I want to design murky green water inside a cave with Bifrost and Arnold

[lightbird]

My first post here. Exciting and scary. Im about to create a water shader in Arnold that has specific attributes. It is murky green in nature, has particles in it that usuually end up on the surface, foam that is generated by the stream of water coming in, and the area below the water, seen from surface should be semi transparent but enough to see some details I want to show, reflections etc. I have read tutorials and Im preparing for this, but I wanted to know if Arnold has come up with Bifrost shader specifically, or "things" I should think about regarding this topic. Im going for something deep. Im using Maya 2017 with Arnold. Im a student.

[ben.fischler]

There are still some significant limitations with rendering Bifrost with Arnold. Bifrost sims must be meshed and Arnold shaders used. Be sure to use the later Maya 2017 updates along with the latest version of MtoA. More info here: https://support.solidangle.com/display/AFMUG/Bifrost

[lightbird]

Yeah, ok. Thanks, that helps. I use Maya with the service pack 4, but I´m not sure about the version of Arnold. Have to check that. But if any Arnold shader is allowed to attach to the polygonal mesh than it leaves you with alot of choices of weapons. Is there a shader that can control the depth color of the water? Like 0% of the surface its green and you can see the reflections, than the deeper the water the darker it becomes and reveals less? I also want particles in the water that are usually there, it will be pretty close to the camera, and that is an important detail. It seems like overdoing it with Nparticles, if there is a way to create it with shaders. Hmm, ok, well, thanks Ben, and have a nice day.

[ben.fischler]

You can always update to the latest version of Arnold and MtoA by downloading from SolidAngle.com: https://www.solidangle.com/arnold/download/

Maya 2018 has some great new features, and is more stable, but I don't think it adds any new Bifrost+Arnold features. More are planned and coming.

[lightbird]

Sounds awesome. I will upgrade once I finished this image. I have certain plugs and Im not certain they belong or can be used in 2018. I love Arnold, it brings out alot of nice renders that really make a difference for the project. The most important thing is to bring it visually to what I intended, and Arnold has done an amazing job so far. Amazing.