How To Easily Create Realistic Underwater Scenes In Blender

Extended tutorial (step by step): • Blender Underwater Sce...
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In this video, we're creating realistic underwater scenes in Blender.
Follow me on Instagram for more 3D!: / regoliste
Consider subscribing for more videos like this, and let me know what you think.
Shark model I used: skfb.ly/6TzOM
Polyfjord's caustic tutorial: • Discovering Fake Caust...
Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
0:15 - The Idea
0:40 - Set Up Ocean
1:13 - Ocean Lighting
1:57 - Volumetrics
2:32 - Set up Caustics
3:41 - Set up Particles
4:20 - watch this next

[@Regoliste]

I've uploaded an extended tutorial (start to finish style) of this that you can check out here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZoCsaYd8os-ErK8

[@kevinjackandahuamamani4758]

Es increíble el trabajo que haces, tengo que buscar videos en inglés para aprender más de este maravilloso programa por que en mi idioma no hay calidad como la tuya, espero que hagas un tutorial más explicado para hacer el agua por favor 🙏.

[@hlaia8]

this vdeo looks great but definetaly not beginer friendly, I hope I can follow the extended one, thx

[@matslarsson5988]

I'm a huge horror movie addict. I've seen every shark movie there is. The number is in the hundreds. The budget of those movies are often minimal but even for those who had money to spend, I'd say you managed to make a more realistic underwater shot of a shark than 99% of them. I really wish you'd make more like this video. Some sort of a follow up. Great job, very inspiring and impressive!

[@heveycreations4197]

100% agree on this, he puts lots of moviemakers to shame with his talent.

[@Regoliste]

@@heveycreations4197 Thanks man that means alot, I just like to attempt making good looking shots and see what I end up with.

[@barryjones6479]

@@Regoliste Have to agree with the above. Stunning example! Thanks for sharing your workflow with the community.

[@SmugCrusader]

But have you seen cruel jaws?

[@matslarsson5988]

@@SmugCrusader Oooooh yeah, good old Bruno Mattei directed that one (under pseudonym) :-D

[@LamarAndreas]

Underwater graphics have big budget for every cinematic studios... And one men with huge blender experience doing this for free... Fantastic!

[@Regoliste]

Incredible isn't it? The progressing power of one person equipped with one computer allows for the creative compositions that strive closer to cinematic quality than ever before. I appreciate the comment! You can do things too.

[@LeStuff2XEWER]

I'm speechless, it's one of the best tutorials on Blender

[@Regoliste]

Thanks!

[@MJBold_1]

I was legit smiling all the way through this tutorial. Super cool! I feel this was almost more a tutorial on the methodology of how to create an underwater sequence, very neat dude!

[@aarshinkov]

You deserved a new subscriber. Simple and effective tutorial and a beautiful result.

[@M_k-zi3tn]

Bro those acoustics are amazing

[@craigbaker6382]

Really awesome. Looks fantastic without being overly complex and thank you for the "secret" detail of turning shadows off and the dark dome. I would never accidentally try these 2 specific things.

[@kuzoscity]

Just started trying to use Blender a few days ago. Can already make some basic stuff such as a sword. This is incredible work man, underrated as hell. Keep it up.

[@michaelsoto9869]

Love this tutorial, concise and a very effective result.

[@lazycreator7794]

This is amazing, subscribed right away. Your work is unbelievable man, hope you grow faster 😍

[@umemakhan6506]

This was a really informative summary! thanks for this.

[@brobocops]

Awesome workflow and a great result!!

[@3dmonkeybizz]

Clean, Cool and Smooth................. Thanks for a super tutorial! I am now off to the extended version................

[@tailscape]

this is absolutely insane

[@NimoClancy]

Once again im amazed by the quality of your blender work. Simple and yet effective. Amazing stuff man

[@shitshow_1]

You did keep this video Precise and Concise, Great work!

[@legacylee]

thanks for the video bro, I did catch the caustics video from Polyfjord a while back, but never gave it a go. But now after seeing this I would like to create and underwater scene really soon. Good to know that I am starting to get a firm grasp of Blender. I tried to break down what the possible process of this was before watching the video, and got most of it right except for the refraction part, thanks for that! Liked and Subbed!

