Drops in the Morning [WIP]

[DrJan]

This will be my first post with something I'm working on right now in my free time.

I was inspired by the rain that fell last weekend and the remaining drops on the table in our garden and I quite like the outcome of my image at the moment.
However I'm not satisfied with the way my water looks. It resembles more something like... quicksilver.
The settings are:


I'm using a VRaySun, Sky and PhysicalCamera: Click here for the settings and I have Caustics turned on.
Multiplier: 1
Search Dist: 0.5cm
Max Photons: 100
Max Density: 0.0cm

I like how the image is becoming, with the shadows behind the drops, the caustics etc. But the burn of the sun in the drops is too much (floating value betweenm 1.6 and 2.5) and like I said, the water material could be better.

Anyway, here's the image:


To do list:
- Model a screw to be able to see how big/small the drops are
- Change the wood texture
- Any tips you guys can give me about the caustics and watermaterial

[percydaman]

i see your using a falloff for your reflection. Is it set to fresnel? I ask because they look too reflective.

[DrJan]

Hmmm... no it was set to Perpendicular.
I'm going to do a test render to see if that's better (I knew I had to use Fresnel somewhere but couldn't remember where >_<)

-edit-
That doesn't seem to make much of a difference...

I do have the Environment Override settings on, with the sky in GI and Reflection, and the Reflection and Refraction colours set to white.

[Candelero]

Refraction IOR of water is something like : 1.33

Best regards,
nikki Candelero

[rivoli]

yep, you might want to try fresnel reflections and refraction both set to 1,33. as nikki said, that's the actual ior of water.

[pailhead]

What is that window to the left of your material editor?

[Adam H. Stewart]

Node view - how ?

I second that - what plug in are you using for the material editor - it looks super cool and easy to understand.

[dcullipher]

Cool image. You may want to paint some wet spots around the droplet where the water is slowly spreading out.


The plugin is this one I think:
http://www.nodejoe.com/index_en.php

[DrJan]

@Candalero / rivoli:
I've already changed that but thanks anyway.

@pailhead / Ada, H. Stewart:
Like dcullipher said: It's Node Joe. I've been using this for some time now and I think it's a great plugin.

@dcullipher:
Thanks

I'll try to update soon.

[visumporec]

Would be better if you remove the wood repeating...

[dcullipher]

Actually my last comment is wrong now that I look at a ref image

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_clos...&refnum=341598

A slight displace on the wood at that close will go a long way.

[DrJan]

@visumporec:
I know about the repeating wood texture. But at the moment that's my least concern
I want to get the water right first.

@dcullipher:
At the moment the wood has a displacement of 0.1cm (with a VRayDisp Modifier)
I just noticed that I have to move the drops up a bit, because they go [i]through]/i] the wood at the moment (because of the displacement).

[Mirko]

You could try to:

- kick the falloff map out of the reflection slot
- instead check the "Fresnel reflections" chek box
- set "Fog multiplier" to "0" (for clear water there shouldn't be any fog at all)

I think changing the "fog" value might have big impact to the look of the droplets.

[DaForce]

Usually the fog is set to white and a multiplyer of 1.0 not 0.0

I would remove the fog.. no need.

[Infrared digital]

Just wondering, what are the benefits you find for using Node Joe ?