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This is a small tutorial that I have put together to show how the appearance of a water surface can be created in Poser. It was prepared with the assumption that the reader is familiar with Poser basic functions.

In order to use this method, you will need to use Poser 5 or 6, because of their integrated material and raytracing capabilities. Even though I have never used Poser 4, I don’t think that it has the same capabilities.

This tutorial was made with Poser 5.

The water surface starts as a simple plane. For the purpose of the demonstration, lets put a simple square plane (“Square Hi-Res”) and a sphere in the scene taken from the PRIMITIVES directory under PROPS. (Note that the plane does not have to be a high resolution mesh for the technique to work).

Arrange the objects and your POV so that your scene looks roughly like this. Note that the sphere has been scaled up 250%.

Also note that the plan cuts the sphere in two halves. The upper half is above the water and will be reflected onto the plane surface and the other half is underwater and will show through the surface.

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	by HeroineOfTime on Apr 23, 2005 2:29:59 pm [homepage] Excellent tutorial - produces THE most realistic water I've ever seen in Poser! The creator of this is to be commended, firstly for creating it, and secondly for releasing it to the community!
	by chaobell on Apr 23, 2005 11:22:39 pm [homepage] And here I was just fretting about how in the heck I was going to put water in a scene that needed it. So very bookmarked. Thank you!
	by Mariana_ on May 11, 2005 7:24:18 pm [homepage] i am usually lost on tuts for poser but this..made me grin big when each step looked just like yours! so simple and so easy and fast! thanks for sharing this !!
	by fran_joel on May 13, 2005 8:24:53 am [homepage] Thank you for your comments. It's always nice to know that what you're doing is being appreciated.
	by odf on May 24, 2005 3:01:32 pm [homepage] Thanks so much for this tutorial. Your setup makes phantastic water. I love it.
	by froglove1 on Jun 21, 2005 5:04:22 pm [homepage] is excellent, really adds a note (actually a symphany) of realism, has also made me start to explore the materials room. thank you
	by svdl on Jun 23, 2005 3:30:42 pm [homepage] Good use of the reflection and refraction nodes, a very clear explanation. By the way, you can also use a Granite or a fBm node for the displacement mapping, getting rid of texture maps completely. Especially useful when you want to render really large water planes (a complete lake for instance), and it will also free up some memory which can be used to add complexity to the scene. Well written tutorial, and the results look great!
	by BludChylde on Aug 7, 2005 1:10:21 pm [homepage] Thanks for the tutorial. I'm a beginner with Poser and was able to follow it through and come out with decent looking results.
	by fran_joel on Aug 24, 2005 10:52:09 pm [homepage] Here is some additional info: It has come to my attention that the Poser "water" behaves differently in Poser 6 than it does in Poser 5. The main difference concerns the sensitivity of the displacement node value. A much lower value should be used in Poser 6 (0.005 instead of 0.1) to achieve roughly the same results. Also make sure that Raytracing and Displacement Maps are enabled in your render settings. finally, It is also a good idea to make the GROUND prop invisible before rendering. Have fun!
	by akiron on Nov 27, 2005 9:49:04 am [homepage] That's what I have been looking for.your discription was great! thanks a lot.
	by bob191919 on Dec 5, 2005 5:08:07 pm [homepage] wow thats all i can say. Super big help
	by bob191919 on Dec 11, 2005 12:24:46 pm [homepage] I found some ripples that work better for tropical water. http://www.grsites.com/textures/water/water035.jpg
	by jtuckerndfw on Dec 23, 2005 10:18:20 am [homepage] I agree with all the above comments, excellent tutorial. Simple to follow & works well. Now that I have learned a simple technique using the material room (other than for pasting images on props), I can spend hours trying different combos. Ripples or waves can also be produced on the clothplane by using the "Create Wave" function under "Object" (Poser 5). Thanks, great tutorial.
