Ocean Exploration Scene From Scratch | Modeling, 3D Texturing, and Animation

Hello, My name is Nesma Mavrakis and I have worked on projects in Maya and Adobe software for over a year now. Today I'm going to walk you through the process of making your very own underwater scene from scratch. I'll share tips on how to use lights to create the illusion that your scene is underwater, and how to make that scene feel alive. Additionally, I'll demonstrate some of Maya's most helpful modeling features that you may use in any one of your future projects to keep modeling quick and easy for you.

The conspiracy of a city that could be buried thousands of feet below sea level blends with the marvelous nature of the ocean and the thrill of exploration. Inspiring this piece of art to flourish, to be brought to life through raw skill and passion.

Everything that I'll be showcasing today will be made completely from scratch, the models, the textures, even the concept is one of my own. There will be no need for pre-made assets or textures in this project. Art is most captivating when it's original and authentic, just like how sea life differs from most nature on earth.

I'll begin with the single most important step in starting a project, planning with sketches and shot visualization for animation.

Software:

Autodesk Maya

Adobe Substance 3D Painter

Adobe Premiere Pro

Adobe Fresco

You may draw your sketches and plans with pen and paper, but I created mine digitally with Adobe Fresco. It's completely free, and has all the tools you'll need to create your best art.

References:

Old Broken down buildings of the Lost City of Atlantis

Single, or multi-person submarines

Real images of sea life

Reference images help out a ton when you're creating your own models. Remember, this is not the same as recreating exactly what's in the image. They are here to remind us of the key elements that make up the object, so that we can draft or digitalize a new vision.

Begin with simple sketches of what you want to create in your scene, then make multiple side views of the object if needed. Be sure to reference some real photos or cartoon-like drawings of submarines, nature, and architecture for proper direction.

Next, add color and texture to your drawings. This may include shadows, blending colors, or additional lines to mark bumps or ridges. Make sure that each color corresponds with each of its different parts.

You will use these images a lot throughout your modeling and texturing process. It is essential that you know what you're doing, or you'll find yourself stuck on what to do and make little to no progress.

Here is where you'll map out a little presentation or story for your models. Here's a way you can draft your scene:

Subject(s):

This is the "main character" of your scene, your shot mainly fallow its movements.

Theme:

The feel, or the main topic of your scene, often expressed by your subject and how it interacts with the environment.

Environment:

Build the scene based on the setting your subject(s). This is important for quickly establishing context.

Bringing your models to life with a cinematic video will capture the attention of your audience. To begin, draw a rectangle or square and sketch a shot for your scene. Include details such as which direction your subject is facing and what your environment may look like.

To help you remember what the shot is about, write a note about the shot bellow. Describe what specifically happens in the shot, include details such as camera movement, where your subject is going, and what's happening overall. For more references for your future self, include a note of what sound effects or music would fit this shot. I use sound effects all the time; it is very exiting to see your animation come to life with fitting sounds.

Use your drawings and references to make your models. Import an image of the sketch(s) you made for your model into Maya to help you recreate the exact measurements of the drawing. However, you shouldn't import an image without shifting to a 2D perspective view, it will only cover up your viewport.

Import an Image:

On the top left of the viewport, there will be options for "View" and "Panels" with drop-down menus. First, select the "Side" view from the "Orthographic" option under "Panels" to take you to a 2D perspective view from one side. Then use the cube on the top left of your viewport to pick a specific side, this would be a side that matches up with your side sketch. Finally, once you picked the right side you're looking for, click "View", then under "Image Plane", select "Import Image". Now that you have an image in your viewport that acts a bit like an object, you can move around and scale to size if needed.

Modeling Tip:

I would recommend using a prism shape instead of a cylinder. You'll avoid having to deal with triangles in your topology, which is not typically recommended for most modeling and hard to work with. Additionally, when you smooth the prism, ether by pressing "3" on your keyboard, or with the Modeling Toolkit, you'll also avoid these weird ridges that look funny. This is demonstrated in the images above.

Boolean for Organic Modeling:

Once I was finished creating my submarine with multiple shapes, I wanted to merge the main body into one object to make it easier to texture later. There is this new feature in Maya 2026 that allows you to blend shapes together to form an organic shape easier. First, select all the objects that you want to blend and click "Boolean" in the Modeling Toolkit, then change the Boolean Operation to "Merge". Under "Boolean Settings", select "Union" for the first drop-down menu, and then "Volume" for the third. Adjust your "Voxel Size" between 0.1 and 0.05 for a finer look. Don't make this number too small, or there will be too many faces for Maya to handle. The objects applied to this Boolean can still be moved, scaled, and rotated. When done, delete history with control+shift+"D" or option+shift+"D" (on iMac). This will display the model as one whole object in your Outliner on the left.

Complex Shapes for Boolean:

I built my model of a structure related to Atlantis with perfectly straight edges and fine detail. Now I need to make it look like it was part of a ruin, as that was what I planned for this particular model. In order to achieve this effect, you'll need to create complex and ridged object to act as negative space.

