Hey All!
So I saw Forest River by DerekG1080 on the finished projects thread and decided to try that level of detail myself. I don’t have much experience with large-scale renders like nature scenes, but I came up with this. I’m not totally happy, so I’m posting it here. I still want to do another pass at the trees for more variation. Any further critique? Hints? Tips? All is appreciated!
I think that the trees are far too uniform, maybe add some deciduous trees.
looking good, i like the water espacially 
although it seems like there are some repetitive patterns here and there. might be an optical illusion though…
maybe you can try a different camera position? i think a little bit of sky and/or horizon might add to it - if you have a texture for the sky, of course 
that would also center the lake in the image a little more…
Did another pass at the trees and added many more species. Also played around with the light and colour, but no sky for this one. I’ll think about adding it later. Currently the lighting uses an HDR map and a sun lamp. Also added a bit of atmospheric fog, just because it’s a forest by a lake!
Also, the water is a procedural wave texture. I might lift and re-position the camera to see how that works out.
OK. I lifted the camera, and added a hill in the background so I wouldn’t need the sky! The lake is now nicely in the middle. I also now have 5500 trees and 6000 rocks and my graphics card can just about handle all the leaves! Also shifted the camera slightly which should have gotten rid of the repetitive illusion on the water. It seems to be getting close to done, because it’s near that point where more stuff might ruin it. Any more pointers and opinions?
Tweaked around a little more and think this is pretty much done! Will post the final render in finished work!
Yeah, this is starting to look pretty convincing. The little outcropping of light colored rock in the upper left corner really makes it. I’s love to see maybe some clearings here and there though. Does that make sense? Like, it’s so dense that it seems almost unrealistically so. Still, it looks really great.
