Transparency in Octane

[electric_eric]

Hi All,

I wonder if someone could help me with getting my head around transparency in Octane.

I have a simple desert island sticking up through a 'sea' mesh and I want the sea water to become more transparent the closer it gets to the island, to give the impression that the water gets shallower.

I've done this before in native lightwave by having transparency controlled by a distance to object. By using transparency controlled by the gradient the water keeps its spec and reflection as the water gets shallower.

I've set up a similar thing in octane and have a gradient set up with distance to object but I'm not sure what I need to control with the gradient - If I control opacity the the spec/reflect look fades out as it gets closer to the island which looks completely wrong.

There must be some way of fading the transparancy but not the spec?

Any ideas?

Thanks.

[gordonrobb]

Dont use opacity. Use a specular material. Add either a scatter medium with very small settings, or very slightly reduce the one ounder reflection (can't remember what it is). That should work I think.

[electric_eric]

Thanks Gordon, medium was definitely the way to go.

Cheers!

[NeutronTon]

I'm new to Octane but also want to use gradient and distance to object to drive transparency/opacity. could you explain the way you achieved this and the nodes used? I'm a bit stumped. thanks!