Render with Caustics

Tip

To see progress messages when rendering, set Verbosity Level to Progress messages in Render > Render Current Frame > or Render > Batch Render >.

To render caustics

First, make sure at least one light source in your scene emits photons (see Turn on photon emission for a light source).
NoteCaustic-casting objects are recommended to have a low diffuse shader, for example, Phong set to 0.3. The refractive index should be greater than 1.
Caustics-receiving objects should have a high diffuse shader, for example, Lambert set to 0.8.
Select the Rendering menu set.
Open the Render Settings window.
Select Window > Rendering Editors > Render Settingsor click the Render Settings window icon.
Select the mental ray for Maya render.
Click the Quality tab.
From the Quality Presets drop-down list, select Preview: Caustics.
Caustics (in the Rendering Features section of the Features tab) is automatically enabled.
Render with the default settings.
If the default settings are not sufficient to achieve the look you want (or to reduce render speed), tweak the caustics settings until you achieve the look you want. See Caustics and Global Illumination for more information.

Tip
If your scene contains caustics, global illumination or final gather, and you would like to see those effect during mental ray IPR, in Render View select IPR > IPR > Render Settings.