Depending on what kind of shapes you need to subtract from your model, you would need either a simple or complex shape. If you're looking for something similar to "large chunks broken off", then I have a custom shape for you to try. I formed it with a shape called "Platonic", located on the farthest right of the basic polygon shapes. Then added a division to it using the "Add Divisions" tool from the Modeling Toolkit; also in the Modeling Toolkit, I applied "Bevel" to my shape and adjusted the "Fraction", "Segment", and "Depth" as shown in one of the images above. Once you have the shapes you need, put them on the places of your model where your negative spaces need to go.

Using Negative Shapes With Boolean:

To use Boolean for subtracting objects, select your model or object you want to subtract from first, and then the objects that you want subtracted. Now click "Boolean" in the Modeling Toolkit. If it appears to not look the way you wanted it to, you can move the objects around as if they were still solid. Once you have the shape you're looking for, select all the shapes in the "Polyboolean" tab in the "Attribute Editor", then change their visibility from "Wireframe" to "Hidden" to hide the wireframes and prevent selecting the non-visible shapes. If your object needs no farther adjusting, delete history with alt+shift+D or option+shift+D on iMac. This clears previous data on the object and saves it as one object. The old objects may still appear in the Outliner on the left in black letters, make sure to delete them too, but only after you delete history on the whole model.

I build my object with a bunch of shapes, but now there's different geometry across my model. I need clean and consistent geometry throughout my model, and to do this, I'll use the "Retopologize" tool. This tool cleans up the geometry and makes it even across the model. It also includes a feature that keeps your intentionally sharp edges from getting rounded out.

Using Retopologize:

Before you use Retopologize, combine all parts of your model using "Combine" from your Modeling Toolkit. You'll need to have everything as one object for it to work. Then click "Retopologize" at the top of your toolbar. Now you were given a bunch of settings that can help you form your object the way it needs to be. Add more faces with the "Target Face Count" slider as needed. Depending on the intended structure of your object, click the checkbox next to "Preserve" called "Hard Edges". This preserves the intentional sharp edges without the need for more faces.

Organic Models:

If you made an organic object with Boolean, I would recommend Retopologizing it too. Volumetric Boolean leaves you with all these faces that form ridges that not even "Smooth" can fix. However, Retopologizing the new object can clean it up with new topology, giving you a smooth model. Try not to use Preserve Hard Edges on these volumetric objects, it will only bring the object back to its ridged state.

Your object might become completely green at some point, this only means that its connection to the standard surface material was broken somehow. All you have to do to fix this is to reapply the standard surface material in your Hypershade window.

Modeling Tip:

Remember to always delete your history after Retopologizing your models, you don't need all that extra data that Maya creates when it does things. Deleting history also merges all your connected objects as one poly surface in the Outliner on the left; like how I demonstrated with Boolean in the previous step. Make sure you delete your history for all your models throughout your project.

If you make a scene that consists of the elements of nature accept for grass, it could look like a desert, or just a flat earth with no texture. Because I'm making a natural environment, I need grass to fill the scene with green life to give it the illusion that it can be a real physical place. To create grass, you need to make a bunch of strands of polygons. Curves in Maya makes modeling curly or bending objects super easy, you make a line, and then apply a sweep mesh.

Drawing a Curve:

Before you try to create a curve, switch into one of your 2D perspective views. Otherwise, it won't let you draw anything. (I demonstrated this in the first step).

On the far left of your tool bar above your viewport, there is a tab called "Curves", all these tools can be used to create and edit a curve in different ways. With that said, there are a lot of ways to make your curves. A method I found to be the easiest was to use the "Pencil Curve Tool" to free draw my curves. Select this tool and click and drag with your mouse across your screen in the shape of the curve you need. Remember that where you start your curve and end your curve will be recognized by polygons. Meaning that extruded faces will travel to the end first before going through the rest of the curve, and sweep mesh will taper the end only. So it's important that you plan where you start and end your curve to get the results you're looking for.

Change the Center Pivot:

You might notice that the curves' center pivot is nowhere near them; you'll need to relocate it for the best transportation accuracy. After you formed your curves the way you want them, select the curve you want to change and click "Center Pivot" at the top under the "Poly Modeling" tab. This will bring the Center Pivot to the middle of your curves and models.

Apply Sweep Mesh:

Now to apply geometry. Select all your curves, and click "Sweep Mesh". This creates sort of a tube shape over the curves, allowing you to form snake-like, curly shapes a whole lot easier. Then in the Attribute Editor, increase the precision and sides, decrease the scale profile, and click the checkbox for "Caps" to cover the ends with geometry as well. For a grass effect, decrease the "Taper" scale to make one end pointy.

I created the base of my model of coral, now I need to add branches. To do this, I need to create a curve (I demonstrated this in the previous step), and then extrude some of the model's faces along it.

