Introduction

 
 
 

Caustics are the light effects and specular patterns that are cast on surfaces as a result of focused light reflecting off highly reflective surfaces or refracting through translucent surfaces.

The light patterns that occur on the bottom of a swimming pool on a sunny day, or the bright areas that occur in the shadow of a glass object as light shines through it are examples of caustics.

The Caustic feature in the mental ray® for Maya® renderer simulates caustic effects in your Maya scenes. Caustics are similar to Global Illumination in that they are an indirect illumination effect.

In this lesson you learn how to: