering ).
Tip: you can see the sun and illumination before rendering the image if you do the following:
- Activate the camera view and press SHIFT+F3 in keyboard
- Go to viewport background settings ( ) and apply the following settings:
- Use Environment Background: ON
- Display Background: ON
Step 12 Colors of the Sunset
Let’s make the rendering more interesting by changing the colors to more orange. Select the Daylight. go to the Modify panel, and apply the following parameters:
- mr Sky Advanced Parameters
- Red/Blue Tint: 1,0 ( )
- Saturation: 2,0 ( )
Step 13 Sun Glare
Next we’re going to add some glare to the sun to make it more interesting. Apply Glare Camera Shader ( ) Just turn the output shader on, the glare shader should be selected by default.
Tip: If you’d like to adjust the Glare shader you can just drag and drop it into a material slot in Material Editor ( ) and adjust it there. Make sure to select ‘Instance’ when asked.
Tip: Another way to adjust the sun glare is to drag and drop ‘mr Physical Sky’ ( ) into a material slot in Material Editor and adjust it there. ( )
Step 14 Fog / Haze in the Sea
Let’s add some Fog/Haze to the scene to blend the horizon with the background. Select the Daylight, go to the Modify panel, and apply the following settings:
- mr Sky: Haze Driven (mr Sky)
- Haze: 2,0 ( )
- mr Sky Advanced Parameters
- Aerial Perspective
- Visibility Distance: 50 ( )
- Aerial Perspective
- mr Sky Parameters
- Multiplier: 3,0 ( )
Step 15 Color Correction in Photoshop
I’ll do some color correction in Photoshop to make the image more dramatic:
- Brightness: -10
- Contrast: 70
Step 12 Moonlit 3D Water
The final thing we’re going to try with the 3ds Max Daylight system is a moonlit night scene. We can’t get perfect blue color out of the Daylight system so let’s remove the color from it. Select the Daylight, go to the Modify panel, and apply the following parameters:
- mr Sky Advanced Parameters
- Red/Blue Tint: 0 ( )
- Saturation: 0 ( )
Those values are well suited for subtle changes but now we need a radical change so we’re going to change the mr Photographic Exposure Control settings ():
- Image Control
- Color Saturation: 1 ( )
- Whitepoint: 3000 ( )
- Vignetting: 7 ( )
Step 13 Some Magic Over 3D Sea
Now I’m tempted to add fireworks over the 3d ocean to create some magic to the image but for the sake of the length of this tutorial we’ll settle with some floating light sources. Create a sphere (), go to the Modify panel, and apply the following parameters to it:
- Radius: 0,3
Open Material Editor ( ) and create a new material for the sphere:
- Click ‘Get Material’ button and select (doubleclick) ‘Arch & Design (mi)’ from the list.
- Select the sphere and assign the material to it.
- Main Material Parameters
- Diffuse
- Color: pure white
- Diffuse
- Self Illumination (Glow)
- Self Illumination (Glow): ON
- Luminance: 1000
We’ll create standard lights so we should change the mr Photographic Exposure Control settings ():
- Physical Scale: Unitless: 1500
Create a standard Omni light ( ), go to the Modify panel, and apply the following parameters to it:
- Multiplier: 20
- Decay
- Type: Inverse Square
- Start: 10
Place the Omni to the middle of the sphere. Now one light source is ready. Make several copies of it and move them around.
Finally we’re going to create a stronger glare to the moon and the spheres by modifying the glare shader:
- Drag and drop the Glare shader ( ) to an empty material slot in the Material Editor ( )
- In Material Editor, change the Spread value to 4. ( )
Darken the moon to create a little more convincing image. Select the Daylight, go to the Modify panel, and decrease the multiplier value of the Daylight system:
- mr Sky Parameters
- Multiplier: 1,5
Render the image and you should get something like picture below.
Step 13 Color Correction in Photoshop
You probably guessed it. I’ll do some color correction in Photoshop to make the image pop:
- Brightness: 15
- Contrast: 80
- Hue: -8
And that’s it for today. I hope it helps and you’re able to create something beautiful. Let’s continue in the comments!
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87 Responses to “3D Water – The Ocean”
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Polygon
In 3d modeling polygon is a plane which has three or more corners. A polygon has a vertex in each corner and is surrounded by edges. Animated high quality 3D characters are often made mostly of four-sided polygons. Polygons with 5 or more sides can cause problems in deforming surfaces such as a human face.
Wow, this is really awesome!!
