Watching

[masonspappy]

So this is probably as far as I'll take this for now.
Fixed the rocks (was experimenting with stretch values and forgot to remove in previous iteration),  upgraded the boat model and used Dune's water & reflections here (much better than my own).
Thanks to everyone for their help and comments.  This forum is a good place to be. 

[bobbystahr]

To be honest I liked your lake with the boat's wake better.

[masonspappy]

To be honest I liked your lake with the boat's wake better.

I think Dune could have turned out something better than I did, using the same clip file.  (I played with the original settings a bit so it lacks the pizzaz of the original clip file    )

[Dune]

Thanks for the compliment, but what I like to know is if it worked for a faster render. Did you do the mapping?

[masonspappy]

I did do the mapping, as well as downsized the lake and reduced reflections a bit. Bottom line was that the render came in at about 24 hours.  (which is quite an improvement over the previous 34 hour mark).

[bobbystahr]

I did do the mapping, as well as downsized the lake and reduced reflections a bit. Bottom line was that the render came in at about 24 hours.  (which is quite an improvement over the previous 34 hour mark).

Well that's a major upside. indeed.

[Dune]

Still quite long. Another thing are rough waves (with transparency) in the distance, they take up quite some time sometimes, so you could decrease waves further away from the camera (gives a smoother reflection also), and only use transparency close by.