Underwater Pool Light

[Markus Thaler]

Hi, how can I add some lights under the water in a pool?
I made a water material with Reflaction, Refraction and Causics, bur when I add a Corona light (tried also with IES) under the water, nothing happens. It seems that the light has no effect.

[maru]

Light (yes, that's one light) inside a box with refractive material, with caustics enabled. Seems to work fine. Can you post your results? How is your water material made?

[Markus Thaler]

Here's a picture. The light under the water looks strange not like in reality like picture 2...

[maru]

In that reference photo the light is probably scattered inside tiny bubbles. You would either need to model them using particles, or enable volumetric scattering for your water material.

[romullus]

Here's a picture. The light under the water looks strange not like in reality like picture 2...

It looks like your reference photo was taken with long exposure. Most likely it would look quite differently if taken with short exposure.

[mferster]

Here's what I came up with through  quick test. Used two materials and objects.

1. plane w/  water material for the surface- reflection- (1,1.48,1) -refraction (1,1.33,1) - absorption 35m (blue color, 5, 50, 120), ripple bump map

just under of the water surface plane
2. box w/ corona volumetric material  - blue absorption and scattering (5, 50, 120) absorb distance, 10m, scattering, 0.5, Emission Distance 8.5m color (50,200, 225)

[Noah45]

So, 2 mats for this ? (prol better than photo)

[maru]

Here's what I came up with through  quick test. Used two materials and objects.

1. plane w/  water material for the surface- reflection- (1,1.48,1) -refraction (1,1.33,1) - absorption 35m (blue color, 5, 50, 120), ripple bump map

just under of the water surface plane
2. box w/ corona volumetric material  - blue absorption and scattering (5, 50, 120) absorb distance, 10m, scattering, 0.5, Emission Distance 8.5m color (50,200, 225)

I am pretty sure this could be easily merged into a single material for an easier setup and better performance.

[sprayer]

http://imagizer.imageshack.com/img924/3671/GD6OYA.jpg
water with absorbtion, two lights, one with directionality and occlude off for light cone and other without directionality  for lightning surface. With ies will be better

[mferster]

I am pretty sure this could be easily merged into a single material for an easier setup and better performance.

I tried it with one consolidated material, but self-illumination looks too flat and unrealistic when compared with emission from the volume material

[Giorgos Zacharioudakis]

I have tried the method with the 2 materials, thank you for the tip!
 Now there is a problem with the depth of the pool. If anyone has a better solution I would be grateful.

[maru]

I don't see any problem here. This would happen in real life too.
Make sure that you are using water's IOR of 1,33. If you want to fake it, and make the pool appear "deeper" you can experiment with altering the IOR.

[Giorgos Zacharioudakis]

I uploaded a real world example for reference. The goal is to have a better understanding of the pool tiles at a night version with the pool lights. Maybe rendering twice with and without volumetric effect and then blend them at PP can do the trick. I will try it and I will post it as soon as I find some time.