[@Fil--fil]

Thank you very much for the tutorial, i decided to make a 3d animation for a school project and this has helped a ton.

[@blank141]

straight to the point and Concise, Nice ❤

[@HubertKnoblauch3DContentOnline]

Best underwater tut out there for sure

[@AdamTomaszczyk]

You definitely deserve more attention in Blender community. Great tutorial! Thank you for sharing. The final shot looks VERY convincing. All the best from Southern Poland! And keep up the great work. Adam

[@Regoliste]

Hey thanks for the kind comment!

[@yvonnenorahdance8568]

This is beautiful tutorial. I learnt so much with it about blender within those minutes than ever before. Looking forward to more of your content

[@Regoliste]

Glad you enjoyed and learnt something from it, more cool videos coming soon!

[@solidsnake1449]

I was breaking my head about how to create such a scene.. Thank you so much, it looks very good! 🎉🎉

[@philosophyfrog2653]

This is amazing, thanks for sharing!

[@Learn3Dart]

Great !!! its very nice work you done because your video is short and meaningful. KEEP IT UP!!

[@AlexLupoz]

A photorealistic tutorial and great technique (much better than some CGI movies these days) and all for FREE! Angels, bless this guy, please 🙏🙌

[@aymanright9554]

I love your videos bro , it's very helpful

[@agamonal]

It's just what I've been loking for a while !!!! great job !!!! Thaks for sharing

[@Regoliste]

Glad you found this video! Good luck out there.

[@mikezxd6025]

Saving for a future animation.

[@avi_brand]

u really make everything easy n simple great vid man ur vid really help lazy editors like me❤

[@patriciomontoya2347]

SICK RESULTS ‼💯

[@SourceAwareness]

Thanks again for all your great work!! You're a Great Teacher. Best Wishes

[@vfxeriksen8694]

Increasing the size of your volume cubes is a good way to get rid of seams in the background. Thanks for the tutorial!

[@Regoliste]

Glad you got something out of it!

[@YTRINX]

nice tut can't wait to see what you do next

[@kenttimothy]

impressive content and very concise, i like it

[@speedy4767]

bro u are soo good please keep up

[@ImSol3D]

This looks soooooo good, like this might be the best tutorial/ blender video I’ve watched. I’m 100% going to make a underwater shark scene following your steps!! Thankyou

[@Regoliste]

Hey thanks! That means a lot coming from someone who has similar content. Didn't realise my little shark scene was this inspirational haha

[@ImSol3D]

@@Regoliste yeah I know it’s weird but I think it’s because it’s a lot of different things coming together and making an insane looking underwater scene!!

[@therealcaydonrascoe]

@@ImSol3D sol watcha doin here?

[@amubaesports1670]

Wow ur style of explaining is very clear and entertaining to watch. 👍

[@Regoliste]

Hey thanks for watching! That's the style of video I aim for

[@oligos]

Awesome video man

[@ivanpergasi2]

Impressive.... Respect bro

[@adiiiiii1]

So far, this is the best looking underwater tutorial in Blender I've seen. Thank you!

[@Regoliste]

You're very welcome

[@RediarX]

ahhh you make it look so easy... beautiful work!

[@Regoliste]

Thank you!

[@abdullahalsayed6616]

@@Regoliste even after adding a dark dome (before adding a sun) the hdri lights up the model from below what do I do

[@Aron224.]

You are just awesome.

[@lukayz1363]

Amazing trick

[@nixorsnet]

Great tutorial!

[@Regoliste]

Hey thanks!

[@sumandatta1]

awesome tutorial! Thanks!

[@Regoliste]

You're very welcome

[@matchdance]

Damn that is so fast and easy and smart

[@rhuan3d]

Thanks!

[@mrbatit]

so cool!

[@idontknowwhattoputhere371]

Hell yeah thank you

[@deep8673]

Thank You !

