Academic Phoenix Plus Shows How to Create the Look of an Underwater Scene by Using Fake Caustics in Arnold.

Rendering caustics is a bit of a fool’s errand. Caustics are taxing on systems, difficult to render and calculation heavy. Arnold Render doesn’t even handle caustics at all, and that is fine. You can easily face a caustics look, while also producing quick rendering scenes. Watch this short tutorial from Academic Phoenix Plus that shows how simple the process of creating fake caustics is.

Moving and dappled light is an integral part of creating a believable underwater scene. Monica shows how you can create the fake caustic effect just by using an animated map plugged into a Gobo that belongs to a spotlight – It’s a useful trick for getting fake caustics in a scene. “It’s ‘faked’ but looks legit” Monica mentions. It does!