Hi Kids...I'm about to set up a scene where my grandkids rescue their father from certain drowning. I've searched high and low for any tutorials or tips on how best to do this, but have come up empty. So I'm going to wing it using lighting and focus for starters. If anyone has any tips or tutes, I would be very appreciative.
Regards...Bruce

This probably isn't any help at all, but I've yet to find really convincing underwater scenes done in iClone.  What iClone is missing to make it right is either volumetric lights and/or light caustics.

In Max, for example, we'd just put a caustic video in the lights, but iClone had no ability to do this, and without it it's VERY difficult to get convincing underwater lighting (which can sell such a scene).  The few things I've seen people render do their best with fog in an effort to emulate that "cloudy water" appearance, and that's helpful, but hardly convincing.  Even iRay won't solve this problem, so that's most likely the best you can do.

If someone has better ideas I'd love to hear them, but the lack of caustics is a killer here.

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Alienware Aurora R12, Win 10, i9-119000KF, 3.5GHz CPU, 128GB RAM, RTX 3090 (24GB), Samsung 960 Pro 4TB M-2 SSD, TB+ Disk space
Mike "ex-genius" Kelley

Well this IS interesting - the idea of emulating water with lighting.(I have a *feeling* Mike's 'on the money' with his summation)
The (only) time I ever needed convincing water - I ended up turning to Eon'. I don't even know if they still do a 'freebie' version - but at the time, you could export out up to a certain resolution without the 'watermark' - and that was still 'usable'. Just a thought ....


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Please be patient with me ..... I don't always 'get it' the first time 'round - not even the 2nd time!   - yikes! ... 

● MSI GT72VR Laptop, i7 7700HQ 4-Core 3.8 GHz 16GB RAM; Nvidia 1070, 8GB Vram ● iClone-7.93 ● 3DXChange Pipeline 7.81 ● CC-3 Pipeline 3.44 ● Live Face ● HeadShot ● Brekel Pro-Body ● Popcorn FX ● iRAY ● Kinect V2 ● DaVinci Resolve17 ● Mixcraft 8.1

Hi Kids...I actually ended up changing the color of the sky to approximate the color of my ocean and then slightly blurring the camera. Then I put my characters in the sky and changed my camera to point at an angle upwards. I'm putting faith in the viewer to imagine being underwater, while I get my actors to the ocean surface as quickly as possible. I decided not to spend more than a day trying to do what apparently can't be done. (so unlike me...I must be maturing)
Regards...Bruce

That's great .... you've certainly surprised me .... and I'd be very keen to see the end result if you choose to air it ...
(I'm really glad you found a solution Bruce).
Steve.

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Please be patient with me ..... I don't always 'get it' the first time 'round - not even the 2nd time!   - yikes! ... 

● MSI GT72VR Laptop, i7 7700HQ 4-Core 3.8 GHz 16GB RAM; Nvidia 1070, 8GB Vram ● iClone-7.93 ● 3DXChange Pipeline 7.81 ● CC-3 Pipeline 3.44 ● Live Face ● HeadShot ● Brekel Pro-Body ● Popcorn FX ● iRAY ● Kinect V2 ● DaVinci Resolve17 ● Mixcraft 8.1

If you do a web search for Underwater Caustics you'll see what I mean.  Here's a tutorial on doing it in AE:



This really demonstrates why we need volumetric lighting in iClone (sigh).

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Alienware Aurora R12, Win 10, i9-119000KF, 3.5GHz CPU, 128GB RAM, RTX 3090 (24GB), Samsung 960 Pro 4TB M-2 SSD, TB+ Disk space
Mike "ex-genius" Kelley

For what it's worth...I used the 3DScene > Mesh Medium > Canyon, moved the camera underwater, added some fog, plants, and rocks.  The water animates nicely adding distortion to the above surface objects (and the plants 'sway' in the current), but it is missing caustics on the bottom.  You could try animating a pattern in front of the light souce to fake caustics. - Gordon

Reallusion Certified Director / Reallusion Best Visual Award / Reallusion Certified Content Developer
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I've tried putting something in front of the lights but it doesn't help with caustics, which are really needed for selling the effect.  I used a plane and mapped it with caustics, I've tried displacements, everything you can think of short of something physical (IOW, some snake-like physical mesh that moved like caustics -- that might be the solution if I could figure out how to generate it).

Someday I may revisit this, but I hope volumetric lights show up in the meantime (which *might* be able to be mapped correctly to show caustics).

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Alienware Aurora R12, Win 10, i9-119000KF, 3.5GHz CPU, 128GB RAM, RTX 3090 (24GB), Samsung 960 Pro 4TB M-2 SSD, TB+ Disk space
Mike "ex-genius" Kelley

I "faked" an underwater sequence awhile back in iC5 with this old Jungle Girl clip. Bubble particles definitely help along with moving light-shadows and don't forget fish!!!




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Hey Mark! That's *really* well done!! The whole 'experience' - imagery plus sound - really 'takes you there' - loved it !!!


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Please be patient with me ..... I don't always 'get it' the first time 'round - not even the 2nd time!   - yikes! ... 

● MSI GT72VR Laptop, i7 7700HQ 4-Core 3.8 GHz 16GB RAM; Nvidia 1070, 8GB Vram ● iClone-7.93 ● 3DXChange Pipeline 7.81 ● CC-3 Pipeline 3.44 ● Live Face ● HeadShot ● Brekel Pro-Body ● Popcorn FX ● iRAY ● Kinect V2 ● DaVinci Resolve17 ● Mixcraft 8.1