[@ameshkavi1111]

You're the best bro

[@vikaskumar-lr4cn]

That's very helpfull

[@dmitryclaim9904]

Really helpfull

[@GenuineHeals]

thanks so much

[@mikebe1467]

what a perfect tutorial! Fastest Subscribe button

[@Regoliste]

Hey thanks!

[@principedelapaz3593]

thank you bro

[@Regoliste]

You're welcome bro! Thanks for commenting

[@trekantsknold729]

oh. my.. GOD! I love u T_T thaaanks

[@mahmoud_ali_963]

جمييييل جدا شكرا جزيلا لك😍🧡🧡🧡

[@balajidhamotharan6543]

amazing content👍 can you recommend any compositing tutorial 🙃

[@v4hacker]

It looks straight out of Discovery's under water Shark Documentry 😂 i think it's clickbait at start but you really done a Great job, keep making this Realistic CGI more.

[@ippotsk]

Strictly Eevee user here, I'm wondering how good this would look on it! Thanks for the tutorial!

[@Regoliste]

As of right now, Eevee isn't capable of accurately reproducing these effects. This ocean effect gimick in particular heavily relies on dense volumetrics and refractions, which is only possible by ray tracing within Cycles. How come you are strict on Eevee? I would encourage you to encoporate Cycles to your workflow if you desire realistic visualisations like this. Hardware shouldn't even be a limitation as Cycles today is incredibly efficient and powerful, I've done so much from just a laptop. Good luck out there!

[@kendarr]

I had to incresse the lights by quite a lot, and also do a solidify modifier on the water because of the normals, are those normal?. Great stuff btw, my Suzane is now sinking.

[@OneFromEasternFinland]

I'm speechless

[@DerekElliott]

Nice!

[@Regoliste]

Big fan of you :)

[@joelmulder]

Great video, but two points of feedback. Lowering the focal length means increasing the FOV. Lower focal length = higher FOV = wide image. Also, to truly simulate an accurate underwater shot, you would have to simulate Shell’s window, which is the circular area of clarity seen when looking upwards from underwater, beyond which the surroundings reflect due to light refraction.

[@Regoliste]

Great tips! Yeah I messed up the words of focal length with FOV so you got me there haha. And yeah I did briefly think about that 'area of clarity' that exists when looking near up, would have looked even better with it, but at the time it wasn't worth the effort to figure out how to apply such a tiny effect. And let's be honest here, this whole process is only a mockup and some cheap tricks to imitate the general stylization of real underwater footage, the effect can easily break but for the most part I think it works. If you want to get technical and explore true computational simulations of large scale water bodies I'd suggest looking into WetaFX and their impressive work on Avatar: The Way Of Water, which ofcourse in order to obtain truely accurate simulations, was generously backed up by an entire vfx house, millions in funding, thousands of industry setup GPUs and literally unprecendented simulation solving technology that accumulated up to 18.5 petabytes in data for the film, which sorta gives you an idea of the difficulty of recreating real life on our tiny computers hehe.

[@hiumanwu9987]

It is an amazing tutorial!For me, the most difficult part is lighting ,I can't make the lighting as beautiful as yours. When the light go through water, it became blur and diminished, especially the spot light. And I also can't make the beautiful sea wave texture under lighting.Could you give me some suggestion?

[@TEEWEE_h]

Hey! I'm having some trouble with the volumetric part, no matter how much i try i cant get it to look no where near as good as the one you made. Could a follow up tutorial be possible, or perhaps i could have the .blend file? Cheers.

[@nevillebossilo7088]

2:22 😍😍😍 oooohhhhhh

[@samanhaghgoo1474]

Niiceee

[@issawade2075]

hey i was wondering wich blender version did you use for this tutorial. That's beatiful ty for sharing this

[@Regoliste]

Blender 3.3.1 but this effect is achievable in any version

[@atif8570]

I am dead its soooo god

[@Rigiroony]

Would really help to explain which nodes were used for everything. Definitely the Add and Difference. I'm a beginner and have now clue where to find those.

