This is how i create realistic looking water in blender.
First off delete the default cube by selecting it and pressing X now press SPACE>ADD>MESH>PLAIN now resize it to about 5 by selecting the plain and pressing S then 5 this is a good size to see most of the plain in the camera view (0 on numpad for camera view).
Now select the shading button (f5) under links and pipeline press the add new button now go to the texture buttons (f6) under texture press the add new button and now under the dropdown menu under texture types select clouds now in the newly appered menu increase the noise size to about 0.350 and press the hard noise button then go back to the material buttons tab (f5) go to the map to tab and deselect the col button and press the nor button and increase the nor slider to 1.00 now go on and render it look at your progress so far.........
- real water tut 1.jpg (19.15 KiB) Viewed 59876 times
Good eh right lets carry on.
Now go back to the texture buttons (f6) and under texture select a new texture channel (one of the blank buttons) and make that a cloud texture again increase the noise size to 0.350 and press the hard noise button now go back to the material buttons (f5) now go to the map to tab and deselect col and select nor just like before only this time set the nor slider to about 0.70 now go to the map input tab and set the SIZE X SIZE Y and SIZE Z to 4.0 doing this will make the new texture smaller than the first texture giving the appearence of realism in bumpyness. don't believe me?....... well what are you waiting for go on render it.
- real water tut 2.jpg (25.97 KiB) Viewed 59822 times
Right now go into the mirror trans tab and press the ray transp button push the ior slider to 3.00 the fresnel slider up to 5 and the fac to 1.20 now in top view (7 on the numpad) select the lamp and move it just a bit past the top left corner of the plain (G to grab the lamp) now go to front view (1 on the numpad ) and grab the lamp again (G) and move it down by pressing the Z key to about two lamps hight off the plain and last of all press the world buttons tab and move all the HoR sliders to 0 (black) as this looks better than the standard blue back drop for this unlandscaped image thats it your all done go on render it.
- real water tut 3.jpg (45.35 KiB) Viewed 62479 times
Imagine how that will look in a good landscape but dont forget it is transparent so you need to add an under texture of somthing muddy or sandy for best results.