Very nice tutorial, thanks for sharing it. Greetings from Venezuela.
Superb stuff, very useful. Keep ‘em coming!
just like a pro
This is awesome… thanks for sharing.
Question.
Do you think this add has been made in a similar way?
http://adsoftheworld.com/files/images/sanyoiceberg.jpg
Quite Interesting ad but I’m not sure how it was created. Maybe I should try something like this in 3ds Max…
Awesome work and concept, i will be dining out on this one for months
awesome, but i don’t get how to make the Sphere glows
Phenomenal, was never aware of it. Thanks for sharing such wonderful wealth of information.
Great!! thanks you very much!!
wow…. cool tutorial! thanks so much!
two thumbs up………….
you really made a good help……….
can’t wait for your next 3ds max 2010 tutorial..ü i’m hands-down for you.. hehe..
Can you please tell me what can we use for Exposure Control in 3d max 9, cos i couldn’t find “Photographic Exposure Control” in this version.
I can’t continue without that please help me on this
Thanks
Try using ‘Logarithmic Exposure Control’ and setting ‘Brightness to 1.0.
Wonderful tutorial. Thank you very much
would you be kind enough to tell me how you created the moon or sun.
Thanks
The sun disc is built into the mr Physical Sky. You should see the sun when you have created the daylight system and use ‘mr Physical Sky’ as environment map. Just turn your camera or perspective view towards the sun.
Check ‘Tip’ in step 11 to display the sun (and the lighting solution) in the viewport immediately without having to render.
Thanks I got it right.
It worked well, thanks a lot, but having a problem with Sun Glare.Can’t get that effect.Do we have click on none button & select something for 3d max 9 users?
HS also having the same problem I think.
Please help on this to if you can
Thanks a lot
Great Tutorials like them lot \m/
Please read this article about unlocking glare shader in 3ds max 9:
http://www.redcultur.com/silkypixel/?p=122
(Unfortunately I don’t have 3ds Max 9 anymore so I’m unable to test this)
tanks… awesome
tanks…
Wow, incredible, awesome tutorial, thanks!
Excellent tutorial! All of your tutorials are very clear and easy to follow, thank you!
As a bonus, do you know how to animate the water?
The water is actually animated by default. You can control the speed by changing ‘Wave Speed’ in the ocean shader settings. If you’d like to have rolling waves you must activate ‘Directed’ in the ocean shader settings and control the direction of the waves with ‘Direction Angle’.
Hey there, love the tutorial, though I’m having an issue getting the spheres to glow. I’ve just tried using the architectural method on My Mental Ray Community:
http://www.mymentalray.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=114:-glowing-material-with-mental-ray&catid=45:lighting&Itemid=55
And that didn’t seem to work either. What do you think could be causing the problem? Everything else turned out fine =D
(I’m using 2010)
Many thanks!
Please make sure you do these things:
1. apply arch & design material to the sphere and turn self illumination on, set luminance to unitless and it’s value to 1000.
2. Change the physical scale in “mr photographic exposure control” to unitless with value 1500.
I’ve just gone right over the tutorial again and it’s working now x) Thanks for the tips!
Excellent..
Greetings from Sri Lannka
Awesome. I like this kind tutorial, like a pro. Good job bro!I was wondering can you make an underwater tutorial for the next tutorial? I would be pleased if you do. Thanks
Hi!
I am doing this scene and I am having some problems with it:
When I create the Dayligth system, How can I center the Sun to the axis to 90 % (exactly like the example). with the f12 manual writing value command i couldn´t, and with the snap command either.(I have selected the “manual” command like the example!) And for another way: when I had created the Arch & Design Mental material and i select the “water reflective surface”; I enter to the Ocean lume shader link to edit the parametters, but when i go back again to the root route of the material (“Go to the parent”) the template that I had selected has reseted!! I have to select again and I loss the all the lume shader propiertes, color prop., etc!
Do u know what can it be ?? can you help me??
Sorry for my english (i dont know if it was Ok), and by the way Excellent tut.!!
Thx a lot… !!
You can just place the sun approximately to the same angle and the result will look the same. However, if you want 90 degree angle, you can achieve that for example by using the Align-tool to align the DaylightAssemblyHead with the Compass.
Don’t worry about the template. It’s enough to select it at once. It’s just the way it works. As soon as you change the material, it’s not any template anymore but all the material settings are still the same.
Yes, I already did it..!
Thx a lot!!
Regards
By the way.., I have Max 2010 With the SP1 and the last Hot fix installed.
