How to Create Fake Caustics using Arnold for Maya

[@anamariaursu3767]

Best tutorials on the internet. Helps me every time. Thank you!

[@particle808]

Fantastic tutorial, short, quick and to the point. Exactly what I needed, THANKS!

[@kathleencox3858]

Thanks for this great tutorial. Once I realized I needed to deselect opaque on the water material everything worked great!

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

That's a good point! Nice troubleshooting, Kathleen!

[@cosmotect]

I knew this effect was trivial, but had a hard time locating where it plugged in. Thank you very much!

[@domolutz]

Very helpful tutorial, but where can I download the caustic textures you're using in the video? Thx a lot :)

[@HannahWalkerFX]

Yes where please ?

[@theapexpredator157]

Would appreciate a video on how to create Real Caustics using the waves.

[@milagroswarnholtz2137]

YOU ARE THE BESTTT! great tutorial!!!

[@reck-b6x]

project done thanks for this.

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

That's wonderful!! Please tag me if you post on social media. Would love to see it!

[@hazemmahmoud5774]

Excellent one Monica :D , if it was me I would also try to tune the speed of caustics motion, anyways, talking about the PLUS sections: I like that you told us about making extra fog , makes it more reasonable for some shots if water is not so clear, I am a bit confused if it is better to add some grains/remnants, like water is not so clean- through a video effect later, or use certain node in Arnold to make some light colored noise to act like remnants or flakes in the water.

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

That’s a great idea, Hazem. Thank you for bringing it up! It depends. I would either create particles in Maya, or you can composite it in After Effects. I would download a video that has floating particles and post it. Depends on the motion on camera, if it’s a still image, compositing would work. If the camera is flying through the scene, I would use particles in Maya. :)

[@hazemmahmoud5774]

@@AcademicPhoenixPlus That's good idea :) , it adds lots of realism to your renders (particles to simulate underwater contents or even some dust/particles sticking to fur of furry creature) but am not skilled enough yet to make such stuff.

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Wow, I can probably do underwater particles, but dust getting stuck on fur is beyond me! That’s advanced! But I can show the underwater particles :)

[@Pradeepverma-tq3tz]

It is very helpful Tutorial.. Thank you

[@OmarMohamed-nt5zl]

Very good job But can you scale the animation caus we see the fake caustic animation is a little bit fast It has to be animated more slowly isn't it ? Or how can i slow the animation of the gif file ?

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Thanks Omar. Glad you liked the tutorial! If you want to slow down the animation, you'll have to find another gif files to make that happen. Hope that helps!

[@sikan5158]

either create a new longer gif or u can edit in the expression (there's a limit to what extent u can slow it tho)

[@danpym3D]

Hi! Can you share the script to slow down? I can't find a clear way to do it@@sikan5158

[@aashishah2598]

i am not able to recieve the effect which u are getting through skydome

[@aashishah2598]

can u help with that

[@tralthamidor]

Nice! Very useful.

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Thanks D. Rice! I appreciate it. It's a fast and heap way of making caustics. :)

[@balajirao7400]

hey Monica thanks for this tutorial, can you do a compositing video too... something for some small image sequences

[@Rajuuken]

Very nice tutorial, thank you!

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Thank you! I appreciate your support, Rajuuken. :)

[@charadreemurr9191]

Im really late with commenting here, but I kinda need help. I have 'god rays' in my scene from a flashlight and fog and when I add caustics to the scene through another flashlight the scene becomes chaos because all of the god rays, because the 2nd flashlight is also affected by the fog. Is there a way for me to specify which light is affected by the fog and which is not? I wouldn't want the 2nd one to show as god rays on my render but only as caustics.

[@naerimika1369]

and Im really late with the answer but you may look for volume samples attribute and set it to 0 so the light will affect only mesh, not air

[@biscuitcucumberpatch3311]

I'm on my own 3d models, and it isnt working :(

[@mohamedhamdy6722]

hello Monica . i would like to tell me how i make the same this scene with cam under water and on the water. i tried to make it from general editor and i get the same effect under water but in Maya it dosnt work on my pc .can u tell me how i make one like this?

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Hi Mohamed, What software are you using that it works?

[@mohamedhamdy6722]

@@AcademicPhoenixPlus Autodesk software. they send it to me and i install it . but i dont know from this issue

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

So you are trying to recreate the same scene in Maya? I think some people have issues with the water. If you go to the shape node of the geometry, under visibility, turn off 'receive shadows'. That should help let the light through. I hope that thelps!

[@mohamedhamdy6722]

@@AcademicPhoenixPlus finally . u get what i mean .😁 i well try it. but u know ....ok i well tell when i finish it . thank u very much . you are a great person .👍

[@moonchealwang7100]

So useful! Thank you!

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

So quick and easy to create a nice effect. :) Thank you for your comment, Moncheal.

[@ChaosWolfNinja]

Awesome thanks Monica. Will you be doing a tutorial on actual caustic rendering. I did a little research and Arnold can render caustics. Just curious. Thanks 😁

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Thanks Domenico! It can do caustics, but only with geometry emitting light, not just regular lights like a spot light. It's also really expensive to render. I'll have to make a tutorial about Arnold caustics, though. I think it would be helpful

[@ChaosWolfNinja]

@@AcademicPhoenixPlus Thanks Monica, that would be awesome!!! Greatly appreciate it 😊

[@TheSeer124]

@@AcademicPhoenixPlus hello monica..can u share with us how to create and animate that caustic maps? and what software was used for that?

[@ernestoggg4873]

Sweet!! Don’t stop girl!!

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

I love your enthusiasm! Thank you Ernesto!

[@miguelcid5302]

THANKS A LOOOOOT !!!! YOU ROCK !!!!

[@rachidayad9153]

wow thank you very much

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

You are very welcome, Rachid! I hope it was helpful!!

[@salimd7842]

Awesome thank you.

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

You are very welcome! I hope it was helpful. :D

[@AyahAnimaya]

very helpful .. thank you 😊

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

You are very welcome, Spirit of Life! I’m glad it was helpful. :)

[@leleo2849]

thank you

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

You are very welcome techno. Thank you for watching!

[@santodkewl]

i love ur voice....

[@mohitgurung3404]

i cant download the file

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

That's strange. Sorry about that Mohit. Here is a direct link! gumroad.com/l/UnderwaterScene

[@ParabhdeepSingh]

thanks

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Your are very welcome!

[@rafaelserralheiro7413]

Hello, Thank you a lot for your Tutorial. I've Bought your Maya Scene. However the Scrip ((frame%16)+1); did not work on my scene. Keep your great work

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Hi Rafael, thank you for your message. What type of results did you get? Are the graphics not working? Did you set the project so Maya knows where to find the files? Is the intensity high enough? The light source big enough? There could be many reasons why!

[@Explosivokewl]

Hey Rafael, maybe you forgot to click Edit to save? I did the same mistake at least :)

[@buchiramulu]

Really Nice...@kathleen cox

[@RustyShacklefardd]

what skydome? I dont see shit

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Hi Austin. Have you tried adding a skydome? Here is a tutorial on that: kzbin.info/www/bejne/p6HEZ5mwi6yXftU Also, try increasing your intensity/exposure of your light. Hopefully that helps!

[@ziongite]

Better solution, just use Vray. Arnold sucks.

[@housamkhamees2269]

thanks

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

You're welcome!