So, this is a new project I am working on with strict deadline. So had to go with EEVEE as a render because of the time. I have to showcase 5 products and their workflow. Thought of sharing the journey to the final product here.
Well here’s my eevee underwater render looks like.
The volume itself is completely fine, and it’s not like Eevee has any access to the more advanced volume types like Cycles anyway.
One thing that could make it look more like a realistic underwater scene, if that’s the goal, is the lighting. Unlike in Cycles, the volume and water surface (if it’s there) won’t really affect the light passing through them, so that would have to be faked manually for the most realistic results.
Is the light coming from above, the one making most of the shadows, a sun light? If it is, it might help to increase its “angle” setting to get soft shadows. The light would be diffused into soft shadows by the water and that’s something Eevee doesn’t simulate. Eevee isn’t really great at doing good soft shadows unless you use jittered shadows and a decently high number of samples, so this is all assuming maximum realism is more important than raw render speed.
An other thing that would increase realism is to manually make the sun light more and more blueish and weak the deeper underwater you get. Volumes don’t reduce or alter the color of the light in Eevee, so this would have to be faked manually.
If it’s a product presentation though, you might be better doing it the way you currently are. It might be a good thing not to be perfectly realistic with the colors for better visibility and render speed might be more important than soft shadows for a long video.
Hey, thanks for the suggestion, you are right about the sun light, but as you had mention to increase the angle that I already done in those screenshot those hard shadow are the result of HDRI. At the render speed was the one of main priority. Changing the colour of light was a great advice man. Thanks for that.