2010

Table Of Contents
A shader is a collection of attributes that define color and other surface
characteristics of the plane it is assigned to. For an ocean shader, these
attributes define realistic waves on large bodies of water.
In this lesson, you create an ocean, put a cube in it, and see how the cube
floats in the ocean. You learn how to:
Create an ocean plane and shader.
Create a preview plane to see the effects of the shader, including
displacement, without rendering.
Modify the ocean shader attributes to make the waves bigger.
Make an object a boat in the scene.
Modify the attributes for an expression that controls the buoyancy of the
boat in the ocean.
Before beginning the lesson, do the steps in
Preparing for the lessons on page
790.
Creating an ocean plane and shader
Fluid Effects simplifies the process of creating an ocean by providing a single
command that creates a plane that is optimized for best results, and an ocean
shader with appropriate connections to the plane.
To create an ocean plane with ocean shader
1 Select Fluid Effects > Ocean > Create Ocean. Maya creates an ocean plane
and assigns an ocean shader to it.
2 Dolly out to see the plane.
820 | Chapter 16 Fluid Effects