Kung Fu Panda landscape (WiP)

[Abyssinian02]

Hey guys, I'd love some feedback on this piece. I'd like to make the landscape better and somewhat more realistic. I'll be adding some more trees on the right side btw. Any further advice?

Oh, and this was rendered without shadows, obviously things'll change a little more once they're rendered.

Thanks in advance!!

[Dune]

Will the rocks stay without trees? Then I'd add some displacement, they're very 'basic'. And I think the grass can be darker.

[Hannes]

Looks kind of cartoonish. I'd like to see an image with shadows enabled.

[Oshyan]

Kung Fu Panda *is* a cartoon, so that general look is appropriate. I agree though, certainly need to see it with shadows. You won't save a ton of time turning them off, if that was your goal...

- Oshyan

[Abyssinian02]

Alright, here's with shadows, but without most of the trees.

[Oshyan]

Yes, it looks promising in a cartoon style, but definitely needs plant models (and probably some more atmospheric haze) to really come alive.

- Oshyan

[Abyssinian02]

Here's the (for now) final result. I've learned a helluvah lot from this project, and I hope my next project (already in the works) will teach me even more. For now, here's what I have so far. Please let me know if things need improving!!!

[DocCharly65]

Looks already great!

What if you give the water a more comic-like look? Perhaps reduce the tranparency and give the water more blue color?

[Dune]

The waves should be reduced also (it also looks like the water is on top of the ground), and some smallscale displacement to the grassy ground will give it more life.

[bobbystahr]

Will the rocks stay without trees? Then I'd add some displacement, they're very 'basic'. And I think the grass can be darker.

Agree with this and if you aren't gonna "plant" grass, I'd recommend a bump/displacement map or procedural texture. Too featureless even for a cartoon(speaking as a former cartoonist). Just checked it out online and those stone mountains seem to need more top rounding. I'd be tempted to do a series of Painted shader maps  using simple dots of varying sizes with considerable fall off on the brush, and displacing them for the mountains. In addition you could precisely place the mountains rather than relying on the vagaries of random placement . Then you could add character either in the Terrain editor or the Shaders editor.

[bobbystahr]

An easy way to plan where to put the dots would be in the top view with your ground grass and road maps active place Landmark flags everywhere you want a mountain/dot. I've used this to plot a road around  some hills and it works pretty well.