water caustics + anim

[proces2]

I am not sure what the strategy is to show animated caustics (reflected from water). my problem is that i can only get the caustics to show up when the water is changed to a metal like material (falloff turned off). so, as i have seen in other posts, i rendered the scene with the metal like material - saved the photon map for the caustics - then adjusted the water material so it looked like water again - then re-rendered. I can't see how this process would work for an animation where the surface of the water (and thus the caustics) is animated?

here's what i have gotten just from rendering a still shot.
(first pass with metal like water)

(second pass using caustics p-map from file)


any reccomendations of how to do this?

any other help on how to sharpen up the caustics would be great too!

thanks,
sean

[proces2]

here's the best effort that i could give:
http://www.proces2.com/vray/chuck_caustics.wmv

please ... any suggestions or tips on the caustics and/or how to make the animated water look better. i think it obviously looks too metallic. the water has very sharp edges becuase of the subdivisions and the animated noise modifier.

sean

[jacksc02]

sean, i have a good caustics file that i could send you.

email me and i will send it thru

Chris Jackson
cj@arcad.co.nz