Hey guys:P I havent posted anything in a long time so here is a little something:) Is the lense flare too much? Any thoughts are always welcome:P
6 Billion faces, 5 particle systems, cycles Blender 2.66a, render time 2 hours at 3840x1600
Enjoy!
*EDIT Final Version 
High Res Version http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/6800/forestriverrevised.jpg
UPDATE added animation:P
Overall looks amazing. However I think there should be few more different kind of trees and environment should have some variation instead of being trees only with rocks on the riverbend.
Anyway good work!
Oh and lighter version is way much better!
Thanks jjjuho:) I have three different pine trees and 4 different leaf trees. Oh ya some dead pine trees too:) I thought the same at first but after looking at some reference pictures these pine trees (tall and skinny) all seem very simalar in reality. Of course I’m using random rotation and size variation. Thats also why I threw the leaf trees and dead ones too. Just to break things up a bit and fill in the lower forest floor:) I’m definetly going for a higher elevation mountain environment like maybe in Oregon:)
Thanks:P
AWESOME image : ))) i think there are scale issues on the rocks u see nect to the river. i think too big? 
IDK 
I like it! I think that the lens flare is a little strong, and there doesn’t seem to be much interaction between the rocks and water. But, you’ve still got it 
You could make some more trees for diversity, but it really isn’t that imporant. When I looked at small image the river seems to be waveless, in the large image it looks much better.
good job ,just reduce the intensity of the lens flare because it is burning out the image in the top right
:yes: yep…6 Billion faces…wow…What Pc configuration do you have?..Anyway good work!
Wow thanks guys for the feed back and kind words:) I may add a few more tree variations and do a little fly through:P Might be fun! On the river and rock scale thoughts…I guess river might plant a different thought in some of your minds then what I’m going for. Some rivers are wide and shallow and some are deep and narrow. Rivers through rock terrains are typically narrow and deep so in terms of scale…the river here is approx 30-40 feet wide. The waves in the water are something I focus on quite a bit because the ripples or waves in the water determine the scale of the water. I see a lot of mistakes right there. I do agree that there should be more interaction with the rocks and I could do a hand painted bump to create some ripples on the edged…it would be nice detail:) Finally 6 billion faces isnt too bad if your using instance particle systems and cycles. Cycles does a wonderful job working with huge numbers of faces. I might push this as far as I can and see what happens:) Make some rock, stick, leaf, grass and flower particle systems. I’m sure I could hit 100 billion pretty easy but the render time might blow my mind:) hehe
Happy Blending!
Damn Derek, This is friggen beautiful. Makes me want to go down there and take a hike.
Oooh. This is really nice. I’d put a little bit more in the background to add another layer to the image, perhaps a nice snowy mountain range or some big, poofy afternoon thunderstorms. Other than that, it’s quite beautiful. =)
Dan
hehe thanks guys:) What do you think about adding some clouds with Blenders cloud gen? Maybe even some fog down low in the valley above the river. I had thoughts about doing this aready. I think the cg clouds if done right would reflect the lighting much better. I’m already using zpass for the atomspheric falloff effect:) But some fog in the trees would be icing on the cake…alright I’m sold I’ll work on it tonight:P
Thanks Guys:P
Your welcome;)
Yea, I think clouds would be a nice touch for sure, providing you match them well with the background your using. I gotta say I wasn’t impressed with what I have seen from the cloud generator, maybe in the right hands you can make them look real. I wanted to have the drone I’m currently working with in a project with fly thru them on a couple of the flight sequences I’m working on (see my WIP link below)
Are you using hdri for the background and/or lighting? You asked about the lens flair… maybe dial it down a little would be my recommendation.
The overall concept is quite nice and the technical aspects are impressive, but the lens flare slicing through the middle of the image looks to be somewhat distracting.
Also, I’m not sure if you’re using a low number of bounces or you don’t have a lot of translucency on the pine needles, but there’s a lot of spots among the pine trees that are quite dark for the time of day.
Overall, it’s clear that there’s been a bit of work that’s gone into it, but it could always use a little more.
Wow lots of detail! looks superb.
I disagree about it needing more tree variations. However I do agree about the lens flare being a bit distracting. I think the lighting is very balanced out, If you were taking a photo of a landscape like this it would be difficult to have the correct exposure on the sky and the trees. Choose the sky and the trees will be under exposed and dark, choose the forest and the sky will be over exposed.
To make the lighting more realistic I would make the forest shadows a bit darker and the sky slightly brighter if at all. A flock of birds in the distance might be nice to.
Anyway I hope my comments make sense. Still over all great scene!
Hey guys sorry for the delay:) I updated render above:) Well I didnt take this one as far as I could have but the cloud addon for Blender just wanst quite realistic enough. I tried for fog and clouds and couldnt get to a happy place:) So I worked on the trees a bit more adding more variation and shader tweaks. Also added color correction and fog glow and turned the flare intensity way down. I still kept it in there thought:) I think it adds some intrest and life:P Anyhow I’m gonna call this one complete but I would love to hear more from you guys:P
Happy Blending!
absolutely astounding. Cool job, man.
Thanks man I appreciate it:P I’m always looking to improve:P
very nice scene, I like the landscape and lighting!
