I haven’t modeled a small object in a while, so I decided to try my hand at creating a simple object that used a lot of transparency and refraction. I initially modeled the ice cube, then decided to add the water around it so it looks like it has been melting. Finally, I modeled and added the glass in the background as a splash of color to the scene.

The top image uses an area light as the back light, which gives a nice soft shadow for the glass and also softens up the key-light’s shadow. But it takes much more time to render, plus to get it to render at a reasonable time I had to lower the ray recursion limit.

The bottom image is exactly the same except that the back light is replaced by a distant light.

Modeled and Rendered in: Lightwave 9