Renderworks textures for water surface

[Helen Palmer]

I'm creating a DTM with natural ponds which will naturally filter sewage water.  I am looking for some natural render works textures for the water surface - there are a lot of textures out there. Can anyone recommend one which is not particularly clear but will look good with some phragmites growing out of it?  Does anyone also know of a good texture for wildflower grassland?

 

Thanks all! 

[Peter Neufeld.]

Hello,

Not sure if this is the type of thing you're after but I've just done a quick render here. Note the Renderworks background in the distance. Use Landscape Areas for the mass planting of wildflower grassland (although these are some Australian natives). Image props or actual plants placed in the water for the reeds, although the ones I've quickly chosen look a bit like they're greyed out but they're not.

 

 

 

A trick with a water texture is to edit the Image Shader and filter the colour via the object fill. Therefore if the actual 'watery-ness' of the texture is to your liking you can adjust the colour simply via the Attributes palette.

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

Peter

 

 

 

 

 

[Claes Lundstrom]

A good water texture is very shiny and reflective, has a bump map for waves, and that's it. It really doesn't have a color, as the color is always and almost a 100%  reflections of the surroundings. I generated these three images in Photoshop AI as examples, and if you study the colors of the water surface, you will see that it all consist of reflections. It can be more or less blurred dies to wind and waves, but it's never the less reflections. The only exception is when the water is very clear so that you can see the bottom.

 

 

[VIRTUALENVIRONS]

Water is a rather unique element.  One, it's look changes with the height it is viewed from, lighting and reflections as pointed out by @Claes Lundstrom.

But, it also loves highlights and this is a refraction thing.  Depending on the turbidity of the water, light may or may not penetrate.  As you will have a lot of grey water, your turbidity level will be high and relatively flat surface.

 

The good news is, your pond should be just high reflective of the surrounding terrain and a slight bump.

 

In the image below water changes based on objects in the scene, height it is views from, refraction etc.

Mastering water is a trial and error process.

 

 

 

 

Edited June 16, 2024 by VIRTUALENVIRONS

[rDesign]

@Helen Palmer A search of the forums for “water texture” brought up a few results with RW textures for you to test out as a starting point.

 

 

[Peter Neufeld.]

This is using another texture using Renderworks rather than Shaded. Quite right about using the features that Renderworks brings like displacement etc.

 

 

 

I've included it in the enclosed Vectorworks file, and here's a render of it. You need a decent Renderworks background to make it really work.

 

 

 

 

 

water texture.vwx

 

 

Cheers,

Peter

 

 

 

 

[Peter Neufeld.]

I could have faked it instead and used this AI Visualiser image albeit with an Aussie flavour!

 

[Claes Lundstrom]

1 hour ago, Peter Neufeld. said:

This is using another texture using Renderworks rather than Shaded. Quite right about using the features that Renderworks brings like displacement etc.

 

 

 

I've included it in the enclosed Vectorworks file, and here's a render of it. You need a decent Renderworks background to make it really work.

 

 

 

 

 

water texture.vwx

 

 

Cheers,

Peter

 

 

 

 

 

 

I totally agree with Peter here, backgrounds are absolutely essential for most renderings, and especially for water.

 

An important thing to know is also to consider the direction of the light. Lights behind the viewer tends to make water look gray and plain whereas the opposite makes it come alive making it shine and sparkle. The opposite of course applies for the object you visualize, so the trick is to find the sweet spot between those factors.

 

Here are a couple of examples showing the impact of the background, where they very much set the mood for the entire picture on some more open water renderings. 

 

 

[VIRTUALENVIRONS]

What is trickier than water is hard water......ice and snow.    Ice is particularly hard because of its' translucency, but snow also.   

 

The is another thread going called "Underwater Scenes" using the Visualizer.  I posted an Ice and snow scene there.

[VIRTUALENVIRONS]

Snow scene Canada.

 

[Pat Stanford]

 

For the last image I finally added "rough texture, pock marks, melt holes". This was 85% creativity based on the original image. I really like the fur seat covers.

[VIRTUALENVIRONS]

Hi Pat,

The last image is really "cool", no pun intended. I have never seen fur seats on a snowmobile up here, but perhaps this image will spur a new trend.😀

 

Have you figured out the animation part yet?  This would look good animated.

[Pat Stanford]

No, I have not had time to play with animation.

[Helen Palmer]

Some very interesting replies, and very helpful, 

 

thanks everyone.