Hi All I have been working on this image and would like some caustics on the figure but cant get them to show on the body. I have tried everything I can think of but no luck.

Actually the very BEST trick I have ever seen for creating FAST caustics is to actually blend them into the texture map- I wish I had the image to show you- of three dolphins- because it really worked great... However, for caustics otherwise- go load the Undersea scenes from the Vue 5, V5I CD's by Michael Jannsen called, amazingly-- "Caustics"... Caustics can be applied through your lights as a Light Gel. You should find at least TWO of them (Caustics)in your Vue Mat Library installation...

BTW- for added realism- I would suggest a very SLIGHT light blue color on your lights- to match the natural color lighting of your background image...

Hi Veritas thanks for your reply and help. I shall sit down and try and work out how he made his Caustics and see if I can re-create the effect in my scene Regards Keith

Attached Link: http://www.lysator.liu.se/~kand/caustics/

using a spot light with a caustics light gel is the best and easiest way to cast caustics on your scenes. But the Vue ready made caustics light gels are not very nice. I suggest you use this freeware called "Caustics generator" to make your caustics yourself, and apply it to your light.

Good tip on the Caustics software. Your main problem in the scene, I think, is that because you are using a photo background, the caustics spot gel won't work on it... -so you might want to use the caustics software that Bruno suggested to ALSO make a subtle caustic effect on the background image- but ONLY in the FOREGROUND area- using Photoshop (or whatever you use). That way it will match with the 3D part...

Thanks All for your help, I have downloaded the caustic maker which is excellent and I have saved the Michael Jannsen light as an object and used it in my Dive babe image with some success but I think I will have to work more on this to get those crisp white caustics like you see in swimming pools and shallow tropical waters without volumetric light beams Regards Keith