Extruding with a Curve:

Start by selecting a square of faces on your model, then use the "Circularize" component under "Edit Mesh" to turn those squares into a circular shape. Then, make a new curve into the shape of what you want extended from your model, and place the first end next to your new circle. Select your circle and your curve and click "Extrude", this is located in both your Modeling Toolkit and the "Poly Modeling" bar above. Adjust the settings in the little floating box to fit what you need. Now you have an extrusion that you can adjust with the vertices of a curve.

Now I need a sea floor to arrange my scene on; it needs smooth bumps like how sand has an uneven field. To achieve this effect, I used the Stamp tool on a plane to pull up geometry, and form bumps. Then I smoothed it by pressing "3" on my keyboard.

Stamp Tool:

First, create a plane, scale it to a large size, and increase the subdivision height and width to 50. You'll need a lot of geometry if you're going to use stamps. Now select the "Stamp" tool under the "Sculpting" tab. The Stamp tool can form various kinds of shapes on your geometry depending on the style you choose. Then click on the box at the very top right corner called the "Tool Settings" and pick a stamp form under the "Stamp" drop-down menu. Click and drag your mouse on the your plane to see how much the stamp pulls on your geometry. If it's pulling too much, lower the strength in the Tool Settings, if the size of the stamp is too large or too small to sculpt with, then adjust the size of the stamp accordingly.

Smooth:

Once you got the right bumps you're looking for, press "3" on your keyboard to smooth the geometry for a nice and calmer look. I would avoid using the "Smooth" tool on an objet with a lot of geometry, it could create too many faces for Maya to handle.

I need to model a few things differently; a propeller for my submarine, some curly seaweed-like plants, and a way to bend my leaves so it has variants. This is where rigging objects come in handy, they manipulate geometry without making it permeant.

Rigging Handles:

First, switch your Menu Set from "Modeling" to "Rigging" at the top left. This switches your modeling options to reveal all your rigging options on the very top. Then select your object and click "Deform" from this new menu, click "Nonlinear", and then "Twist". Or go to the search bar and type "Twist", select the option with the purple icon. Both of these methods give you a Twist Handle that can be used to twist and bend your object in any form. The controls for this are located in the "Channel Box", here you can adjust its "Start Angle" and "End Angel". These will twist your object from opposite ends.

Modeling with Twist Handles:

Use the Twist Handle to form a pose for your object, then select it and duplicate it. Put the copy aside. This recreates that same object with the edits, but it's now permeant. Keep the original with the handle to make more variants as needed. Never delete the original with the handle, keep it somewhere aside when you're done.

Now, to make a propeller, I need to make copies of one twisted blade. The best way to do this is to align the Center Pivot with the nub-like object in the middle and duplicate it along that point. To do this, I select the blade and hold "D", this allows you to custom place your Center Pivot. Select a face, edge, or vertex in the middle of the nub to automatically align the Center Pivot with it. It may appear to not be in the middle of the object, but on the edge, so manually move it inward. Next, duplicate your blade and rotate it enough to make reasonable space in between each of them. Adjust until they all have even space between them.

When I animate my submarine later, I'll need my propeller to be separate from the rest of the model while still keeping it attached. This is where grouping comes in handy, it allows you to combine an object with multiple parts while each individual part remains editable.

Creating a Group:

To make your model into a group, select all parts of your object and hold "Control" or "Command" (on iMac) and press "G" on your keyboard. This combines your objects, a lot like the "Combine" tool, but each individual object can be selected separately. Allowing you to edit them while still being able to move them all simultaneously. Every time you make a group, relocate the Center Pivot, otherwise it may appear far away from the group. Remember, if you need to move the whole group, don't just select all the individual objects at once and move them, select the whole group in the Outliner tab on the left.

For grass, copy all the strands of grass a couple times and group them together the same way. Make sure you only include the Sweep Meshes and leave out the curves, you don't need them anymore.

In my scene, I plan to make my environment with variants of my models so it will look natural. Using curves, Boolean subtraction, or simply scaling the models to look bigger or smaller, I created a mini asset pack. An asset pack is an organization of related models, typically used for building environments for scenes.

Make Variants:

Use the same methods involving Curves and Boolean that I demonstrated previously to make different copies of your models, but keep your original as well. For each one, do something different. Say, make this one part of a model bigger, or subtract from this other model some more. Some can be slightly different from the last, while others can be more similar. When you feel like you have enough to work with, arrange them in a line or in bunches together to complete your asset pack.

Modeling Tip:

Before you move on, make sure you already Combined, Retopologized, and deleted history on all your models.

Now we have all our models ready for some texturing. We'll need to export them as individual Maya Binary files, and then, from there, prepare them to be exported again as a DAE_FPX or OBJ file. They need to be these file types to be imported into Substance 3D painter.

Organize By Model:

To make them as their own file, select each of your individual models and click "File" and then "Export Selection". Choose the best place to put this file to optimize your organization, then name the file according to the model. If you have more other variants of this model, name it the same but add "2" at the end, and so on. However, some of your models can stay in one bunch. If you plan on creating like textures one bunch of models, then export them together.