	by Stringy on Sep 18, 2006 4:41:58 am [homepage] This really helped me with creating water effects in Poser 6. Be sure to read the final page which gives you specific information for setting up in Poser 6. Excellent!
	by cornelp on Sep 20, 2006 6:54:02 pm [homepage] Very owesome tut. I ALWAYS looked for a way to do reflective surfaces, and not only helped me with water surfaces, but also it can be applied to metals, weapons (swords and axes), and metalic pipes. U are amazing, very very owesome tutorial. U are great and amazing and THANK YOU for the information.
	by El_Michael on Oct 16, 2006 3:18:25 pm [homepage] In a word, this tutorial is ELEGANT! So often I have had to struggle through tutorials where the writer assumes I have certain knoweledge, but this tutorial is pure simplicity and leaves nothing to chance. Thanks so much for giving me the knowledge to add additional depths to my scenes.
	by hankstr on Nov 15, 2006 6:52:22 pm [homepage] This is an excellent tutorial. I followed it in poser 5 and got excellent results. However, are there any other tips for poser 6? When I do these steps in P6 (including the last minute poser 6 adjustments noted on this page) I get a blotchy water. When I remove the displacement node all works well but of course no ripples. Any words of wisdom from the gurus out there? Thanks!
	by efron_241 on Dec 14, 2006 3:02:03 am [homepage] Je suis Happy !!! In other words FANTASTIC !!! I am going to use it today !
	by Halibut72 on Dec 15, 2006 5:58:37 pm [homepage] This is a fantastic tutorial! So easy and quick to do and such amazing results!
	by poseresop on Feb 13, 2007 5:24:49 am [homepage] Very useful tutorial. Thank U...
	by steve3D101 on Feb 17, 2007 8:40:09 pm [homepage] BRAND New to Poser, want to THANK You for taking the time to put this tutorial together. Fantastic ! < Luv this 3D stuff ! WholeNewWorld & I didn't have to smoke nuthin'> Thanks Again
	by jenay on Mar 6, 2007 7:59:16 am [homepage] this was very helpful :) thank you. I just started using Poser5 and needed a waterplane for my Roman Bath.
	by jenay on Mar 6, 2007 8:05:11 am [homepage] http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1396696 here is the pic
	by DgerzeeBoy on Mar 10, 2007 3:11:40 am [homepage] Tons of great stuff, here. Thanks for taking the time.
	by OOh Betty on Apr 12, 2007 8:14:34 pm [homepage] Thank you so very much for this tutorial! You have opened up a new world in Poser for me and it is really appreciated.
	by flibbits on May 26, 2007 1:46:56 am [homepage] This is a great tutorial. I saw Jenay's render...wow. One thing with mine, following the tutorial, people standing near my pool aren't reflected in the water the way Jenay's near pool objects are reflected in the water. Am I missing something not detailed in this demo?
	by npauling on Jul 1, 2007 9:46:54 pm [homepage] Thankyou for taking the time to show us how to do this. Now I shall go and try to do it. Very appreciated.
	by coffin on Dec 28, 2007 11:01:06 am [homepage] Thanks for sharing this great tutorial. Worked for me! And thanks to Gibby.G for pointing me in your direction.
	by kino-kino on Apr 9, 2008 12:41:43 pm [homepage] Muchas gracias por este tutorial, es buenisimo, me ha enseñado a como hacer las supercifies reflectantes, y el agua, thanks for this tutorial!!!!
	by Yannich on Mar 3, 2009 3:20:53 pm [homepage] Excellent tutorial , MERCI !
	by jbtrimar on Jun 14, 2009 9:55:59 am [homepage] Thanks for the great tutorial!
	by CrownPrince on Aug 10, 2009 8:55:23 pm [homepage] Excellent excellent tutorial even 4 years later!
	by marilene on Oct 13, 2009 2:37:15 pm [homepage] Thank you for the tutorial. I still have a question. How can i animate the water that it looks naturally moving? Maybe someone has a tutorial for this? Marilene
	by zippy on May 20, 2010 7:18:10 pm [homepage] Thank you for the help. Much appreciated.
	by Renderholic on Dec 5, 2010 11:59:43 am [homepage] Excellent tutorial! It was just what I was looking for.
	by TomMusic on May 20, 2012 10:18:19 am [homepage] Very easy to follow, great job! -TOM-

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