UPDATE 13/1/06
Click the thumbnail to view, then click bottom right of the image if it gets resized.
Blender 2.4 for modeling, rendered with Maxwell Render.
Sonix.
Hmmm why is the side of the one bottle so lacking in transparency? It looks completely solid…
LetterRip
Which one mate?
Sonix.
The square based bottle, the left wall of the bottle - it is completely opaque.
LetterRip
it’s called total internal reflection. It doesn’t look strange to me.
it’s called total internal reflection. It doesn’t look strange to me.[/quote]
Bingo. 
Sonix.
Looks good, apart from the labels. They seem to uniform in colour, I guess because of your lighting setup (looks like just GI). Maybe turning down the GI and adding a slight directional light would be better. I’m sure it is accurate as Maxwell seems very good, but from an aesthetic POV it looks a bit naff.
Lovely liquid and plastic materials though.
Alex
Since Maxwell doesn’t support blender according to their page, how’d you get this render to happen? And do you feel Maxwell is worth the high price?
*The labels seem to “float” around the bottle. I feel like I can see a slight gap between the plastic and the bottle.
*The square bottle is something I am not used to but that’s just me 
*The color of the water reminds me too much of Listerine. I am not sure I would want to drink it…or is it just the bottle?
*Make a scene and maybe try HDRI. I will improve the render in my opinion but I have no knowledge of what can be done in Maxwell.
Thanks for the comments.
I’ve reworked my studio lighting setup for this scene, by removing the gi (skydome) and using 3 emitter planes instead. (Alex, you’re quite right it this version does look abit naff, but I’m still learning the M~R system.)
I’ve reworked the labels, tweaked the colour of the bottles, the BG and the cap and have left it cooking today. I’ll repost tomorrow when it’s completed.
kattkieru, I use 3DSMax 7 and the Maxwell plugin to render. I export from Blender as vrml objects and import those into Max for texturing.
The price I paid was at a 1/2 price discount as version 1.0 hadn’t (and still hasn’t) been released. It’s more than worth the money, most artists have paid for their copy with their first work rendered in M~R.
The new RC5 should hopefully be out this week, but they’rre still a long way off releasing version 1.0.
HDRI can be used in Maxwell, but I’ve just used a couple of emitter planes. If I have the time, I’ll try a version with HDRI.
New version tomorrow, thankyou all for the comments and great feedback.
Sonix.
Hi sonix: I see your this work and eau de parfum both rendered in Maxwell (and I remember your first work w/ M~R not too long ago). Would you mind rendering one of them (or both) in Yafray for the sake of comparison? I think the rest of us are curious to see a side by side of the 2. But you may never find the time so…
Thanks.
Arnaud
They look very good…though the water does seem a bit on the turquois side to me…
Update added in first post.
I will have a go at rendering with Blender and Yafray. I have very limited use of Yafray, but I’ll have a go.
Streen, does the water look better now?
Cheers,
Sonix.
The second render is much better, Sonix. Reflections/refractions look nicer, probably because of the change in light.
The water at the top of the bottle looks a little flat. I generally find that water dips in the center and climb up a bit at the edges when in containers.
This is hard to describe, so I’m modeling an image:
If you’re already doing this then I apologize; I just can’t see it in your image.
Secondly, the plastic caps are too shiny; you seem to be going for realism so I’d scuff them up a bit.
The second render is more realistic (by the colors of bottles and the light setup) but fot the caps I’d prefer the first ones.
My last word : Your renders are amazing specialy their modelling. keep up the good stuff.
kattkieru, I have modeled the water correctly, as you have suggested I should. I think it’s the camera angle that makes it difficult to see.
In fact the water is a solid object, inside the bottle. Maxwell works better this way than just using a single plane. Glass/water can be calculated more accurately if they have a thickness and are to scale.
Thanks al, the caps changed back in postprocessing. Too much equalise after I took out the colour.
Sonix.