Prepare Your Models for Texturing:

Next, open each Maya file of the model you want to texture and set new UVs. This is necessary for 3D painting so both the model and the texture match; it will avoid difficulties applying the textures later. To do this, click "UV" at the top menu bar, and then "Automatic"; this captures a new UV from all sides. Lastly, open your Hypershade window, create a new iaStandardSurface, and apply it to your model. This way, both Maya and Substance 3D Painter will recognize the model's surface the same way.

I have a few models I've made into bunches, and most of them are meant to have the same repeating pattern throughout. However, I have one that needs each to be individually painted due to a specific detail it possesses. What I need to do is set new UVs with a new iaStandardSurface for each individual one, this will let me paint them individually in Substance 3D Painter. Give each of them a unique name you'll recognize, and a color to distinguish them from each other. For repeating patterns, do the same as you would for one single model and keep them part of one iaStandardSurface.

Export as a DAE_FPX or OBJ:

Now they're all ready to be taken to Substance 3D painter. Export this file the same way as before, but instead as a DAE_FPX or OBJ file. This will make your model into an object that other softwares can understand. Put this file in its own place, separate from your Maya Binary files, to stay organized.

A useful process in Substance 3D Painter is called "Baking", it generates extra maps that provide geometry-based information for smart materials and smart masks. Without Baking, most of Substance 3D Painter's advanced features won't work correctly.

As soon as you import your model, click this little croissant icon to take your model to the Baking UI. You won't need to do much here, as all the necessary settings for textures are defaulted. On the bottom right, click "Bake Selected Textures". This same process works for multiple objects, but it just bakes them individually because they all have their own set UVs.

Once you're done baking your model, it's ready for painting. Use your drawings that you made in the beginning to know what colors, brushes, or Smart Masks you'll need to make the right designs.

Choosing Materials:

Start with a Fill Layer, located at the top of your Layers tab. Apply a color to this layer and you'll get your base color, the overall color of your model. Next, browse the list of brushes and Smart Masks. Brushes will help you design your models freehand, and Smart Masks will apply a texture automatically. Every new brush you use, make a new layer and rename that layer the name of the brush you used to help you keep track of your brushes as well as your details. For smart Masks, however, they already make their own new layers. But you still might want to rename the layer by the name of the mask for organization. Use a mix of brushes and masks to create unique designs for each of your textures. Be sue to follow with what you planned and what feels realistic for the model.

Smart Masks:

Substance 3D Painter provides a wide selection of different Smart Masks, each having a unique pattern that can make any kind of material. These masks come as two different types, the type that mainly goes over the edges, and the type that repeats evenly across the model. The way you can identify which forms on edges or stay a consistent pattern is by referencing the sample in the provided image of the mask. For example, the masks "Fabric Thread" and "Cavity Rust" appear mainly on the edges of the sample, while other masks like "Dirt" and "Dirt Dusty" are more scattered across the sample. Choose them depending on the design you need for your model.

Texturing Tip:

When you import your textures into Maya, they'll appear darker and more saturated. I would recommend keeping your colors light as you texture to avoid this issue. However, if your textures do end up not looking right, you can always go back to fix it.

The coral models I made form in different colors in real life. I wanted to reflect that in my scene by creating different color variants of their textures. This technique brings more life to your scene, as it imitates how every organism is unique in nature.

Multiple Colors:

Create new fill layers for every new color you want for your model and label them. Hide them all except for one. When you go to export the textures later, export each color individually by showing one layer of base color and hiding the rest. Do this for every one of your variants.

My models look too smooth and perfect to finely resemble nature, I'll need to roughen up the edges to make them more believable. This is where Height Mapping comes in handy, it can give your model bumps or dents to help it look realistic.

Displacement Mapping:

The easiest way to do this is by using Smart Masks as a base for these bumps. Pick a mask that covers your model the same way you want your bumps or dents to do, then click the small "Color" rectangle right under "Material" to get rid of color, as you may not need it. Then, under the big "Height" rectangle, slide the bar left (-1) or right (1) to create dents, or bumps, respectively. Now, sometimes you might want to use some color for dents or bumps, it can give it an extra little stylish detail. For example, I used some color for the dents on my broken Atlantis pillar, it gives it more depth, and the illusion that it withered away.

Another way you can create bumps or dents is by using a brush and drawing them in by hand. This involves the same process as using masks, the only difference is that you're making them on a freehand painting layer.

Texturing Tip:

Bump mapping doesn't create bumps over your model, it creates them based your model's polygons. This means bump maps stretch the geometry of your model. I wouldn't recommend using displacement maps on low-polly models because there wouldn't be enough geometry to form the bumps correctly.

