Highland part 1.

[archonforest]

1st one of my Highland series. Hope u guys can enjoy it. C and C are welcome as usual

(TG3 free.
Quality:0.6; AA:0.4
Render time 46 minutes on a Dual Xeon 3.14Ghz CPU.)

[N-drju]

This is an inspiring view and the mountain chain looks monumental!

Increase detail level. You can afford it! And add lots and lots of trees in the lower parts of the mountains. I mean... your nick DOES mean something, does it?

[archonforest]

Thx N-drju.
Unfortunately I am out of details since using the free version. Also out of populations....I can have only 3 in the free version. I have to upgrade. Anycow  I am working on the second picture from this series and I will figure out how to put more trees...
And u right about the nick

[kaedorg]

I would say that with the free version, it is a nice image.
It deserves to upgrade 

[archonforest]

Thx kadorg
Yeah I will upgrade soon and re-render all my pictures to get nicer results....hopefully

[bigben]

You may be limited to 3 populations but you can always make them big populations 
The trees along the top look a little out of place. normally if there are trees of that size on an exposed mountain top it's because there are more trees just behind them sheltering them form the wind.

[archonforest]

Thx bigben...u are right about the big pops. I had 2 big and 1 small(on the top of the mountain) The only thing I still have to learn how to cover up areas so the population goes only where I want...hehehe...

[N-drju]

It's simple! Just do a painted shader in those areas where you want the trees to appear and connect this shader to the "blending shader" node at your population.

You can also have a nice effect by connecting slightly modified (in terms of coverage and scale) power fractal to the "blending shader" node. This way the population members will appear in clusters only where the fractal was white.

I usually combine the two methods by connecting painted shader along with power fractal - this way instances appear only within the painted shader area but the final density and location of instances is determined by white spots in the power fractal.

[archonforest]

Thx N-drju While reading your hint I recognized that I used the painted shader once already but I forgot it completely 

Thx a bunch to remind me. Also saved your other hints for future ref.

[N-drju]

You're welcome! Do have a go at painted shader + power fractal distribution. This comes in handy when you do, say, bush clusters. No need to paint numerous PS for each cluster this way.

[oldm4n]

well done
I agree with N-drju: mountains looks monumental.

[archonforest]

Thx guys
It is a good feeling to give back something to the Forum for all the help I got so far.

[choronr]

Looking very good so far; and, glad to hear you're upgrading soon.