Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
In the initial setting, what we can start tweaking is the
Bump factor
setting where
a value close to
0
creates a flat surface, but what we need is to increase this value to
something close to
1
.
The second setting that is necessary to adjust is the
Tiling
slider, and this is because
of the size of the surface and consequently the size of the reflections in the water. If
you try to adjust this slider and at the same time look at the reflections, you will see
how they change in size, which makes us perceive the water surface as big or small.
When we increase both these values, the water surface also gets more agitated, so
this needs to be balanced with the mood we are trying to achieve. However, you may
be thinking: what about the rest of the settings? What can we do with them?
Every project has it own requirements and there may be some situations in which
we need to tweak the way the water reacts with the light from the sun or other
direct source. The
Reflection Power
,
Specular Low
,
Fresnel Power
,
Anisotropic
,
and
Specular High
are settings that deal precisely with how the water reacts with
light, but most of these settings are only perceived when the camera is placed almost
parallel to the water surface. This means that if you try to tweak the water with a
camera placed perpendicular to the surface, you will not see any changes there at all.
Two settings that are worth exploring are:
•
Specular Low
: This controls the strength of the reflections on the water
surface. For example, to create a crystal clear swimming pool, we can remove
the
Specular Low
settings to produce a water surface with no reflections.
•
Caustics Tiling
: This is another setting that needs our attention depending
on the size of the swimming pool. The next screenshot shows the difference
between a low and high value:
