Hi, I tried my first full blown nature scene recently and I am interested in feedback and I also have a couple questions regarding nature scenes. 1. As you can see in the picture my ground cover is funny fern things which don't really fit the scene. Does anyone have a recomendation for an easy to use mass replicatable ground cover that looks vaguely realistic 2. I attempted to use volumetric textures for grass ground cover (you can see it in the lower right corner), I had a problem with making it non-cartoonish, realistic, and take the lighting of the scene. Does anyone have any recomendations regarding this? 3. I tend to have trouble finding things to put beneath the trees that preserve the scale and that look realistic, does anyone have any ideas for bushes (ie how to make them in the tree maker or links to 3d models (I can't seem to find any bushes)). Any additional feedback and critisizm on the image is welcome. Russell

The ferns look pretty good, you just want to vary the colors a bit bewtween plants. As for bushes you can use Bryce 5 trees in the treelab, just sink them into the ground.

I think it's wonderful, the only thing you might change is the ambience. On each material you are using, try setting the Ambience to, say, 25. This will create a truer-to-life contrast, meaning your darks will be darker, and your lights will be lighter. Give it a whirl, can't wait to see your next one!

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/homepage.ez?Who=DryFly

If you like doing forests and stuff you should check out dryfly's homepage. His natural scenes are amazing and really stunning, like no others here on rosity. He has some articles on his page about making natural renders that have allot of really good tips and ideas in them. They are REALLY worth the read. I also saw that he had a third article on his page that I don't remember seeing mentioned in the forums.

Yes I agree with Chelonia Dryfly is the most amazing natural artist, his tips are great, check them out!!

Attached Link: http://3dmodelworld.com/3dsmodels4.asp

Lannies 3DWorld has lots of plants and weeds which are very good for giving the proper dimensions to trees when placed at their base. Catlin

I too recommend designing the bushes in the tree lab. Bryce trees are much easier to handle than imported objects. As for the grass, I use Grass6 from Bantam3D ("Geese") - a brilliant little freeware program that creates custom grasses and other kinds of ground cover in SMALL obj-files. Get it here: www.bantam3d.com On "advanced tree technique" take a look in my gallery for some tips-n-tricks, there you'll find some examples of the grass "in action". And, Dryfly's gallery is a must ;o) Have a nice weekend.