I have decided that I will set the scene for the Fisherman project in the early morning since I have carried out some research on fishing and I have found out that fish are more active in the morning and late evening (this results in greater feeding confidence from the fish) and experienced fishermen tend to go at this time of the day.
I have researched few ways I could create exterior lighting in maya and I have found d this tutorial which I have implemented in my scene using the physical sky tool in Arnold to recreate ambient sky.
when you create a physical sky it creates a dome and you are able to see it using Arnold render view: what it created is a gradient sky with an horizon light. The is one source of light which is mimicking the sun that is why the light has warm values and blue shadows.
You can control the dome rotation. In the physical sky menu you can use the ground albedo option to lighten up the background affecting the bounce light. Elevation is the option to use to decide where you want the sky to be. Azimuth can rotate the light. The sky tint can edit the sky colour. You can even change the size of the sun or turn it off and on depending on the ambient light you want.
Knowing all this, I have applied it to the ocean scene I have previously created:
I also continued experimenting with the ocean/lake I want to create for the project and I followed this tutorial:
I have created a disc and implemented the geometry of if (turning up the subdivisions). Deleted the history, created an ocean shader but when you run the animation the disc is flat and the waves are not showing. In the effects menu I have selected BOSS editor, I have first created a wave solver and created a spectral wave which added waves to the surface. In the menu you can edit the heights of the waves, the length as well as the scale of it. I have used TMA as the frequency spectra type to randomise the waves. In the future I will add my boat to in to have local influence on the water.
Final render: