Thats very good start, but it has a couple of problems that are hard to fix in a forest scene. First, I would add a little moss to the tree trunks, not to hard to do. And then there is that weird little thing where you can see inbetween the tree trunks the sky, but when you put tree's in the background it just doesn't look right (I've yet to solve that problem) other than that its great, especially the amount of work that obviously went into the ground. All in all a great job, surely out does all my feeble forest attempts. If anyone knows how to fix that tree's in the background thing, id be much appreciative. Tempest

I tried moss...it didn't look right to me. I'm working on the sky problem. I might just end up using a picture background - with the other trees in front of it and some haze you're not going to see much of the background anyway, you just don't want to see sky. I was also thinking some nice streaming light rays and branch shadows would be nice to. I understand this could be done with light gels - but I think that's a little beyond me right now. Thanks so much for taking the time to look at my image and give me some feedback on this. When I talk about Bryce to my husband his eyes start to glaze over :D It's nice to hear someone else's opinion, if you know what I mean. I'm going to give the moss another shot and post the results. Thanks again, Tempest. Jade

It's nice - the sky's not a major problem - your ideas for fixing it seem on. The thing that looks mentionable to me is the butterfly which could be a cousin to Mothra. : ) I think it's too big - firstly from it's shadow cast on the tree and secondly, look at the shrubbery nearby it. This butterfly would crush these bushes. For scale put your current butterfly on a leaf (let's say one of the one at picture left in front of tree), scale it properly and then move it back to your current (original) position - I think it will fix it. Nice pic though and work is paying off. -Dave www.citizendave.com (also NYC)

Dear Dave: Mothra has been fixed thanks to you. :D Thanks again for your comments and for taking the time to have a look see. Jade

Good luck trying to get the dust mote to work, you would be rendering for well, ever. As for everything else, looks great in my oppinion. Where did you find that texture for the tree's, or did you make it yourself, either way, good work. I hate to do this, but the ground looks a bit rippley, kinda wavey, but asides from that it looks great. Tempest

do a search for forest and I think you will come up with some good help. I did a forest scene months ago and somebody (can't remember who) explained to me how to do the dappled shadows effect using a cloud plane. The second post looks great. Love the fungus. You make those yourself or download from somewhere? If you made them you should post them to free stuff. I'd personally love to have them. Pat

Dear Tempest and Pat: Tempest: The bark material is a photo texture. The ground does look ripply in the foreground - have to work on that. Thank again for taking the time, I really appreciate it. Pat: I seem to be having better luck with your cloud plane idea than I did with the light gels, thanks for that one. You really like those mushrooms - I wasn't too sure about them. It's a photo of mushrooms that I used to create the mushroom lattice and also for the color and bump. If you like it though, it's yours. Let me know and I'll email it to you. Thanks again for all your help and for taking the time. Back to the Bryce mine... Jade My enter key keeps sticking and I keep adding all these extra lines - sorry!