Bonney Glacier (updated)

[RArcher]

Looking for suggestions to improve this one.  This is the first time I have tried using real data for a render.  I created a reasonably detailed .ter file of most of the Canadian Glacier National Park, then using the vector basemap layers overlayed the exact positions of the treed and permanent glacier areas.  There are some streams and rivers from the hydro layer as well, but you can't see them here anyway.

This view is above the Loop Brook campground looking up at Mount Bonney and the Bonney Glacier.

Thanks for taking a look.

[rcallicotte]

The lighting on this looks good, especially through the trees.  It actually looks perfect, except something (I can't put my finger on) looks just a centimeter away from being photorealistic. 

How did you do the glacier?  That looks pretty cool.

[Mahnmut]

The Ice looks amazing.
The placement of the trees is great.
Maybe that centimeter mentioned above is the groundcover which seems to bight to me.
you could make it a bit darker or more yellowish, if it is supposed to be dry.
But I have never been there.
Best Regards,
Jan

[inkydigit]

looks very very good!
love the ice and trees...it just needs that extra little something....dunno what that is yet though!
5stars from me!

[ZStar]

This really looks good.  Like others have said, it is almost there.  For me, the thing that doesn't look quite right is the uniform greenish coverage of the sun lit slope on the left.  I think the color is fine but if you could break it up just a little and get some patches of bare dirt and/or rock showing it would help.  This is one of the things I struggle with so I'm afraid I can't provide any pointers.

[MacGyver]

Top notch!
The trees on the lower right side are much brighter than the rest of the image, I don't know if this may be the thing that's falling out of place?

[lightning]

A good start Racher just a bit more work and you will have another classic on your hands
i have a few issuses though
#1 the specularity on the trees where i have circled in the foreground is to high
#2 the glacier is coming along great but where i circled it looks a little soft and at first i thought it was a cloud so try sharpening it up.

thats it really everything else looks top notch!

[Tangled-Universe]

Great work so far

I agree with Lighting about the specularity on the trees. Especially in the foreground it could be toned a bit down.
It also accounts for the glacier's ice. It seems almost glowing like it is hot instead of terribly cold
The lighting is very cool, I like it as well as the background mountain shapes. Maybe you could try add some extra displacements like strata for example?
The colors are well done too but I think the bushes and some of the surface layer have too much of an olive-green touch.
All in all still a good image

Martin

[otakar]

Looks great, but if you're going for realism you need more trees in the foreground and darker grass. Also, not sure those trees high up close to the glacier would really be there in reality, seem like very harsh conditions. Check out this reference photo from the area: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Glacier_np_canada.JPG

Mind you, we're talking high elevation, very steep terrain, harsh weather. Your render projects something a bit different (not saying it's bad).

Yeah, it's a wonderful place

[RArcher]

Thanks very much for the comments and suggestions, I have another version in the works with improved groundcover, rocks, and hopefully improved trees.

Martin:  I did add a fair amount of fractal and strata to the mountains, but I have tried to avoid distorting the actual shape of the mountain too much since it is technically a real place.  The colours are a bit bright and I have toned it down a bit in the next version, but I have been trying to base them off a few reference photo's I took the last time I drove through the area.

Otakar:  The trees are actually that high up according to the current vegetation reference data from the Canadian Government, as well as good old google earth.   The park is a wildly different place depending on the time of year.  During the summer it can be quite warm, and in the winter downright miserable!

Here are a couple photo's I took last July, around 8:00 - 9:00am if I remember right.

http://www.archer-designs.com/galleries/photo-galleries/west-coast-p1/images/20070719_DSC_0077.jpg
http://www.archer-designs.com/galleries/photo-galleries/west-coast-p1/images/20070719_DSC_0053.jpg
http://www.archer-designs.com/galleries/photo-galleries/west-coast-p1/images/20070719_DSC_0045.jpg
http://www.archer-designs.com/galleries/photo-galleries/west-coast-p1/images/20070719_DSC_0037.jpg

I will post an update when it is finished, if it finishes 

[otakar]

Great pics! Never made it to the Canadian side, but love the Montana area - Going to the Sun Road is one of my all time favorites in the lower 48. Can't wait to see the parks in Alberta.

But take your photos and you'll see the green colors, how dark they can be, that's what I was trying to suggest. And yes, I guess the trees are that high up, quite amazing. As for the weather, summer mornings can be spectacular. But summer is usually quite short 

[Martchi]

Beautiful work!!!

[Seth]

great pictures RArcher !

[Phylloxera]

Beautiful work, so natural !

[RArcher]

Here is the update.  Major changes to the trees and groundcover (trees from the free xfrog download as well as Jcinbama, groundcover from lightning).  Having some issues calibrating my monitor, so I am not sure how the colours are going to look.  I've checked a couple places and they seem alright.  Thanks for taking a look.