Transpiration

[Zylot]

First Pass of an "above the trees" shot. (A standard variation of the ever popular "above the clouds"?)  For those not savy, transpiration is the act of water vapor leaving plant life and returning to the atmosphere.

I need some distribution on the stones, and better textures/grass going on.  More variation of trees and color correction on the different variations also in the works.

[Kevin F]

Nice idea and POV, I agree with your comments re texture and grass. How about some larger boulder size stones as well?

[Henry Blewer]

Well done water vapor. Looks convincing.

[Gannaingh]

I like the concept.  I agree with the suggestions already put forth, I also think it would benefit from increased quality settings.

[Zylot]

Yes, working on current suggestions and fixes.  I knew I forgot something though, settings:

All Atmo (couds, main atmo): Ray Traced, 64 samples across the board.
Models: Medium (for now)
Lighting: Soft Shadows enabled
Render: Details .8, AA 4, GI 2/2

[littlecannon]

Cool... I saw this happening on a Discovery show the other day. I agree with previous comments. Some small bushes in between the trees may look god too.

Cheers,
Simon.

[Oshyan]

Is there a specific reason you have raytraced shadows (I assume that's what you meant by "Ray Traced") on for the atmosphere and/or clouds?

- Oshyan

[Zylot]

Yeah, there's an unseen layer of clouds above the camera casting shadows, and I want them to look good... there's also alot of mist so I want any shadows to hit and pass through them proper...   this is all if my understanding of what the ray traced shadows option does!

Edit: while we're at it...  updated:

Should see a number of the fixes I planned, and some suggestions thrown into the mix.

[Henry Blewer]

The clouds above the camera will cast shadows without the raytraced option. The clouds in the trees might benefit, but I think that maybe it's not necessary. I just adds to longer render time. I like that the grass is more visible in the new render.

[Oshyan]

Njeneb is correct. Most likely neither option will make a big difference here. You should try some crop renders with different settings though.

- Oshyan

[Zylot]

Well, the way I look at it, If I can hit "render" and come back to a finished image the next day, I'm not too worried about mostly unneeded  effects if they do help somewhat.  Since this still falls in that threshold, it's alright, but I'll keep it in mind for future renders.

In the meanwhile, I may call this final, as it's looking good.  Tweaked the contrast a bit and added color variation to the populations as explained by TU I believe.

[Henry Blewer]

Looks very good. Well done.