Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Every Material Known to Man/Water

Water

Here is a nice water texture setting I've used for a couple of renders. It may or may not be transparent enough for many uses, but play around with the "alpha" setting until you've achieved the effect of your desire.

Material

Options found in 'Material' Window Tab
Color: R .653, G .780, B .954
Alpha: .62

Options found in 'Links and Pipeline' Window Tab
ZTransp: enabled (this is very important)

Options found in 'Shaders' Window Tab
Specular shader: Blinn Specularity: .651
Hardness: 29
Refraction: 4.521

Options found in 'Mirror Transp' Window Tab
Ray Mirror: enabled
Ray Mir (slider): .5

Texture

Options found in 'Texture' and 'Stucci' Window Tabs
Texture Type: Stucci
Plastic: enabled
Hard Noise: enabled
Noise Size: .236
Turbulence: 28.4

Options found in 'Color' Window Tab
Right Side Color: R 0, G 1, B 1
Right Side Alpha: 0
Left Side Color: R .504, G .757, B .889
Left Side Alpha: .715

Options found in 'Map To' Window Tab
Nor: enabled (white letters)
Nor (slider): 9.22

Oil

Here's an oil material. Simple enough.

Material

Options found in 'Material' Window Tab
Color: Black (R,G,B all = 0)

Options found in 'Shaders' Window Tab
Reflectivity: .872
Specularity (Blinn): 1.512
Hardness (Blinn): 50
Refraction: 3.089

Options found in 'Mirror Transp' Window Tab
RayMir: enabled, .12

Options found in 'Map To' Window Tab
Nor: enabled (inverted, text is yellow), 8.18

Texture

Options found in 'Texture' and 'Cloud' Window Tabs
Texture Type: Clouds
Color: enabled
Noise Type: soft noise
Noise Size: .366
Noise Depth: 3
Nabla: .034

Options found in 'Color' Window Tab
Right Side color Bar: R, G, B all are .2
Bright: 1.029

Water (sea, lake, river, etc.)

Here's a material for water, but use it for creating large water surfaces (sea, lake, river, etc.)

Material

Shading(F5)-->Material buttons-->Material

Color(Col):
R 0.653
G 0.780
B 0.954
Alpha 0.620

Shading(F5)-->Material buttons-->Shaders

Ref 4.521
Spec 0.650
Hard: 29

Shading(F5)-->Material buttons-->Mirror Transp

Ray Mirror ON
RayMir 0.50

Texture

Shading(F5)-->Texture buttons(F6)-->Texture

Press "Add New"
Texture Type: Stucci

Shading(F5)-->Texture buttons(F6)-->Stucci

Press "Plastic"
Press "Hard Noise"
Noise size 0.036 (2)
Turbulence 28.40

Back to Material

Shading(F5)-->Material buttons-->Map To

Col ON
Nor ON

R 0.504
G 0.757
B 0.889

Col 0.715
Nor 0.50 (1)

Tips:
- If you need bigger waves on surface rise the "Nor"(1) value
- If you have smaller surfaces rise the "NoiseSize"(2) value
- Use sun for light