Drilling Platform - WIP

[flavrsaver]

I'm working on a project that requires a shot of a semi-submersible (drilling platform) out in the ocean. So far I have a model of a semi-submersible that I got from TurboSquid (I'm not very good at modeling and I didn't have the time to build my own) and I just got Dreamscape to help with the ocean part. I've been playing around with the sea surface from DS and I'm using a VRay material for the ocean shader instead of a DS material. I haven't done any texturing to the drilling platform yet.

Here is my current result after playing around with it for a few hours.



The ocean shader is a mix between a VRayMtl with diffuse set to black, white reflections (fresnal reflections turned on), and a bluish-green fog color. I also have Translucency turned on and set to "soft (water) model". The other mix in the ocean shader is a pure white VRayMtl and I have a "foam" texture applied as the mask. I'm using a VRay Sun setup for the lighting

Here's a list of things I want to fix on this image:

1. Water is too blue and clear, reminds me of swimming pool water. I want more dark, dense water. The refractions of the drilling platform shouldn't be that visible.

2. Scale is off between platform and water. I need more tiny waves or noise on the ocean to make the platform look massive and the ocean more crisp. Should I try a bump map or some sort of VRay displacement?

3. I plan on cutting back on the ocean foam and do more around the legs of the platform.

4. Lighting on platform is really blown out. Might just be the basic gray material I'm using.

5. Add more detail to the rig so that it looks bigger.

Here are a few reference photos I found that I'd like to match.





I can post settings for materials and render settings as I'm totally open to suggestions and critiques. I'm using VRay 1.5 RC3. I'm not using any particular workflow in this (Linear, Gamma, etc) mostly because I'm clueless when it comes to that kind of stuff. I've read the posts and even watched the video by Lukx and when I change my settings my renders look like crap. I'm about 98% self-taught on 3D, so I'm having to learn as I go.

Thanks for the help in advance!

[joconnell]

For seas you need three levels of noise - one for the huge rollers (though you don't always get them unless it's a stormy sea), a smaller level for the crested bits (vray displace + noise) and then a bump to break it again. It's the combination of all of the different scales that makes things look big or small. I think you need different fog settings to make the water look deeper, the various levels of bump and displace will break it up so you don't see as much of the legs and make it much more reflective too. Keep an eye on your environment map too - that makes a huge contribution to the look of oceans.

[joconnell]

Oh and as regards the gamma thing, it's nothing big really:

The main part is that if you're using a CRT monitor, it has a gamma curve applied to it. This is pretty much the exact same the curves in photoshop or after effects if you use either. Effectively what it does is darken the mid tones of your image while leaving the shadows and highlights untouched. What you do when you use something like the linear workflow is apply the opposite curve (so you apply a curve that brightens your mid tones) which will counteract the monitor curve and bring you back to a regular linear image. There's nothing else to it.

The whole calibration issue comes up so you know exactly how much you need to brighten your midtones or gamma by - If you calibrate your monitor so that it's definitely gamma 2.2, then you can put that number into vray or whatever and get the opposite straight away - the calibration in itself isn't all that important, it's more knowing how far off your monitor is so you can put in the exact opposite. Say for example if there was some magic setting on your monitor that told you it's gamma, then once you had the number you could plug it in straight away.

[flavrsaver]

Great tips!

I went in and added some more noise to my ocean shader to give more small details to the water surface. Right now this is just a single noise map added to the bump slot. I want to use DS sea surface to create some of the waves because I believe it yields more realistic water movement. I might do what you recommended by creating 3 levels of noise though to see if that gives me better results and play with both.

I also took off the translucency and that really improved my render times. I also changed my refraction amount and fog color and now the water appears to be more murky. I still need to adjust my foam because it's a little distracting right now.

I added a VRaySky as my environment and it's giving me a pretty good reflection. I might try using a DS sky as my reflection as I've heard that can give pretty good results. I tried a sky map and it looked bad.

Here's my latest result. I think it's getting better. I took out the rig to speed up render times, but placed a cylinder in the ocean to show the refraction.

