In the Woods

[Oshyan]

Surprising. Had you tweaked any of the GI settings?

- Oshyan

[old_blaggard]

Yeah - I'd set surface strength to 1.5.  At 1 the shadows were way too dark.

[Oshyan]

Very interesting. Is contrast increased or gamma changed at all?

- Oshyan

[old_blaggard]

Nope .  I'm rendering something with increased translucency on the leaves, decreased GI, and a slightly different sun position that's looking promising.  I'll let you know how it goes .

[old_blaggard]

Another one.  It may look a bit dark on some monitors, but I've been playing around, and I feel like I need that contrast to add depth to the image.  Either way, I'm much happier with the lighting here.  What do you think?

http://www.ashundar.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-4774

[dhavalmistry]

very very nice.....

[Tangled-Universe]

I think it is a really great improvement. Good example of the importance of lighting to make a scene look good or best.
I think it looks excellent now, very nice contrasts. It became more 'alive' this way, so to say

[bobbystahr]

[quote   What do you think?http://www.ashundar.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-4774[/quote]

Bloody perfect...photo like....well done, and indeed illustrates once again the importance of light, so many details revealed it almost become a whole new image..... KUDOS .. ...

[old_blaggard]

Thanks guys .  Glad you like it.

[jo]

Hi o_b,

That looks much more summery :-). One of the most vegetative images I've seen, I think.

Regards,

Jo

[bobbystahr]

One of the most vegetative images I've seen, I think.
Regards,
Jo

Indeed it is and goes to show what a full version can do with more than 3 populations...can y tell I'm green with envy, heh heh heh.. ...

[Njen]

Wow, this image is awesome, and a great sign of things to come...

As a suggestion, I would put a displacement map on the leaves. This will add extra realism to the image because the curved leaves can pick up specular hits from the light, and also they will not look like flat pieces of geometry when perpendicular to camera. For a simple displacement example, just try a radial map, but I am sure you will have a good idea for a more realistic displacement map.

Tests I have been doing in this area recently have come out extremely well. Not anything to show yet, but it really does help.

Congrats on the lovely image!

[old_blaggard]

Again, thanks for the comments and suggestions .  I'm putting this aside for now, njen, but I'll definitely keep displacement maps in mind for other vegetation renders I'll do in the future.