Last year I did a CG scene on 3D Studio Max to my DeviantArt profile and I’ve got a couple of great comments about a v-ray ice material I created, yesterday a man from Vietnam asked me to teach him how to do this material so I decided to make this little tutorial to help you guys.

1st – Create a VRayMtl, set the diffuse color to 220, 250, 255, reflection (without Fresnel) to 30, 30, 30, refraction to 220, 220, 220 (IOR = 1,31 frozen water), fog color is the same as the diffuse (multiplier 0,02) and set the translucency to a soft (water) model.

2nd – Add a falloff to the reflection map, set the type as a Fresnel and override the material IOR (1,31).

3rd –  Add a cracked ice texture (a picture of frozen lake will do very well, search for it on flickr if you like) to the refraction map, set the blur to 0,01.

4th – Add the bump map with 15%.

5th –  Create a ChamferBox and work a little with modifiers, if you got a tablet, you can do some paint deformations or export to zbrush. After all map everything as a box applying an Unwrap UVW.

6th – Rendering is simple, all you need to do is set the GI on, add an HDR image to illuminate the scene and you’re done!

Some pictures to help you: