Canadian Lake

[Henry Blewer]

This is a test render. The clouds need work. I also need some more understory plants. The rock face is a bit too mono-colored also.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/njeneb/4873213648/sizes/o/in/photostream/

[Zairyn Arsyn]

it looks ok so far

i like the water reflections & terrain.

[Kadri]

Nice ! The Trees do look a little to big to me , Njeneb ?

[Henry Blewer]

Yes the trees are too large. I reduced their coverage, I want some redwoods, and the tree is a dawn redwood.

[Dune]

Starting up nicely, Henry. May I suggest? Lower your POV, simplify/soften the sky, and perhaps the snow coverage. It's a bit hectic in texture at the moment.

[Henry Blewer]

I lowered the POV as Ulco suggested. The sky and snow coverage have been tweaked. I moved the sun around to the left, behind the camera.
I am not sure the Dawn Redwoods work in this now. They seem too green, but if they matched the pines from Walli in size they may still work.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/njeneb/4876216374/sizes/o/in/photostream/

[Dune]

I still think it's too crowded with small texture. Why not leave the sky almost blue with just a few large/small soft clouds, reduce ripples on the water to a calm ripple, get some haze in. You could reduce the color intensity in the leaf texture of the redwoods maybe.
Mind you, it's my idea about this. You don't have to agree.

[Henry Blewer]

The water can definitely be calmer. I am thinking of using the new maples. The lower cloud layer just does not look right no matter how I do it; I have tried many variations. I have a render just finished with smaller redwoods. The redwoods seem to fit better.

[schmeerlap]

I'm of the same opinion as Dune on two respects; I too think increasing the haze settings will help to soften the general harshness of the scene, and maybe using a mask on the clouds to try and eradicate the general scattering of small bits of cloud that have the effect of making the sky seem too busy. But, overall I like the scene, particularly your mountain shapes.

John

[Henry Blewer]

Another test render. I added Dandelo's Maples into the mix. It's hard to tell at this render setting. (0.325 detail, 4 AA)
I am going to reduce the cloud coverage. I forgot about the waves...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/njeneb/4877314854/sizes/o/in/photostream/

[domdib]

I think it's a good idea to lessen the clouds a bit here. Also, if you are showing test renders at such a low detail level, it does make it a bit more difficult to judge what's working. Why not make smaller, higher quality renders?

[Henry Blewer]

Rendering a final now. It might be done Wednesday. Detail at 0.75, AA 6, at 1920 x 1080. I like what I did to the clouds, I hope you guys do also. The higher AA is taking care of a lot of the graininess you see in the test renders.

[Dune]

Yeah, the graininess. That's the main culprit, perhaps. But like Schmeerlap says, the small bits of cloud (and wavelets) make it crowded. You could increase the main size of clouds and/or the smallest size. And soften them. Looking forward to your final render. 

[Henry Blewer]

I am a little more than halfway done rendering this. The water and the trees take a long time to calculate... It may be finished Thursday by the looks of things. The clouds are different... I used a perlin billows mask for very thin cirrus clouds. I may have made the cloud edge sharpness too high. I am very happy with the mountain on the right. The far mountains are too distant to see much detail.
Let me grab a screenshot and post it...

[Henry Blewer]

Here's a crop of the whole image.