Modelling the glass

Ok. although the fable calls for the crow to drink from a pitcher (jug) I've substituted it for a glass tumbler as this better suits the dippy birds height and allows the water level to be seen falling and rising.
I originaly tried to create the tumbler using the Lathe Tool it created an angular object which wouldn't of looked good in the close up scenes of the animation.
I then tried a Cylinder Standard Primitive with the centre pushed down. Scaling Rings of Edges gave me the required shape.


In this shot, I've applied Material to the glass and turned down the Opacity to give a see through appearance.

I then experimented with Mental Ray Materials to get the render below. Mental ray materials are only available if the render type is changed to mental ray in the Render Scene Dialogue box.

I then selected Arch and Design (mi) as the new template, then the Glass (physical) template. Adjusting the Reflectivity/Glossiness etc gave the result which I'm pretty pleased with.

My only concern is that the mental ray takes longer to render so may be unsuitable for the animation?