The problem i'm having right now is how to digitize the elevation data from the paper maps using some special software without having to trace each contour line as that would be almost impossible.

It would actually just be flybys along the river. And it doesnt have to be just one animated video. What was planned is to break up the fly bys to several areas. Now how do I make a forest cover on the terrain without having to plop each tree one by one? And having individual trees would take an enormous amount of time just to render a short 5 minute flyby. Help?

There are no DEMs available for this area I'm working on. The map scale is 1:63360 The sample map I attached was just part of the larger map. The actual map is actually 4x3 of the attached map sample above. I need to combine several other maps to cover the entire national park area. The actual size of the national park in real life is 43x43 kilometres. The flyby will only go along the rivers so it wont be neccessary to render the outer parts of the park. The helicopter needs to be 200ft above the ground. Another question, can Vue accomplish this task? There needs to be trees, and moving animals in the flyby animation. The virtual park has to be as accurate as possible in terms of elevation height, etc. Is there any other program which can automate this process? Thanks.