Here I have my leaf models, they are divided into their own sets at the top right where I can paint them individually. This will make it easier to design specific details on each model, as I can target a specific model to paint without the UVs on the others interfering. This is because the UVs are separated on these models by the different materials applied to them in Maya. While my other coral models' UVs are all together on one material. However, this does mean you'll have to paint and apply masks to each one individually.

When you're done with all your textures, export them and organize them in their own folders. Then, open each individual Maya Binary file of the models and apply the textures using the "Substance" plug-in. (If you don't see it, add it through the Plug-In Manager under "Window", then "Preferences")

Export Textures:

In Substance 3D Painter, click "File" and "Export Textures" to open the window for exporting them. Here is where you locate where you want them to go, choose an Output Template, and select a specific model's textures your exporting (if you have more than one within the same file). First, choose a place you want it to go. This has to be a place like a folder you're not going to need to move, otherwise, when you import your textures into Maya, it can't find them and you'll have to relocate them. If you have more than one model in your file, click the checkbox on the left for each of them to export a separate set of textures for it. Make sure you still put them in their own folders to not get them confused later. Then, set the "Output Template" to "PBR Metallic Roughness". This gives you texture files made for Maya's aiStandardSurface material. Lastly, make sure the file type is a PNG for the best quality.

Apply Textures:

Open the Maya file for one of your models and click "Substance" at the top. Then click "Apply Workflow to Maps" to open up a window with a list of different types of maps. Make sure your workflow is set to "Arnold" under "Configuration" so it makes an aiStandardSurface material. Click "Select Multiple Maps" to locate your textures. Make sure you select all of them by using "shift", "control", or "command" (on iMac). Click "Select" and then "Apply". This created a new aiStandardSurface in your Hypershade window, from there, apply the material to your model and they should appear the same way they did in Substance 3D Painter. However, like I mentioned before, the textures may appear a little darker in Maya.

Texturing Tip:

If you made bumps on your textures, it will come with a displacement shade for the displacement map. If you view this in your Hypershade window, you can adjust the "Scale" under "Displacement Attributes". This adjusts how much they stretch your geometry. It helps for when you need your bumps to be a little bigger or smaller.

I have some models, and parts of a model, that don't really need textures, but instead one solid color. This includes the grass, and a few small details on the submarine.

Solid Colors:

Create a new aiStandardSurface for each model, or parts of a model, that you want to be one solid color. If there's multiple of the same object, for example the glass on my submarine, make only one material to share amongst them. In either the Hypershade window or the Attribute Editor, change the color of the material.

Texturing Tip:

Sometimes you can experiment with other materials besides the aiStandardSurface. I used the material called "Phong", a super reflective material, to give the submarine's glass a shinier, and more reflective effect.

Here's where you put every single one of your models in their respective places to build the scene. Be sure to follow what you drew for your storyboards. Using them as a reference can help you build the scene you originally envisioned.

Building Tip:

When you build any scene, you'll definitely need a background of sorts to hide the void that's inside Maya. You can do this quick and easy by reusing assets. For example, I took my models of rocks and upscaled them to the size of ocean mountains to create a background for my scene.

I have grass, and other forms of sea greens in my scene, but they're just standing still and it feels boring. I want to make them move a bit to give them life. This is where rigging handles come in handy for animation. Like how you made models with them, you can animate them by using the same techniques.

Applying Bend Handles:

Select a model you want animated and apply a "Bend Handle" the same way you did a "Twist Handle". If you're doing this for grass, and you have a lot of grass bunches, I would recommend applying one Bend Handle to a big bunch of groups of grass. As to not apply so many rig handles that you take forever to complete one super tedious task.

Now it's time to create action to make the scene come to life. This would only require basic poses and few keyframes since these objects don't have advanced rigging.

Subject(s):

Here I have my submarine as the subject of my scene, it will be the center of attention throughout the animation. This particular model needs to look like it's swimming with imperfect movement because of the buoyancy of water. So, for every turn it made, I would twist it in the opposite direction so the top is inward of the turn and the floats on the bottom are against the current. This creates the illusion that the submarine is pushing through water and buoyance physics of water are acting against it.

To utilize the grouping technique I used to make the submarine earlier, I animated the propeller individually. Do this by selecting the propeller on its own instead of the whole group, and set its own keyframes to rotate clockwise. Make sure you twist it enough to make it spin really fast. Use your Channel Box to check the number for the rotations and increase it a lot for each keyframe.

Environment:

To bring your environment to life, use the Bend Handles you applied in the previous step to set poses for each model. All these handles work the same way, just create keyframes with the "Curvature" input. I have mainly plants in my scene that I want animated, so I'll create key poses that will make them look like they're swaying. I would recommend making plant movement a steady pace, not fast and not super slow either.

Animation Tip:

I made a copy of my submarine for each of my shots so I can time them easier. Since they one could overlap in another shot, I set a keyframe for it to be invisible one frame before the beginning of the shot, and one after the end of the animation. The switch for it is located in the Channel Box.

