We've been having a mean drought here in Colorado and last summer some major fires took their toll on our forests and our people. This image was inspired by that and the Yellowstone fires so many years ago. I remember seeing a picture in National Geographic that showed all this devastation and yet a few baby grasses were just starting to poke their way out of the ashes. Life always finds a way to move on. Starting a new forest from the clean slate of an ashen forest floor is definitely a New Beginning for me.

Trees are xfrog and Bryce. I noticed the Bryce trees just don't look very good naked, so I had to resort to xfrog since the trees that 'survive' a fire have lost most of their foliage. Distant trees are a custom billboard I made. Grass and little blooms was made with bantam3d grass. Volumetric rays are done with lots of cylinders and the rays texture tweaked. All textures are DTE. LOL - I have about 5 different final versions of this scene - and all of them evoke a different mood. I hope I picked the right one ; )

ps - thanks to dryfly for his great nature articles. It really got me thinking about a lot of things - I forgot how liberating it can be to fake volumetrics. Someday when we all have 20ghz machines volumetric world might actually be somewhat responsive - until then the old ways are so much faster and easier to control.

note - this version is an attempt at windows gamma - mac gamma follows.

Scott

Very nice job, I like the way the trees look. And it is good to remember that what appears to be destruction might just be a beginning for some. Angela

Thanks Angela. Yeah it was fun making some beauty out of the ruins - you got it exactly right - nature's destruction is also her rebirth. Scott

I love the lightrays. great image!

Thanks Rayraz! It was sure fun not waiting for results from a volumetric render. Gotta love those cheats. Scott