Jamie in the temple (Update on page 2)

[Hannes]

The character is one of those free samples that once were available here:
http://www.ten24.info/?tag=3d-scan-store
As far as I remember this guy is called Jamie. Hence the name of the image. It seems they do not have any free samples anymore, but I have them on my HD!!

The temple is a free Turbosquid model (search for Hatra temple), which I had to modify: the columns were too thick.
Trees and ferns by X-frog, grass by lightning (I still like to use this), birds by myself.

[N-drju]

Geee... That's monumental Hannes!

Those god rays - is the "receive shadows from surfaces" the way to do it?

[Dune]

That is GRAND, Hannes! Very powerful work. I also like the way the sun shines through the birds' hand feathers. I suspect you didn't use soft shadows; it might even be better with it (if you don't mind me saying so).

[Hannes]

Thanks guys.
@N-drju: exactly!
@Dune: you're absolutely right. During the render in high definition I saw the very sharp rays, and I thought as well, that soft shadows might be an improvement. This one took 30 hours to render. I might try it with soft shadows, but I expect at least 40 hours of rendertime 

[Dune]

Yeah, it wil be a dramatic increase. Hopefully one day a different calculation method can be introduced so that soft shadows (and water) take less time.

[Hannes]

Doing some tests now.

[N-drju]

40hrs? Hmm... and what settings do you use when doing soft shadows? I usually stick to diameter around 0.7 and 10-12 samples. Larger diameter seems far too blury for me, I don't like that effect.

How much do god rays add to render time...? Tell me or kill me now...

[Dune]

0.5 is supposed to be reality, but I often go a little higher also, up to 1. But I try to reduce samples as much as possible, more samples meaning more render time. When ground is rough, even 4 samples will do nicely.

[Hannes]

Since TG has to compute the shadows inside the cloud it may take a lot of additional time to render. I don't know how much exactly, but it's quite some time.
I'm testing the default settings right now. I only want to soften the rays a little bit, not too much. Just to make them look a bit more realistic. If I'd use a much higher diameter, I think the rays would lose their dramatic effect.

[archonforest]

Great composition. Everything just look right

[Hannes]

I forgot to mention that I used the ivy generator as well. Lovely program!

[TheBadger]

Can I have a render with a crop something like this for my desk top please? 

[attach=1]

Interesting pose for the figure too in light of the other content. Quite provocative. And of course the classical elements add instant weight and implied meaning. I like it a lot Hannes.

[mhaze]

Superb work.  Well worth the the long render time!

[kaedorg]

Beautiful composition.

[Kadri]

The image looks great Hannes.

Have you tried the render layers for blurring the shadows and light rays a bit.
Maybe you could use them for such a postwork.
I haven't done it but in theory it could work.
Have anyone tried it?