@OL77 I modeled it by tracing out the shape with verticies and extruding out and giving depth, while adding a displacement modifier to remove smoothness.
I was looking at reference images, I i found that andrew did do the snow correct, as per these reference images (1, 2, 3). Will be fixing that up when I get a chance.
Also, type in “Nature Academy” in google and this thread is on the first page! Yay!
Okey-dokey. I have finished this mountain scene. Took me four pages to do so, but it’s done. Will now work on this desert scene. Tutorial is on it’s way! Any crits I recieve from now on will be fixed, but not as urgently.
A quick two minute change in lighting setup: (many things wrong with the clouds, i know)
Sam
Something very important about Nature is its ability to be unpredictable. I notice that in your renders, all of the trees are the same height, which is hardly realistic. I am assuming that you did some sort of grouping/array to get all of the trees, which is good and all of that, I suggest you clone the base tree 2 or 3 times and alter it to be shorter, and taller, and then array that one as well. Variance will add some realism.
Good job so far!
You should add some mist so the mountain sort of fades into sky. It’s too harsh where the top meets the sky.
Long time no post 
For the mountains, they are coming along… abeit rather slowly. Haven’t had much time at all on blender, between work I have to do and my short film, but [hopefully] I should get the image and tutorial finished within a week or so. (tutorial may take a bit longer.
I played a bit more with the desert scene. I will be attempting to replicate THIS image. A quick adjustment to the modeling I’ve already done resulted in this.
Sam
Hey you are modeling a Sossusvlei:D dune cool. Those dunes have to be seen to be believed the are freaking huge but you would have to come to Namibia and see them for yourself. Those dunes, table mountain and victoria falls are some of most beautiful places I have visited.
The trees still look to evenly placed, and still a bit to uniform in size.
Apart from that, the biggest thing bothering me is that there is a huge clearing with nothing to explain it.
Some examples would be, logging (tree stumps) frozen lake (trees wouldn’t grow in it).
There are some other minor things like the lack of lens flare, and the mountain snow being a bit off.
All in all it’s shaping up very nicely.
As for the Nature Academy series, it’s likely to be similar the wow factor, this time focused on the use of translucency.
may I ask how you did those fir trees?
Please make a free tutorial on it… I would be happy 
The first image reminds me of the legend of zelda: ocarina of time , at death mountain, particularly the sky.
I’m no expert by any means but to me it looks nice 
My critique on the snow / trees: In REALLY heavy snow, the trees will be half buried, so the trunks aren’t visible at all. In normal heavy snow, The trunks are in their own ‘divit’. Thes happen because the tree branches shield the surrounding ground from the snow, so there’s less snow depth the closer you get to the trunk. If the snow fall is light, The ground just around the trees will be bare. Also, depending on how much sunshine the area has had recently, there might be snow on the branches of the trees. This would be a major pain to do of course.
Can I join in?
I find this rather interesting, maybe we could make an open-source nature training course called “The nature collaboration” in which different people each make tutorials on different nature related topics, and have them corrected / improved by others.
At the end, when we have sufficient material, we could publish it as a free open-source package.
It would need to be overviewed by someone much more talented than me, however, to make sure all detail is correct, and there should be a certain quality standard.
Feel free! Welcome.
maybe we could make an open-source nature training course called “The nature collaboration” in which different people each make tutorials on different nature related topics, and have them corrected / improved by others.
Great idea. Anybody wanting to contribute, choose a topic and post work here! I’ll edit the first post. Should I change the title?
Mountain scene should be finished soon (within 3 or so days, when I get the time). Thanks for all the crits guys.
Sam
Great idea. Anybody wanting to contribute, choose a topic and post work here! I’ll edit the first post. Should I change the title?
Mountain scene should be finished soon (within 3 or so days, when I get the time). Thanks for all the crits guys.
Sam
Sounds great! I figured out trees, grass, and oceans a while ago, but that would just be a sheer copy of andrew’s work, so I’ll try and figure out how to do rocks.
I’ll quickly mock up the ocean image, looks pretty easy tbh.
Could make a timelapse… maybe…idk.
Rock Version 1.0:
Not very happy with it yet, please critique.
I would leave the grass out - it’s extra work and is unnessecary.
Rock looks alright, I would suggest working on the materials and deciding on a specific type of rock, (if you haven’t already,) it’ll help refine it.
What do you think of my sea proposal? :
http://www.pasteall.org/pic/15844
I added an island because the scene looked awfully bland without it, and added a hexagonal lens flare. Sorry for the low image quality.
What do you think of the finished product?
i’d recommend a bit of colour variation as, at the moment, it looks as though it’s made out of concrete… obviously there are rocks of such colour but, generally speaking, they would be smoother whereas rough rocks would bear the colour of the sand surrounding them…
Higher polycount and a displacement modifier with a small cloud texture if you don’t have yet. In this case just a higher subdivision.
Well, I had to squint to see the image, but other than that, it looks good. Not really a fan of the sunset lighting, but that’s just my taste.
