I am trying to get that real nice underwater look. Which one seems more realistic as an underwater image?

First One
Second One

Thankx

Second Picture

I would say the second image has more of the "feel" of being under water. IMO the gel you are using for your caustic effect is too hard-edged, or sharply defined. It might look better if you take your caustic image and soften it a bit with some gaussian blur in an image editor before applying it to your light. Other than that, you have a very nice scene here.

I agree, I prefer the second image by far. It's a lot more realistic in coloring. I love the light reflections on the ground :)

2 for sure.

Try this, by the looks of it...you have 2 lights with caustics added. Leave one, yet increase the number setting which will increase the number of lines yet make them smaller in scale. Next, pull the second light away(no caustics)...soften the edges and tweak the ambient strength (stronger or weaker) to a desired amount.

Remember, save the new attempt as another file name.

Let us know what you come up with.

ICM

p.s.
a couple more plants in the foreground closer to the camera for some depth.

Message edited on: 09/22/2004 18:04

Message edited on: 09/22/2004 18:07

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Ockham's razor- It's that simple

I go about it a slightly different way. Instead of applying the gell to the light, I apply it to the water surface as a transparancy layer and then have a light above it set to soft shadows to shine through.

Oh, and the second one is better.

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Phillip Drawbridge
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second one is definetely better

from an ex-divers point of few, the second one is the closet one to actually being under water. little less sun light and you would think you were under there. Before anyone asks, i said ex-diver because i no longer can dive due to getting a broken neck a few years ago.

Second one here also, but I think it needs light streaming through also like drawbridge said. You have murky water (as it should be) and light play on the ground but yet no light rays.

Karineq, how can I get those light rays going thru the water? I belive that I tried to do something similar to light rays, but never came out good enough. U know a place where I can read up about it or tips on how to get it done? Thankx drawbridgep, how would I do what you said? Sorry, but I am still learning Bryce and this is my third picture so far, so I don't know how to do what U said? Thankx

Here's a tute by Robin wood on caustic lighting. All his/her tutorials are excellent. I think what you are looking for is towards the bottom of this link :) good luck hon! http://www.robinwood.com/Catalog/Technical/BryceTuts/BryceTutSet.html

Karineq, you know i had a thought about trying to put light rays on that image. I'm also new to bryce so i'm not sure if this will actually work. My idea was to put the spot light above two cloud layers, using the cloud layers to break the light into rays. Just an idea and since i am yet to do or try doing an underwater scene i have no idea if that would actually work.

Karineq, I tried the link. I seen that web page before, just could not get the light to work properly with the sun rays. Can anyone tell me how to get those sun rays? I tried the robinwood link, but just could not get it right, maybe I just miss a step or something, but the rays just wont show up. This is what I have in the picture above. (the second one). I have a big light on the top. Below the light is a 2d sheet with a transparent picture that shows on the bottom of the ocean floor. Then all the seaweed and fish. The light is set at Intensity 130, Softness 20 cast shadow is on, infinite light and use gel. The light gel is almost the same picture as the 2d sheet below it, but with a small difference (maybe a little more blurry). Is what I am doing right? If it is, where and how can I get the sun rays to get thru the water? Do I remove the 2d sheet and lower the light, or what I have to do? Thank you...