A little camera movement can go a long way. A slow pan to the left can give depth to your scene and make it feel more immersive. You'll need to create a new camera for each shot you'll take and animate it on its own. Do this to keep your shots organized, so you're not using just one single camera for multiple shots and lose track of it.

Perspective Panels:

To make sure your subject(s) and environment are framed correctly, you'll have to see through the perspective of your cameras. To change your perspective view, click "Panels" and select a camera by its name under "Perspective". Switch between your camera and perspective views to frame and position your camera.

Camera Movement:

Now set keyframes and key positions on it depending on how it's ment to move. If it must follow a subject's movement in a shot, hold "control" or "command" (on iMac) while in your camera's perspective view to shift it in the direction of the subject. Set keyframes for key positions as you go. Now your camera should follow your subject as you play it back.

Now it's time to create your lights, these will really sell the illusion of "underwater". By using aiSkyDomes, you can fill the whole scene with blue light for the color of water, and using an aiPhysicalSky, another form of aiSkyDomes, to cast shadows for depth.

AiSkyDome Fill Light:

AiSkyDomes typically act as a good fill light for your scene, they soften the extra contrast while filling some light in areas the main light misses. To create an AiSkyDome light, click "Arnold" from the menu bar on the top and select "Skydome Light" from under "Lights". Now, in your Attribute Editor, change the color to dark blue and adjust the intensity if needed. This creates a blue fill for your scene, thus giving it a water feeling. It does this by giving off a blue glow all over the scene. It will also make the sky blue, to mimic the ocean.

AiPhysicalSky Advance Properties:

AiPhysicalSky is crucial for casting shadows by creating a sky with "natural" sunlight. This SkyDome is located in the same place as the other, only this one's called "Physical Sky". When you view its properties in the Attribute Editor, click on the black box with the arrow on it next to "Color". Here is where you'll make your edits for this particular SkyDome. The "Ground Albedo" makes your models reflect a color you pick. Use this to make the models look like their appearance is influenced by the environment. The "Sky Tint" will change the color of the sky, while the "Sun Tint" will change the color of the light source. Use these to create more depth for your blue ocean sky, and change the color of the light casted, respectively.

Water caustics are special light effects that create wavy lines on the floor of your scene; while also casting light rays relative to those wavy lines. To achieve this effect in Maya, I'll use a Spot Light for a caustic image, and an aiGobo image sequence to make those caustics into an animation.

Creating Images From a Video:

You'll need to collect a bunch of frames of a video to create an image sequence. So search on the internet for a good stock video of water caustics and take a screen recording of it in full screen. If you can control how much of the screen you record, be sure to cut out the black bars at the top and bottom of the video. Make sure you get a long enough video so you don't suddenly run out of these caustic images when rendering. I would recommend one minute, that will surely be enough. You can use the same video shown in the images above.

Next, take this video and drop it into a new Premiere Pro project. You don't need to set a specific template, just create the project with no template and the video will form it with its own dimensions. Now trim the parts of the video that show when you pressed play and pause so you have only the continuous video of the caustics. I would also recommend correcting the colors to black and white, this makes for better contrast for the casting of the light in Maya. I used the color wheels as presented in the images above to achieve this effect.

To create this video into a sequence of images, export it as a "PNG" and save it to a new folder. This will break your video into a bunch of frames. You'll change these settings in the "Export" window of your project. Depending on how long the video is, it will take a while to export.

Now that you have all the frames of your water caustics, it's time to create an image sequence for them using an aiGobo light filter. This essentially casts the light in a specific form using multiple images; one image every frame, to form an animation.

Spot Light:

First, create a new Spot Light, this is located under "Create", and then "Lights". Now, to create the right shape for this light, increase both the "Cone Angle", to make the light cast in a wider view, and the "Penumbra Angle", to soften the edges of the light to display no seams.

AiGobo Image Sequence:

Next, add an aiGobo as a Light Filter. Scroll to the bottom of the Spot Light attributes and click the rectangle labeled "Add" under "Light Filters". You'll get a pop-up with a list of filters, click "Gobo" to add an aiGobo tab for an image sequence. Click on this tab in your Attribute Editor and the click the box with an arrow on it next to the "Slide Map" bar.

This will take you to a new section of the Attribute Editor that has the settings for the aiGobo. This is where you'll add all your images for the sequence. First, click the checkbox labeled "Use Image Sequence" under "File Attributes" to enable the use of more than one image. Next, click the folder icon to the right of a long, dark gray bar. Using the pop-up, open the folder that has all the images of your water caustics and select them all using the "shift" key. Once you got them all selected, click "Open" on the bottom right to apply them to the aiGobo.

My scene is all done, finally, and ready to be rendered. Before I do, however, I want to make adjustments to the way it is presented through the lens of the render. This is done using Imager Lens Effects, these are typically used for denoising, color correcting, and applying effects over your renders.

