Here's my first 'u-boat' pic done in Carrara - problem is with the water - anyone have any suggestions to make it look more realistic - right now I have a terrain mesh with a bump map and a mix of elevation for the tips - but it still isn't coming out 'right' thanks. LONG LIVE CARRARA! I think they should rename the app to "PHOENIX" - right from the ashes! Hope the anouncement tomorrow is a good one.

Attached Link: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Square/5391/oceantutorial.html

Looks good!! A couple things to look for: 1. Make sure that the color of the 'below horizon' is a blue-green selection instead of the standard gray. 2. Check out the link above for an EXCELLENT water tutorial. Mark

Looks great! I love the models. And you're right, the water looks odd. Maybe it needs a bit more reflectivity? And I think the base color of the shader needs to have some blue in it?

Good pic ! You could play with the levels of the greyscale terrain map to make sharper waves, though . Good luck ! litst

Wow - Looking great. Keep us updated on its progress. Clint

cool pic have you tried to bounce some differnt color light off th water increase refledtion

Awesome U-Boat. My comments, same as above: your wave colors don't look right. Perhaps even a touch of whitecaps, as it looks like a rough North Atlantic sea in wintertime.

Thanks folks! First, I have to say that I'm happy :) FINALLY - Carrara has a future! I will continue work on the water - that tutorial that Mark pointed me to is very good. Now all I have to work on is the shading.

Well- let me take that back Mark - the tutorial is difficult to understand - and I think there is a step left out? - If anyone can try to follow the tutorial - be my guest - I'm still trying to figure it out....

Which step are you having an issue with? Mark

Well - the instructions after this point are a bit criptic .... I think there is some layering involved in making the final pattern but it doesn't say. 4. Convert it to the pattern. Filter/Other/Offset, enter scroll value (WHAT VALUE??), check Wrap Around, OK, draw more circles to eliminate the border (WHAT DOES THIS MEAN). Select All, Edit/Define Pattern. 5. Make other images filled with more compressed pattern. Create new 1024x1024 grayscale, Edit/Fill with Pattern. Image/Image Size, set Width and Height to 50%, OK. Select All, Edit/Define Pattern. Do same process again for 4 times compressed pattern.Save them as a PICT/BMP file individually.

My apologies if I'm insulting your intellegence or experience with the following stuff. I'm not sure how familiar you are with Photoshop or Photoshops more obscure filter functions that the instructions reference but the tutorial revolves around Photoshop. Essentially, the author is speaking about creating 3 different grayscale/terrain maps using the original image that is created for the close-ups. The offsetting, scaling and pattern notes are simply to accelerate the creation of the following two grayscale images to be used as terrain maps. The 'orbs' with the greater density create an illusion of waves farther away when aligned as shown in the Tutorial. The offsetting provides seamless pattern creation which is then 'tiled' on subsequent 1024x1024 pictures at a reduced scale for the denser waves. I don't know if this helps :( The tutorial worked for me though. Good luck! Mark

Hmmm, I'm pretty familiar with Photoshop - but maybe not as familiar as I need to be? How does the tutorial get to this point - it says layers?

Maybe you could post your end product image map so I can get a better idea of how this is supposed to look?

My image looks similar to the one labeled "image" above. The layers are just that: background + Layer 1 + Layer 2 to create the composite image in a single photoshop file. You can mess around with the opacity and blending modes until you creat a satisfactory composite image. Save the composite image; it will be used for the terrain map closest to the camera. The next step is to create a pattern tile from the composite image, reduce it and then fill a new 1024x1024 canvas with it for the second terrain map. Finally, repeat the reduced pattern process yet again to create an image for the third terrain map. The final Carrara file will use the first terrain map (shown as image above) as the terrain close to the camera. Terrain maps 2 and 3 are placed, stepped and repeated as shown in the tutorial for the water in the distance. I think this is one of those things that once it 'clicks' you kind of go "well duh!" At least it was for me. Mark

Well, duh! Sorry about the need for the long explanation :)