Nature Scene techniques (need help)

[MAV4d]

Hi ,

I have a contract to achieve of a vacation house in the middle of a forest. This is not my first nature scene done in 3dsmax but i still havent found the secret of rendering those type of scenes. It wont be a video , just render frames and my client wants realistic renders... Here are my questions:

Lighting:

I experimented lighting solutions with E-light already , pretty quick , looks good...but i can't put my shadows to ray traced cause my render will last forever... I downloaded a script called Xshadows to remain to this render time problem but the shadows just won't work , it just does the same as shadow map , displaying all my plane's leafs.

I know GI with final gather is really cool...for architechtural project mainly , but it good for nature too?


Grass & leaves:

same thing for tree leaves , should i use single leaves? branches? or hair fur?
Is normal map really worth it for leaves? even grass?
and im also looking for a bank of textures that could help for vegetation...


Ambiant occlusion:

Doing it for my structure is really cool...but what about my leaves? if they're all planes itll do a really bad result...
and compositing it may look wierd , having AO on everything and my nature's all bright...


Scanline or mental ray? http://www.highend3d.com/boards/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif

Alright so thats pretty mutch it , im using Max 8 and got a radeon 9800 pro with 2.8 ghz intel pentium , 1 gig ram

i don't mind how long the render last , as long as it happens within the same hour , i just want good results that works!


although i dont know max well, i would suggest to stray away from GI lighting... esp for out doors, although for overcast situations it works well, but render times suffer. try a directional light, with a very light yellow color, and if there is a way to change the enviorment setting in the camera set it to a blue hue. that will give you shadows a blueish tint while also lighting up the full scene, if you would like emit some photos, very little though, and have some realistic light bouncing


leaves naturally Sub surface scatter, but you can mimic it with translucence, saves on render time

also if your biulding your own tress/ leaves just look out side and see how harshly the sun reflects on leaves. theres a big specular on the leaves


although i havent been doing this very long i hope this helps

-mav

[All3x21]

ive been trying transluency on leaves a couple of times and it really looks bad in max , anyone has any idea? even my teachers tryed to help me when i was at school and they coulnt find a way to make it look good. Also tell me if im wrong but transluency boost the rendertime really long

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