a little test I made with my first attempt at making a fully Vegetated and decked out scene, the render required 9 hours cause I had to set Atmosphere samples to 64 Raytrace because the sunbeams from the clouds would be so darn noisy otherwise.
I hope to find a better mix of settings before render next time.
I tell you guys, water in this situation is a nightmare to get right. I still hate the way it looks, but its the best result I could get :/
The landscape and the clouds are very good. The lighting needs some work.
I would try some ambient occlusion enviro light. Use a color in the clouds for it. You may need to adjust the cloud color and landscape colors for this type of lighting. More so on the clouds so they are not washed out.
Hmmm, you make perfect sense :)
Should I just change the enviro light type to AO? or should I make another Enviro light with the AO property.
Also, I already did cloud color adjustments to get the clouds a little more washed out to fit the way the clouds look here in Florida with this type of lighting. What exactly do you think would fit better? more white and starky clouds maybe?
I would add an new enviro light with ambient occlusion. See if you can match the colors to the clouds as they are. Adjusting the strength for each. surface and atmosphere, will be the hardest part.
I like the clouds as they are. The idea is to bring the landscape out of the deep shadow. Have it look more like sun shining on a recently rained on landscape.