Applying Imagers:

I'll show you the imagers that I used that made my animation appear clearer, and stand out more. First, open your Arnold RenderView and click "Window" at the top to show a drop-down menu, now click "Display Settings" to open your imager settings. Click "Add Imager" to add the imagers called "Color Curves", "Denoiser Noice", and "Lens Effects". I will explain how each of them are necessary for the best presentation. You may use whichever ones are necessary for your particular animation.

Color Curves:

This imager is typically used for color correction with RGB curves, as well as changing the working color space. I noticed through my test renderings that my scene is too dark, and it's hard to see all the details. So I used this imager to increase the brightness of my scene, but not too bright because the scene is still ment to be a deep ocean. I also changed the Working Color Space to ACEScg, it creates better contrast for all the colors displayed in my scene by making them appear slightly more vibrant.

Denoiser Noice:

Sometimes your renders will have a little bit of a grainy look in some parts. This is called noise, and it can be easily fixed with a denoiser. Use whichever one works best for you. Check how the render looks by clicking the red play button in your Arnold RenderView. For me, the "Denoiser Noice" imager worked best. I increased both the "Patch Radius" and the "Search Radius" a little bit just to be sure it covers my whole render.

Lens Effects:

This imager can add either a "Vignette" or a "Bloom" effect over your render. Vignetting gives a dark, faded look around the border of your render, while Bloom is like an inverted version of Vignetting; it adds a color to the center that fades at the border. These will make your render seem more 3D by giving depth to the 2D render output itself. I gave my render some vignetting for this reason, especially because it feels like the camera is deep underwater with this effect.

Now I am completely done creating my scene, animating, and setting up effects. The final thing to do now in Maya is to render my animation. This is where Maya renders multiple fames on your timeline one by one and creates a bunch of images that, when put together, make a movie of your work.

Render Settings:

First, change your Menu Set from "Modeling" to "Rendering", then click "Render" at the top of this new menu. Then, click the very first option called "Render Settings" to open the pop-up with all your rendering settings. Here is where you'll set up everything about your render, like what kind of image file, the name of the image files, what range of frames you'll render, what camera you'll render out of, and the exact dimensions of the render. I would recommend the best file type for images, "png", and the preset "HD_720" for your render. Everything else, you'll customize depending on your project.

Range of the Render:

Pick the camera you want to render out of. Under the "Renderable Cameras" tap, click the drop-down menu next to "Renderable Camera" and select the camera you used for your animation. This decides what shot you're rendering. If you have more than one, pick the one with the first shot you want to render and come back to do the other(s) later.

Next, under "File Output", click the drop-down menu next to "Frame/Animation ext" and select the type called "name#.ext". This allows you to render more than one frame in one continuous output, forming a sequence of a render instead of one single image. Now you can pick your Start and End frames under the "Frame Range" tab, choose the range of your animation. This will be relative to the length of the shot you've animated, start with the first frame of this shot, and end with the last frame. Change these to match each individual shot you have with different cameras.

Render Sequence:

Close out the Render settings pop-up, click "Render" from the top menu bar again, and click the option box next to "Render Sequence". This will open up another pop-up that will render your selected range of frames and place them in a folder. Here is where you pick the camera your rendering from, again, as well as the location for all these frames to go. I would recommend putting them in a new folder instead of leaving them to float around on your desktop. I made three shots, so I named my folders "Shot 1", "Shot 2", and "Shot 3". Finally, click "Render Sequence and Close" to start the rendering process.

Remember, this part can take hours depending on how long your shot is. Make sure you are able to just leave your computer to render those frames until it's done.

Now that they're done rendering, I need to make a video out of my frames. To do this, I took all the images of my render and put them on a Timeline in Premiere Pro.

A Frame Per Frame:

Create a new project in Premiere Pro and import all the folders that have your frames. Take the first shot you want to make into a video, and place all the frames of that shot on the Timeline by selecting multiple with "shift"; or dragging and dropping the folder. All the frames should automatically place themselves in the order they were rendered. Select all these images again and right-click on them (or click with two fingers on a mousepad) to bring up a bunch of options. Then scroll down to click "Speed/Duration", this opens a pop-up that can change how long a clip or an image appears in a video. Here, change the "Duration" to "00;00;00;01", the length of one single frame. To ensure these images stay in line with each other with no gaps, click the checkbox next to "Ripple Edit" before pressing "OK".

Now that you have the video of your shot, go to your "Export" tab to create a new name for this shot and pick a location to export it to. An additional setting I would recommend is to switch off the audio so it exports without an empty audio track. Do this done by flipping off the switch next to "AUDIO". Lastly, once you've exported your video, clear the timeline of your project so you can do the same thing for your other shots (if any).

Organize Shots:

Once you have all your shots made into videos, you can place them all in order on your Timeline again to from one long video. You can reuse the same project setup you already have with no issues. Now that they're all together in one place, I can add audio and visual effects to them.

Sound effects are very important for making your animation feel like it has life to it. Everything in existence has sound, even a quiet room. The sound effects and music in my project came from a website called "Pixabay", where you can download royalty free stock images, sounds, and music for free. Be sure to reference your notes on music and sound effects from your storyboard.

