Can a surface reflection ignore the physical sky?

[phloog]

I am working on a parody, and would like to recreate the Castle Rock logo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O31jJ7I7qRI

If you look at the video, you'll see that the lighthouse beams move and illuminate the land, the lighting sort of comes up like a sunrise (as a sun actually rises)....

BUT....even though the water becomes more illuminated in general, it does not reflect the world in a normal way. The sun reflected seems larger, and the color and lighting of the water seems to be 100% independent of the sky/environment.

I get that this probably isn't an actual 3d render, but I'm wondering how much of this I can obtain via Max and Arnold. Any time I try a surface with a water-like shader, it (CORRECTLY) takes on the look of the physical sky.

Any advice....I'm THINKING it may involve rendering the water, then just compositing the above sea level bits....????

[brian_Foley]

You should probably be able to achieve this with the Ray Switch Shader.

https://support.solidangle.com/display/A5AF3DSUG/Ray+Switch+Shader

[phloog]

This looks like EXACTLY the thing! Thanks, Brian..... so would I be right in thinking that I could just save a bitmap to a Standard Shader (with the bitmap being the 'above sea level' lighthouse and land) and then pipe that shader to the reflection of the water?

[brian_Foley]

Apply the AIrayswitch to the skydome light.

I am a Maya user so I am not sure about the workflow but it should be nearly the same.

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