[flavrsaver]

Also, thanks for the info on the linear and gamma stuff. I'm running 2 Dell Ultrasharp flat panels, so I don't know if I need to mess with anything.

[joconnell]

That looks a lot better - It's just a case of playing with the size and amount of noises at this stage to get it looking realistic.

As for the gamma on the flat panels, vlado mentioned that their gamma is actually really close to 1.0 or linear colour anyway so rather than trying to push them really far away to gamma 2.2, just get them definitely to 1.0 and ignore any of the gamma shit!

[mcvltd]

Starting to look really good. I definately think you should go for the three different scales of bump, it'll add just the right amount of complexity to the water. Not too sure how it would look animated though, haven't tried that yet.

Maybe slightly less fogging too?

BTW is the foam map from DS?

[flavrsaver]

I'll post some progress pics when I've had a chance to play with the bump maps.

What do you mean by less fogging? Are you referring to the fog color in the VRayMtl?

The foam map is one I made in Photoshop. I basically found some images of ocean foam online to use as reference and I tried those at first, but the results were too big for my scene (they were more close up shots of foam). So I created my own by using the clouds filter and then "difference clouds" to get more sharp, whispy cloud shapes which looked similar to ocean foam. I then played with their contrast and airbrushed some stuff around to get this mask.

I'm going to be away for a few days, so when I'm back on Monday I'll do some more. I'll be checking this periodically during that time in case anyone has any other suggestions or comments.

[mcvltd]

What do you mean by less fogging? Are you referring to the fog color in the VRayMtl?

Not the fog colour but the fog multiplier. I think if you reduced this value it would give more of an effect like the first ref pic you posted.

[flavrsaver]

I've done some more tests today. I spent quite a bit of time resetting up my scene because everything was blown out when using the sun system and when I tried playing around with the VRayPhysicalCamera, things turned totally black. I figured out that my workflow and how I had my file setup was really off, so I was able to find some posts that I think have helped me out.

I'm still trying to get the ocean material to look right. I'm trying out the noise + vraydisplacement method and what I like about that is it's much easier to move around my scene and Max isn't crashing. The sea surface from DS kept crashing, but while that's a problem I still like the more natural wave movements it gives over the noise + vraydisplacement method. I'm not going to worry about that now and instead just focus on the ocean material.

Here's my current render:



I like this one better. I've removed the foam for now. What I can't seem to get is the transparent water parts around the legs of the platform. The only way I can get them to be more clear is by changing my refraction color to white, but then the entire ocean turns basically clear. Right now my refraction color is black. I've tried playing around with the fog color and fog multiplier, but that doesn't do anything. Here is a screenshot of my material settings:

[mcvltd]

Looks good. Have you tried a very low value for the fog, like 0.001?

I asked the DS guys about being able to use the DS sea bump in the bump map slot (not possible at the mo)- they said they'd be making it less restrictive for the next release (some time towards the end of next year). Not that it helps you at moment....

[flavrsaver]

I just tried lowering the multiplier to 0.001 and that didn't do anything.

Nice to hear that the DS team is working on loosening things up. I have enjoyed learning their product, but some of it is a little restrictive. I've found that it's great for closeup shots, but large wide shots are more difficult.

[joconnell]

This is looking really really good - the only thing I'd say is to get sharper crests on the waves and increase the size of the noise making them. Then ad a bump map at a much smaller scale - somewhere between 5 and 10 times smaller than the displace for the main waves. Great work and fantastic progression.

[mcvltd]

Ah, I've just noticed that your refraction colour is black. Try making this a grey (say, a value of about 100). Then try altering the fog value. You've got to have some refaction going on for the fog to work.

[mcvltd]

..and more imporantly, make sure that the colour behind the ocean surface matches the colour you are after. For example, if you use DS for the background then alter your ground colour to something like very dark blue. If you're using an image as an environment map, make sure that everything below the horizon line fades into the colour of your ocean.

OR

Put a surface/plane under the sea and give it a dark colour.

Sorry I forgot to say about that!