Construct Sound Effects:

Usually, I wouldn't have a submarine around me to record a sound effect on my own. So I used some sounds I downloaded from the internet to construct something that sounds like a submarine moving through water. I tried to find one single sound that could work for my project, but I realized that there wasn't one that could do the job just right. So I had to resort to making a sound with a construction of underwater bubble sounds and underwater ambiances. This gave a swimming effect to may submarine, making it sound like it is moving. Additionally, the underwater ambiances give depth to the scene, making it feel like the submarine is in the ocean.

Music and Dramatic Sound:

This kind of music varies depending on what feel you're going for to give life to your scene. For me, I wanted a dramatic sound to reveal the whole scene, and then orchestral music to follow after until the end of the video. So I searched under "dramatic", and "orchestral cinematic" on Pixabay to find these sounds. The sound and music I used wasn't the full length of the audio file, I cut a specific part that I wanted for my animation.

Audio Balance:

Sometimes audio files come out louder than others, and some are way too quiet to hear, that's where audio mixing comes in handy. Change your current workspace to the "Audio" workspace, where you will edit the sound tracks. Use the "Audio Clip Mixer" and the "Audio Track Mixer" panels to adjust the volume of each individual clip, or the volume of a whole track, respectively. Your goal is to bring the two bars on the far right of your timeline below or at yellow. Having the audio go to the red zone means it is way too loud, but you also don't want it to be too quiet either, otherwise, it would be hard to hear. If needed, while you're editing, you can "Mute" any tracks you're not focused on with the "M" buttons on the left of the Timeline, or "Solo" the track you are focused on with the "S" button.

FX Tip:

If you utilize fade-in and fade-out for your audio, you can create the effect that you subject(s) are becoming louder as they move into frame, or moving towards the camera. Make sure you are consistent with how your audio plays, so it lines up just right with the animation. I would recommend giving even a little fade-in and fade-out for all of your sounds and music to avoid sudden bursts of noise.

Now that my animation has underwater sound effects, I think it's only appropriate to include video effects as well. I came up with the idea to make the video look wavy, as if there was a physical camera under water.

Wave Warp Effect:

Premiere Pro comes with a bunch of effects, presets, and transitions you can use. To achieve an underwater ocean current effect, I used the "Wave Warp" effect in the "Distort" folder under "Video Effects". I applied it to all my videos and adjusted the settings, as shown in the image above, to feel like soft waves. I set the "Direction" of the waves to be 180 degrees because it made the waves move left to right, instead of up to down. This makes my scene sway from left to right in a rippling, water-like manner.

FX Tip:

If you have a warp effect on a video, you might notice that it makes the whole video frame itself wave. This means that the video distorts, letting the edges reveal the black under the video. To fix this, I increased the scale on the video by 1, just enough so it hides the ends that are distorted. I would also recommend using the video transition "Dip to Black" at the very beginning and end of your full video for a smooth opening and ending, respectively.

Once you are confident that you are video editing is complete and everything looks and sounds right, you are ready to export it. Like before, click the "Export" tab to open the place where you name your video, and choose a location to export it to. You can save it to a folder, or your desktop, wherever you'll be able to find it.

Export In to Out:

If you need to export a specific portion of your Timeline, you can export between an In Point and Out Point. Using the Playhead, the bar you scrub along your Timeline, hover over your beginning point and press "I" on your keyboard, then hover over the your desired end point and press "O". These create an "In Point" and an "Out Point" for your export. Once you have all the right settings applied, click the blue "Export" button in the "Export" tab to start the export for your video.

Finally, my Atlantis exploration scene is complete!

(Here's an attached file, and a YouTube link)

One's complex authenticity shows in their work, it draws ing the eyes of other great minds as they watch in awe. It captivates the viewer to see something that feels new and interesting. The craftsmanship and attention to detail often expresses itself in the work of the artist. Sometimes it can even show a bit of who they are, or how they feel. With their persistence and original ideas, a brilliant piece of art will flourish. It comes out as something that is one of their own, and true to them. In the end, art, in all its different forms, is a method of expression of differences, and an expression of talent.

This relates to sea life and its contrast to plants out of water. Underwater plants are built to support their specific living conditions, and the only type of life forms to thrive in water. These plants and colorful coral possess unique structures and patterns that are not typically seen anywhere else on earth. Their overall design feels as if they came to be through imagination rather than rules. This is why nearly everything about their appearance is fascinating, from their structures, to their patterns.

I was inspired by sea environments to create a piece of art about exploring these lovely places. Additionally, the theory of the Lost City of Atlantis brought an intriguing aesthetic. I dedicated my time to make every detail of my models and textures just right to make the final product the best it can be, as I express my passion for 3D design in my work.

Thank you so much for sticking around for this long! I know it seems like a lot to learn, but with good practice, you will really excel in making your own environments in Maya on your own!