Another overnight render, 8+ hours, but the render settings were pretty high (and they will be higher in the final!)
The road trash is now working a lot better, still could do with some work. I don't like it in the distance where the road starts to bend, there's an odd overlap that sits uncomfortably in the image.
There are some scale issues, mostly due to the skull and building on the right, the skull needs to be smaller and the building larger, both easily done.
Also I'm not happy with the white flowers on the left, they seem far to regular. I may need to open the model in XFrog and make some variations
I tightened up the cracks in the road but maybe just a tad too much, again easily fixed.
I like the clouds but they are far from right, maybe some more softening.
So is this image even approaching "photo-real"? I honestly can't say. Partly because I've been looking at it too long I'm getting image blindness, partly because I still don't really understand what "photo-real" means but mostly because I suspect it simply isn't! lol
Still to do plans:
I need to expand the forest a little, bring it closer to the road without obscuring the road in the distance. This may require some slight re-modeling of the terrain.
Also need to add in some sparse scrub grasses on the right and possibly vary the grasses on the left some more
There's a temptation to place some sort of framing tree in the foreground on the left, overhanging the road. I'll try to avoid this as it's loaded with composition issues!
The final will be rendered three times and composited together, once with GI, once with AO and once with GI and soft shadows. Hopefully this is allowed.
As always C&C very welcome, c'mon guys tare it apart!
Cheers
Richard