GREAT WATER!! You gotta tell us how you made it!

Yep, I love the water. There is something about the ship... Im having problems really determining what it is but it doesnt look like its in the water to me... The front looks cool. But the side...maybe bring some swells up along the edges of the ship...or some splash marking along the sides.. Other than that...sweet image. Clint

The water was actually really simple. I used the texture "water06" from the carrara content CD.Then I used a terrain to make the shape of the water. Sadly, it's not animatable:(

This is good stuff, but I think I can tell you a couple of things that will help it be even better. In the movie, wind and foam were constant factors that added to the realism; The top of each wave crest should have a veil of spray (like your prow spray but more directional) coming off of it. The waterline around the ship should be churning with white foam, and the waterline should not be so straight, but more organic. It would help the feel of scale (sizewise) if your far-away waves were even hazier and less sharp. Your ship textures could use some "wet" looking dark patches with more specular highlights. Finally, the image would play as more dramatic if the contrast was higher (darker darks and whiter whites). Your current lighting is fairly even and diffuse. I know that this is a lot of comments, but I wouldn't bother to type this much if I didn't think your basic image was pretty darn cool to start with. Good work. Don't worry about animating it. Frankly, I think that doing it photorealistically is beyond Carrara's abilities, though it would be interesting to see an attempt. (It's damn hard to do it with Maya and a bunch of helper stuff, let alone Carrara!) --

I'd agree that some distant fog or a fog object or two would help add some depth to the image. I alsot think that you have the ambient light up a little high, and since there is no real world analogue to the ambient light feature, it interferes with the realism of the image. I love the water splash at the front of the boat; it looks very painterly. I'd consider a single light source to look like the image is illuminated by a flash of lightning. Very cool image, and I think you can make it something amazing.

Only one additional comment: it looks like there's a reflection of the ship in the waves. I think you'll only get reflections when the water is still and the sun is shining (creating, in effect, a mirror-like surface). During a storm, the water's not that smooth. Otherwise, I'm with everyone else. Sweet image!