Maya ocean issues

#1

Hello all ,
this is my first time posting here , I am working on an ocean scene in Maya ( I am an intermediate ) , and I am facing a couple of problems :

  • I want to have a depth of field where the distance of the ocean and the horizon kind of blur out or fade out gradually and nothing I am trying is working , does working with ocean shader have other techniques that I should be using ??

  • I want to make some kind of a spotlight coming out of the lighthouse where the light has visible edges , but it is not working because of mental ray , how can I do that ??

  • and last but not least how can I make the water look better ?? I worked on it using a digital tutors tutorial and it is my first time working with ocean shader …

of course if you have other ideas or feedback about the scene please let me know , thank you for your time …

#2

For distance fog/haze, you can use a simple Fluid with a vertical gradient. Or you could render out a depth pass (z-depth) and composite that in Photoshop/Nuke or whatever you use.

Maya’s Oceans are pretty basic but yours looks okay. If you check out the Houdini Ocean plugin for Maya (here in the forums) you might find that more to your liking.

A volume cone light for your lighthouse might best be done with a transparent geometry cone.