|  |  | Hi all, over the last couple of days I've been playing with photons again; going
for something like a moving "swimming pool" caustics effect.
Somehow I ended up with this idea for rendering a short HD animation of photon
caustics emanating from 3 colored "water" blocks - here are some "time-lapse"
stills (I should have the final HD version posted on Vimeo tomorrow).
Cheers,
Rob
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www.McGregorFineArt.com
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> "Robert McGregor"<rob### [at] mcgregorfineart com>  wrote:
>> Thomas de Groot<tenDOTlnDOTretniATtoorgedDOTt>  wrote:
>>> This would indeed be excellent for a swimming pool scene or any shallow
>>> water one of course. I like it.
>>>
>>> Thomas
>>
>> Thanks Thomas :)
>>
>> My animation is now available on Vimeo, here:
>> http://vimeo.com/34064748
>>
>> Happy Holidays!
>> -------------------------------------------------
>> www.McGregorFineArt.com
>
> Excellent, would it be possible to get an idea of your settings and rendertime
> for a frame?
> I have many troubles to find acceptable settings for caustics.
>
You don't use the caustics keyword, but photons.
You start with a realistic ior, like 1.333 for water or 1.5 for some 
average glass. You may add some dispersion if you are ready for the 
added time requirement.
Then, it's just a case of shooting enough photons at your objects.
A photons block in the global_settings.
A photon block for the relevent objects, here, you need something like:
photons{target refraction on collect off}
You don't need any photons block for the lights as they all have 
photons{refraction on reflection on} by default except for shadowless 
ones. An area_light may need photons{area_light}.
NO photons block on the objects that receive the photons.
Alain Post a reply to this message
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|  |  | "Mr" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> Excellent, would it be possible to get an idea of your settings and rendertime
> for a frame?
> I have many troubles to find acceptable settings for caustics.
I used pretty high radiosity settings, an area light, EXR environment, and focal
blur (mostly for antialiasing) and was getting a render time of ~4min/frame
@1280x720px on my i7 with 8 render threads, but here is the bare bones scene
code for just the aqua water box:
#version 3.7
background { rgb 0.5 }
global_settings {
   assumed_gamma 1
   max_trace_level 20
   radiosity {
      //...
   }
   photons { spacing 0.02 }
}
camera {
   location vnormalize(<-6, 8, -9>)*100
   look_at <-20, 10, 0>
   right x*image_width/image_height
   angle 55
   rotate <0, 20, 0>
}
light_source { <20, 30, 15> rgb 1
   area_light <1, 0, 0>, <0, 0, 1>, 6, 6
   orient
   circular
   area_illumination on
   fade_distance 20
   fade_power 2
}
// floor
plane { y, 0 hollow pigment { srgb <236,220,196>/255 } }
// aqua box
box { -0.5, 0.5
   scale <10, 20, 5>
   rotate <110, 90, 0>
   translate <10, 15, 17>
   texture {
      pigment { rgbt 1 }
      normal {
         bozo
         scale 1
         turbulence 0.5
         bump_size 2
      }
      finish { specular 0.2 roughness 0.2
         reflection { 0, 1 fresnel on } conserve_energy }
   }
   interior { ior 1.33
      fade_color srgb <223,248,255>/255
      fade_power 1001
      fade_distance 1
   }
   photons {
      target
      refraction on
      reflection on
      collect    on
   }
}
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www.McGregorFineArt.com
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