For someone starting out, this is looking pretty good - Bounds above where I was when I started. Just a couple suggestions to help push things further:
I like the idea that you're trying to get across in this first environment, though I feel there's a few things you could do to make it feel more alive.
A good rule of thumb is to have a reason for everything, always try to be telling a story, whether it's a character piece, or environment piece. As it stands, I'm not sure what the glowing mushroom trail is leading me to - Clearly, a pitch black cave, but what's inside that cave? A mine shaft? A troll's hovel? That's up to you, really. Instead of ending your story at the cave entrance, push it further down, show us what's in that dark tunnel.
On another note, I would look up reference for mushrooms. A quick google search tells me that it's not generally common to see mushrooms by themselves like that. It might help to add some visual flare if you have patches of mushrooms growing, rather than singular fungi.
While on the subject of the flora, I might look at adding MORE. Your current color palette is very limited - I count maybe 4 different colors - Flora is a great way to add some hue variation and push the believability of your scene. Maybe look into having moss growing on the rocks, as well as shrubs, ferns, and even flowers. You can also use these things to cover up abrupt seams, as an example, the seam between your ground and the rocks.
Lastly, lighting. Generally, when starting off, lighting is one of the harder things to really start getting a hang of. It is very important, and helps to draw your entire scene together. Commonly, people will start by blocking out basic geometry, THEN placing lights. It helps give you an idea how things might look in the end.
As far as your scene goes, ask yourself this question: What is my main source of light?
Considering it's an outdoor scene, we could say the moon will be our main light source, though you could argue that the moon isn't visible in your scene - Okay, find another way to light things up. Your cave, for example. It might be much more interesting to have some torches, or lanterns, casting light on everything in your scene. Your glowing mushrooms can serve as a secondary light source, but should never overpower your main light source, else it'll detract from your visual focus.
Darkness isn't usually a good thing. Assuming you're wanting to make a job out of this modeling thing, a good idea would be to avoid having large areas of vast darkness. Not saying don't ever have darkness anywhere, but don't be afraid to light things up. A potential recruiter might see an environment that's hardly lit and think that you're hiding something you're not proud of. I had to up the brightness of the image quite a bit to see some of the outlying details, I didn't even know there was a tree back there - I want to see that tree!
I hope you don't mind, but I've done a rough paintover to get across some of my suggestions:
(I'm sorry, I'm terrible at paintovers. )
Your scene is off to a very good start, and it definitely has the potential for some great stuff, you just need to push it!
Apologies for the big wall of text, I hope I'm not overwhelming you - These are definitely things you'll start nailing with time, just keep at it!
Replies
For someone starting out, this is looking pretty good - Bounds above where I was when I started. Just a couple suggestions to help push things further:
I like the idea that you're trying to get across in this first environment, though I feel there's a few things you could do to make it feel more alive.
A good rule of thumb is to have a reason for everything, always try to be telling a story, whether it's a character piece, or environment piece. As it stands, I'm not sure what the glowing mushroom trail is leading me to - Clearly, a pitch black cave, but what's inside that cave? A mine shaft? A troll's hovel? That's up to you, really. Instead of ending your story at the cave entrance, push it further down, show us what's in that dark tunnel.
On another note, I would look up reference for mushrooms. A quick google search tells me that it's not generally common to see mushrooms by themselves like that. It might help to add some visual flare if you have patches of mushrooms growing, rather than singular fungi.
While on the subject of the flora, I might look at adding MORE. Your current color palette is very limited - I count maybe 4 different colors - Flora is a great way to add some hue variation and push the believability of your scene. Maybe look into having moss growing on the rocks, as well as shrubs, ferns, and even flowers. You can also use these things to cover up abrupt seams, as an example, the seam between your ground and the rocks.
Lastly, lighting. Generally, when starting off, lighting is one of the harder things to really start getting a hang of. It is very important, and helps to draw your entire scene together. Commonly, people will start by blocking out basic geometry, THEN placing lights. It helps give you an idea how things might look in the end.
As far as your scene goes, ask yourself this question: What is my main source of light?
Considering it's an outdoor scene, we could say the moon will be our main light source, though you could argue that the moon isn't visible in your scene - Okay, find another way to light things up. Your cave, for example. It might be much more interesting to have some torches, or lanterns, casting light on everything in your scene. Your glowing mushrooms can serve as a secondary light source, but should never overpower your main light source, else it'll detract from your visual focus.
Darkness isn't usually a good thing. Assuming you're wanting to make a job out of this modeling thing, a good idea would be to avoid having large areas of vast darkness. Not saying don't ever have darkness anywhere, but don't be afraid to light things up. A potential recruiter might see an environment that's hardly lit and think that you're hiding something you're not proud of. I had to up the brightness of the image quite a bit to see some of the outlying details, I didn't even know there was a tree back there - I want to see that tree!
I hope you don't mind, but I've done a rough paintover to get across some of my suggestions:
(I'm sorry, I'm terrible at paintovers.
Your scene is off to a very good start, and it definitely has the potential for some great stuff, you just need to push it!
Apologies for the big wall of text, I hope I'm not overwhelming you - These are definitely things you'll start nailing with time, just keep at it!
Good luck!
i will have to think of a story for the mine and think about lighting
anything on the character?