Exactly what does the Glass shader do? I would guess that it combines the effects of Glossy (zero roughness) for reflections, and Refraction for, obviously, light refracting through the object. Glass could just be a handy combination of Add, Glossy and Refraction nodes. Making and looking at t...

I am trying to make a material that is translucent at the surface and opaque in the middle. How can I control the gradient? I would like the gradient to correspond with the mesh; i.e. not simply radiate from the origin or something like that. (If my model was a tree, the leaves and bark would ...

I am trying to achieve a realistic render of a water drop on a piece of grass in cycles. Here is my render: The water drop looks kind of bland and fake right now, it is to dark. I want it to look more like this: How can I that glare effect on the water drop in blender?

I'm creating a scene with large amounts of water that will be readily visible, containing refraction and at various angles. The scene is an indoor long-course swimming pool, about 50 meters, all of which would be seen by a camera above 5 meters above the water's surface. This is being fluid-sim'd...