Chinese Lanterns Floating Scene

Recently, I attended a Chinese Lantern Festival, and I was immediately captivated by the view of many glowing lanterns floating on the surface of the water. The way the light was reflected on the water and how the lanterns moved with the ripples on the water created a peaceful atmosphere that I remember even after a while later.

When I saw the Make It Float contest, I knew that this would be what I would make, since the theme perfectly matched the scene of the festival. I decided that recreating a Chinese floating lantern display would be an ideal concept for my project. To begin the process, I carefully reviewed the photos I had taken at the festival for inspiration. I focused on choosing the most compelling camera angle and selecting the types of lanterns that best represented the mood I wanted to achieve.

By following this guide, you will be able to create your own Chinese floating lantern scene in Blender.

Note: This is not a complete beginner guide, so make sure you have some experience with at least Blender and preferably Fusion360 for this guide.

Tools

1. PC capable of running Blender Cycles

Software

1. Fusion360
2. Blender

Optional

1. Any Video/Image editing software

To start our scene, you will need to create the lantern and a base. I chose Fusion 360, because I have experience with the software, so it is faster for me, but you can use any software you like or even make them in Blender.

For the sake of convenience, we will set the viewport to shading view. In viewport shading, turn the scene world off, and the scene lights strength to 0.1.

We will now create the water in Blender. To do this, create a cube, scale it to almost be flat, and then create a new material and add nodes. The exact nodes you need to create the water are in the image above, but if the image does not load or if you prefer written instructions, here is the way to do it:

Create the Noise Pattern

1. Add a Noise Texture node

Shape the Noise with a Ramp

1. Add a Ramp node (the pink/magenta one)
2. Connect Noise Texture's Color output → Ramp's input

Set Up Volume Absorption

1. Add a Volume Absorption node
2. Connect Ramp's output → Volume Absorption's Density input
3. Set Density value to 1.000

Create the Main Volume Shader

1. Add a Volume BSDF node (green)
2. Create a Color node with white/light gray (0.600)
3. Connect Color node → Volume BSDF's Color input
4. Set Density to 1.000

Add Surface Bump Detail

1. Add a Bump node
2. Connect Noise Texture's Factor output → Bump's Height input

Add Transparency

1. Add a Transparent BSDF node

Set Up the Surface Shader

1. Add a Principled BSDF node
2. Set a blue Base Color
3. Set Roughness to 0.500
4. Set IOR to 1.450
5. Set Alpha to 1.000

Combine Shaders

1. Add an Add Shader node
2. Connect your volume shaders (Volume BSDF and Volume Absorption) into the Add Shader

Connect to Material Output

1. Add a Material Output node
2. Connect Add Shader's output → Material Output's Volume input
3. Connect Principled BSDF's output → Material Output's Surface input
4. Connect Bump node's Normal output → Material Output's Normal input

[skip this step if you created the lantern in Blender]

After that, import what you made in Fusion 360 (or wherever you created the lantern). I would recommend using the .obj file format to import the files.

Once you have imported the lantern into Blender, we can now start adding some more textures and lighting. I started by decreasing the lighting in the scene to make the lamps pop more.

For the lamp base, just change the color on the Principled BSDF to Brown. For the lamp itself, start by creating a point light and placing it in the exact center of the lamp. The exact node setup is in the image above, but again, if you prefer written instructions or the image is not loading, here they are:

Set Up the Surface Shader

1. Add a Principled BSDF node
2. Set Base Color to a tan/beige color
3. Set Metallic to 0.000
4. Set Roughness to 1.000
5. Set IOR to 1.500
6. Set Alpha to 1.000

Add Transparency

1. Add a Transparent BSDF node
2. Set Color to a peachy/orange color

Mix the Shaders

1. Add a Mix Shader node
2. Set Factor to 0.500
3. Connect Transparent BSDF's BSDF output → Mix Shader's first Shader input
4. Connect Principled BSDF's BSDF output → Mix Shader's second Shader input

Connect to Material Output

1. Add a Material Output node
2. Connect Mix Shader's Shader output → Material Output's Surface input

Once you are happy with your ocean, you can start adding some waves as needed with the wave modifier in Blender. You may notice that the wave modifier makes your cube too large, so scale it down as needed.

Once you have added your water, make sure to animate the ocean by changing the scale and choppiness of the water by keyframes and moving the lanterns around as well.

As you may have noticed, I have been using Evee as the rendering engine thus far. This is because due to how much light we have used, Cycles will take a long time to render. To make sure that you are happy with your placement and layout and how your water looks, I would recommend rendering an image with Evee first.

I liked how I had my layout to the most part, but I wanted to bring the camera slightly closer and reorient the lanterns slightly. Once I liked how it looked in Evee, I ran the render in Cycles. I then fixed up some problem spots to create the final rendered image.

Once you are happy with your animation, render it and export it.

After you export your render, I would recommend touching it up slightly as needed, maybe add some motion blur or anything else that you think would make your scene look better. With that, your scene is done! Congratulations!