Thanks a lot for your time and attention!!
woooowww man what a perfect tutorial great we need more like this and thanks a lot for this one
Yes, I already did it..! but how i can create sun light? please any one help me!?….
oh wow, i couldn’t make this work at all
i admit i’m relatively new to 3ds max, but until now i didn’t really have problems with anything i tried.
i can’t find “mr physical sky” – is that the key to make this tutorial work out in general?
i’m sorry for the silly question. i had the wrong renderer assigned.
thanks for this tutorial, this is a great help for my new project
No problem at all. Thanks for participating in the discussion. Glad to hear you like it!
Thank you for this great tutorial, very clear and precise. Please continue sharing your knowledge and experience with us, it’s very beneficial for beginners like me. Thanks again for your efforts.
Thank you so much
Thanks!!!! You rock! Keep adding more tutorials, i’ve done them all! You rock so much!
Hi ! It’s a very good Tutorial
But I have a problem… I can’t see the sun and the Glow on the differents spheres in my render…
benjiwolff
Awesome tutorial
your best tutorial.
hi i have two questions. will be very glad if you may reply
q1: can you adjust the size of the sun of mr sun (like a big sun during sunset) ?
q2: is there a way to add stars as an environmental effect (for that moon lit scene)?
thnx in advance..your tuts rock
q1: You can change the size of the sun in the mr Physical Sky settings: Go to the Environment settings ( Rendering > Environment…). Drag and drop ‘mr Physical Sky’ from background settings to the material editor ( select ‘instance’ when asked ). Change ‘Scale’, it’s the size of the sun disc.
q2: I can think of two easy methods for creating the stars:
1) Create a particle cloud in the background ( Create panel… > Particle Systems > pcloud ). Just use the same material as the spheres in the tutorial. Change the shape of the particles to sphere and adjust the size and count.
2) Open video post ( Rendering > Video Post… ). Click ‘Add Scene Event’ , select your camera as view and click ‘OK’. Select Camera from the video post queue, click ‘ Add Image Filter Event’, select starfield form the list, and click ok. Click ‘Execute Sequence’ and hit render. If you get an error message about the camera, you must visit the starfield setup (perhaps a bug in 3ds max 2011…not sure). So just double click the Starfield in videopost, click ‘Setup…’, and click ‘OK’. Now it should work. Just click ‘Execute Sequence’ and hit render.
that solutions worked just perfect. thnx so much.
for the ones who will try starfield as scene event, i got the best results with these settings;
go to starfield setup and set the star amount to 150000 (it is 15000 as default) and set the size to 1.85, you may also change distribution to logarithmic (looks more realistic). now you have a nice star scene.
btw i got no error messages (3ds max 2010 sp1), that should be a bug in 2011.
is a great tutorial
may I did not like in the photo but it is a sensational effect
sorry too weak english xD
This is a great tutorial but i do have one question. What is the use of placing omni lights into the spheres? I believe they illuminating and produce highlights in the water just with their self illumination. And if we do place them, shouldn’t we exclude the sphere from casting shadows?
Thank you for receiving my commend. I’d appreciate if you could answer my question.
Very good points Sakis. At the moment there is not much use for the omni lights. In this scene some of them just illuminate the torusknot. But If you had something to illuminate above the water the omni lights could be useful. You are right about the highlights on the water, the omni lights are not needed for those.
By default, shadow casting is turned off in omni lights but if we wanted to cast shadows with them we should exclude the spheres just like you said. Thanks for your insightful feedback!
hey can i make it in 3dmax-9?
and i cant find “mr Photographic Exposure Control with EV=15″ in max-9, so plz can any one help me in that?
hey dhruv..just go in “rendering”
then select the “exposure control”..
after that u wil see “conman parameters”
and below that u wil see again “exposure control” option..
by default u will see “No exposure control” option just below that…
click on it..u will find ur “mr Photographic Exposure Control with EV=15″
If photographic exposure control is not there in max 9 you could try using ‘Logarithmic Exposure Control’ and setting ‘Brightness to 1.0.
hey how can make sun? do i have to use spheres? i mean i don’t understand your step 11th..what i need to do exactly? plz help
Just move the daylight close to the horizon. The sun disc is built into the mr Physical Sky. You should see the sun when you have created the daylight system and use ‘mr Physical Sky’ as environment map.
Check ‘Tip’ in step 11 to display the sun (and the lighting solution) in the viewport immediately without having to render.
Hello
some how the spheres don’t glow o.O
i re-make it like 3 times step by step
idk why o.O
Please make sure you do these things:
1. apply arch & design material to the sphere and turn self illumination on, set luminance to unitless and it’s value to 1000.
2. Change the physical scale in “mr photographic exposure control” to unitless with value 1500.
Hi again
thx for replay
hmm i did make sure its 100% same as you say
i removed it and did it again like 4 times
the light effect on the water is there but the sphere don’t glow :S
I do not seem to have Arch & Design (mi) on the list, can you help?
I had same problems with materials, but check if you have assigned renderer to Mental Ray. After assigning, material list should be available.
Hi
in my 3d max there is no option of art and design i m using 3d max 8
pls help
hey awais unfortunately they dont have arch n design in 3ds max 8…but if u wanna create that glowing effect u can do one more thing
select architectural material in the material editor..set the color to pure white..scroll down..you will see an option call lumnicance cd/m2…change it to 2500 or 3000..the higher the value the more it will glow and emit light..just apply this material to those little spheres…put an imni light in the centre of the sphere and go to modify and give glow effect to that omni light..hope u kno it..!!
Note:You need to switch Final Gather on to achieve a better effect of those little glowing spheres..
regards’
Shreyash
YOU ARE AMAZING … I ADORE YOU
Amazing tutorial;) The best 3ds max tutorial I have seen so far
Wow…The first time I have ever followed a tutorial without being lost at one point in time. Extremely well explained and a fabulous result!
Only thing I don’t like about this tutorial is that there is no name of the author. I want to search you so I can look up more amazing tutorials!
Nevermind that, just realized this was your blog!
I actually am having a problem though. I thought I had followed step by step but I think I skipped a part. My moon and sun do not appear when I render. I can see the light and where its coming from and how it reflects on the water, but there is no moon or son.
Just move the daylight close to the horizon. The sun disc is built into the mr Physical Sky. You should see the sun when you have created the daylight system and use ‘mr Physical Sky’ as environment map.
Check ‘Tip’ in step 11 to display the sun (and the lighting solution) in the viewport immediately.
Thank you for this amazing tutorial.
Too bad not every step can be followed when using 3d max 9.
hi.. the tutorial is nice but i am facing problem after step 10,
plz help me and tell me how to create sun in the scene…..
Just move the daylight close to the horizon. The sun disc is built into the mr Physical Sky. You should see the sun when you have created the daylight system and use ‘mr Physical Sky’ as environment map.
Oh !!!!!! Great Tut. !!!!
Thanx A lot for the same !!!!
Its very Useful for Me !!!
Thank you very- very Much !!!!
Awwwweeeesome tut bro..!! i was wondering how could i render my exterior bungalow in a night scene..this thing helped me a lot…n awesome tutorial man..ur just amazing at it..ur creativity is one step beyond..thanx a ton..!!
It’s Great!!
In a nutshell, you’re great!
Absolutely beautiful! And such a good choice to put those glowing orbs in there. My hat is off to you sir.
Not sure if you’re a redditor or not, but your more than welcome to visit – reddit.com/r/3dsmax
thank u for the nice tutorial. goodluck
chapeau bas … amazing work
can u please give me a website where i can learn some beautiful effects and tricks like ur amazing works thnx u …
Hi all i have 3ds max 2009 and i was wondering how would you do step 12 with Logarithmic Exposure Control
Im sorry, it such a great tutorial, but I’ve got a problem… I can’t find “show background: on ” in the viewport background….I dunno wether because of this….the camera view doesn’t show up the sun and the tone doesn’t change too..it keep stay in the daylight tone, not to the sunset tone at all, may you tell me how to do with this? …..><…..
It’s actually ‘Display Background’. I’ve corrected the tutorial.
hm…I really dunno why, yes I’ve turn on the Display Background too, but it doesn’t change anything too…what is shift +f3 for? it seems nothing happen to me…
Ok issue, I’m trying to make my sun sit in the position you have, but I’m not sure how I’m going wrong, I can see the light, but I can’t see the sun itself..
OH also when I press shift and f3 together – what is it supposed to do as I get nothing.
I’m using max 2011.
I’m not sure what the problem is but I’m guessing your sun isn’t low enough. Try positioning it just above the horizon.
Shift + F3 turns hardware shading on. It means you can see the preview of the lighting and the sun in real time. You can access this setting with mouse by clicking on ‘Smooth + Highlights’.
I’ve managed to see the sun but no matter where I move it it tends to stay in the middle of the sky, I’m not sure if I’m moving it right..
Ah I’ve sorted it, although that was a massive hassle..