videodv, instead of adding a second light, you could get away with radiosity to enhance the lighting and diminish the shadows' darkness. Just use low settings on Strength and Accuracy (like 50% and 30% respectively). This will still increase the render time, but not significantly. Absinthe, glad you posted back. :) I don't have xfrog myself (and still waiting on Vue Pro to arrive), so haven't had a chance to do trees in C4D. I'm on a dual Xeon system, so testing at high settings shouldn't be a problem. A G5 should improve conditions significantly on your end.

C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot. C++ makes it harder, but when you do, you blow your whole leg off.

 -- Bjarne Stroustrup

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