[@Regoliste]

Hey there. As mentioned at 2:56, The node you're looking for and can search in the bar is called Mix node and its responsible for providing a variety of color mixing options such as add and difference, hope this helps.

[@Mastershifu707]

I've been learning blender since 1 month and your tutorials are very simple and informative. You earned a Sub. Btw I couldn't understand nodes it's like a nightmare for me. So how can I get better at this ? any suggestion will be appreciated 😊

[@Regoliste]

Yeah nodes are tricky! But once you understand how they work it will be immediately easy. Node based systems are similar to layer based systems you might be familiar to in photoshop for example. Except instead of multiple effects layers stacked on top of another, the layers are linked as a pipeline through different stages, from input to output. Shader Nodes control how a model looks and are basically combined operations of different effects and color inputs linked together to form one final material output. These inputs and effects can be transformed, mixed, mapped out and repurposed in any way we want. I found a good beginner tutorial by Brandon that's dedicated to explaining everything and should help you out: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jZiVZWevZ8tsfNk

[@Mastershifu707]

@@Regoliste thank you so much

[@ZyloGG]

The hdri he used in the vid is “kloofendal 48d partly cloudy (pure sky)” from poly haven he downloaded the 2k exr

[@Mehdi0montahw]

woow

[@adeo]

You shouldn't use a transparent shader for the particle cube, it actually adds a bit of render overhead. You should instead just uncheck in the particles system settings "show emitter" under the "render" tab

[@Regoliste]

Very useful tip that I will keep in mind from now on, thanks.

[@adeo]

@@Regoliste You're welcome :)

[@Yakusantek08]

thank you

[@BURNCASTLER]

Tip: Type #frame/15 in Time at 1:08. For auto animation.

[@T7NOMAD]

🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@CameronKiesser]

How do I judge how fast a creature should go in proportion with the movement animation? I don't want a slow moving creature go too fast from point A to point B.

[@h20delorian]

Great tutorial, although when I go into cycles or rendered view, it doesn't look like water and rather a flowing color, and when I render or go into the camera, I can't see the water at all

[@unstoppablek9755]

I have a problem with the caustics on the spotlight, on a plane they work but as soon as I add the nodes to the spotlight plus the mapping and texture coordinate it doesn't show

[@raffa1458]

the "use node" for the spot light shader isnt showing up in the object tab what should i do?

[@Joonavir]

Very nice! What was the render time on this? And with that setup?

[@Regoliste]

25 seconds a frame! So a little over an hour

[@Joonavir]

@@Regoliste That's impressive! Care to share what kind of hardware did you use?

[@Regoliste]

@@Joonavir I'm running an RTX 3070 with 32gb of ram, I try to keep all renders under a minute max

[@Joonavir]

@@Regoliste Oh alright! I'd be interested in a tutorial of your render settings. Subscribed!

[@wesleylim9830]

This is amazing! I tried it out but the result was different from what I expected, may I know about your render settings?

[@Regoliste]

Hey there! To find out about all my steps, settings and full scene details, check out my extended 20 min tutorial on this here that can help you get started. kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZoCsaYd8os-ErK8 Feel free to reach back if you still have a question afterwards

[@wesleylim9830]

Yes I did watch but I'm still wondering about my ocean refraction looks different from yours although I tried to do the same thing like in the video, so I thought maybe the cause is from Cycles Render Properties

[@imiy]

2:25 *INCREASE the FoV. By reducing the focal length you INCREASE the Field of View.

[@Regoliste]

Thanks for the correction

[@salazar665]

Same here.. I'm also making underwater shots inspired by avatar

[@tamarsupo5851]

i want to recreate the nemo movie hahaha

[@sgasolacewolf4930]

For some reason the cube with the principle Volume didn't work for me its just a black cube it's not turning blue or anything

[@Regoliste]

Check out the extended tutorial linked in the description for a step-by-step walkthrough, the volume needs a lot of settings to be played with like the density. You also need a strong sunlight to compensate and make sure your ocean plane shadow visibility is disabled.

[@sgasolacewolf4930]

@@Regoliste alright thank you

[@daunhidupwa8768]

1:40 how to import the Shark Model? i've downloaded from the same artist in your description but the file is .blend. but i'm confused how to import it to my underwater project

[@Regoliste]

Easy! Make sure you enable the 'Copy Attributes Menu' Addon that comes with Blender already. Then it's literally as easy as copy pasting any other file, open shark blend, select the shark bone and mesh, Ctrl+C, go to underwater blend, Ctrl V, that's it, basically like appending but faster, hope this helps!

[@muhammadfj3700]

1:28 Could someone please explain why my refraction shader appears black when viewed from below?

[@Regoliste]

When applying an ocean modifier on a plane, the face orientation or 'normals' are on the top side, where it looks right. To view from below, you either need to 'flip normals' of the plane or just rotate the entire ocean by 180 so the top side becomes the underside, maybe check out my extended tutorial on this linked in the description, hope this helps

[@AfterHours-3D-vfx]

@@Regoliste this answer should be pinned to the top. Thanks!

[@tm2orion418]

I am a beginner currently creating a boat scene in an ocean plane. I added another plane to shrinkwrap to the ocean which will carry the boat, in the object mode the plane looks shrinkwrapped to the waves but when i switch to edit mode all the subdivisions and vertices appear to be above the ocean surface floating . I used copy location in the boat to the shrinkwrapped plane and the boat appears at the floating subdivisions and vertices and doesn't move. Do you have any solution for that?

[@josephbrandenburg4373]

You have to make a vertex group for the vertices in the plane, and copy location to that -- or better yet, use a triangle and just parent the boat to the triangle directly.

[@tm2orion418]

@@josephbrandenburg4373 thanks

[@kenjionmars]

What computer do you use?

[@Regoliste]

I run an RTX 3070, 32gb of RAM and an Intel I5-10500

[@042fardikasyar7]

this is eevee render mode or cycles. I use the cycle one but it looks completely dark

[@Regoliste]

This is cycles, be sure to check out the extended tutorial and follow every step precisely

[@bikramjitroy6155]

I will also add chromatic aberration

[@edavidrowley]

The underside of my plane is dark. Like from above it looks normal but from beneath its dark around the edges and only clear if you're looking straight up. Has anyone had a similar issue? Did I miss a step or something? I've spent a while trying a few different things with the lighting, the plane texture, and the world settings to try to resolve the issue but haven't had any luck yet. I also noticed that it only does this in cycles and not eevee. Is there something wrong with my render settings? I was hoping to do this render in cycles.

[@Regoliste]

What you want is to fix the normals. Basically with a plane, the only correctly facing normal is the 'top' side'. This means that the 'underside' of the plane has inverted normals. Normals determine many properties of a material's final outlook, including refraction and therefore create those black artifacts I heard dozens of people describing. To fix this, you can simply flip the ocean plane so the 'top' and correct normals side become the bottom underside. I explain this in my extended tutorial of this video here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZoCsaYd8os-ErK8

[@edavidrowley]

@@Regoliste Thanks!

[@leecaste]

@@Regoliste Thats not correct, normals should point up, from a light ray perspective, going from air to water is different than going from water to air. As long as the glass shader is correct, including the IOR the only thing you should see, as you said, is reflection or refraction. If you see black, it’s probably reflecting the black environment (which should not be pitch black anyways). Instead of a black half dome, it may be better to mix the bottom half of the hdr with a ramp going from very dark blue at the very bottom to light blue at the middle point of the hdr. Also to make shaders (shark skin) more realistic, you should substract 0.33 from there IOR as this is the difference between air and water IOR. For example, if you have a glass bottle with an IOR of 1.55, you should change it to 1.22 if you’re going to render it underwater. If you’re going to add air bubbles,use an IOR of 1.33 but the normals should point to the inside, you’re going from water to air, the same as the plane for the water surface.

[@tatsumii1420]

im curious how much time did i take to render this animation

[@Regoliste]

If I remember correctly it took around 25 seconds to render one frame, so there's your answer for render time

[@nekrauze]

Топ 🔥

[@daunhidupwa8768]

3:27 how to add the keyframe for the value node?