Thanks to everyone who gave tips for this image in another thread. Here's problem #2: She's meant to be nipple-deep in water but it's not showing up well. I've tried various transparencies/reflections/etc to try and get it right. I want it to look a bit murky but still show her submerged and some reflection. I don't really have a clue what I'm doing.

The red arrowhead is the water level against the bulkhead but you can't even see it :(

Any ideas for getting this to actually look like water? (It's RDNA Microcosm water plane, with one of the included refl maps.) My node settings are in the next post.

Thanks.

Here's the node settings.

what you need is some good refraction. Reflection is all well and good, but refraction can make it look like water. I wish i could help more, but at the moment i am "nipple deep" in my owne project. There are some (free) P5 materials with water settings around here somewhere, perhaps at RDNA.

Download Ajax's free P5 shader pack from Freestuff. Take a look at the water shaders there. You should be able to use or adapt something to your requirements.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=1209752

You might try plugging into a displacement node, giving some turblance. Read this thread it might help.

And last but not least, make sure to use a solid object for your water prop. Refraction will blow your mind (1.33 comes to mind). It's a time hog, be warned.

But how do I morph a solid prop to look like water? Or are the shaders realistic enough on a flat surface? (I have downloaded some from RDNA and here but I've no idea how to use mt5... have to figure it out.) This one is just a plane.

Remember that you will get a shadow and a reflection on top of the water and the refracted image seen through the transparent water. The interaction of all these is what makes water look like water. Where it meets walls and your figure, you can have a bit of froth, because the surface is being disturbed. If she raised her arms out of the water, they should be dripping, and the drops making little rings on the water surface. Carolly

Drips and rings? Hang on, I don't even know how to use these shader things I downloaded yet! :)

put them in your material library (a subdirectory along side your poses and characters and cameras etc) go into your material room in P5 and open your library. youll have a "materials" at the bottom (if it does not open automaticaly) it is only visable in your materials room. just select the materal zone you want to change and double click on the material you want to change it to (kinda like a MAT pose, only it will only change the currently selected zone)

Aha! Okay, I'll try that. Meanwhile I'm going with Ajax's settings from the other thread, using a cube. However, I'm confused because it looks like he used a square rather than a 3d shape. Attempting to render now.

Here's my first effort. Not perfect yet but this is my first attempt at displacement and I'm excited! This is using Ajax's settings exactly (draft mode). It's a bit too rippled so I just need to figure out how to calm it down a bit.

Turn up the scale of the turbulence node to spread the waves out more or turn down the displacement setting to reduce the height of the waves.

(Hi, and sorry, your ears must be burning.) Not sure what you mean by turbulence, but I have turned down the displacement from 1 to 0.8, and increased the x and z scales, decreased the y scale (hey, so *that's* what you mean). Also adjusted the reflection/refraction to see more underwater (too much maybe)... here tis. As for ripple rings and drips in specific places... I think that's for next time. This particular water is flowing too fast to see that (because I say so).

Ajax just rocks! Nice 1st water render! I remember how amazed I was on mine. Save the water prop to a folder that you can recognize in the prop library (make one)...next time a double - click and you're there! Later on, you should always do these at 1000% scale to help in preventing artifacts and general # flow to the render. Transparency falloff will help with the rest.

All righty! That looks a lot more like water now and less like she's poking through a sheet of saranwrap. Be sure to save this off somewhere safe as mentioned above, and play with the settings (sentient green slime, raspberry jello, salt water) making your own files as accidents become successes. :) Carolly

Consider using volumetric lighting effects, so that the light doesn't go too deep into the water. Poser 4 users had to add partially transparent planes to get the same effect. In P5 you could use a shader node to give such a layer a varied transparency, and make the water less uniform. I think you're right that your posr #12 is a little too transparent, but that can be scene-dependent You've got a location which feels as if the water should be a bit murky.

This is cube, though, not a plane - should I do several planes instead? Or maybe add a plane inside the cube? Also not happy with the water's edge against her ribs (the above is draft mode but it's like that in production mode too). Volumetric lights were going to be my next project!

Save the water cube to prop library. The black flecks at contact point will get fixed by making everything in your scene 1000% scale (next time). Glitch...figures are too small for the renderengine to read. Anything with glass or water is better at 1000% Volumetrics are a blast (and a hog)!