Birch forest - Feedback needed

Tofi

I've been making this environment piece from scratch using Maya, Zbrush and Substance Designer, and I'm looking for ways for improve it because I've been looking at it for so long that I've lost the ability to tell if its good or trash.

Daniel91

im by no means a modeler, iv only just started, so this might be complete BS

but, i would work on the transition where the trees meet the ground, maybe darken it up, or change the dirt texture?

it looks a little unnatural atm

Tofi

It's nothing a few plants and rocks can't fix.

Ashervisalis

Hey Tofi, looks cool so far. I feel you need to fill in the background quite a bit with more trees. Also there is a visible crease in the ground where the path meets the hill (I drew blew along it)

Alex_J

it's not trash but ofcourse you can always improve.

Throwing up a reference shot will help get better critiques.

Like others mentioned I would work on the small transitional areas between elements. Even if most of the scene looks awesome, if things are not joined together well it seems like the eye catches that and then you lose the immersion.

I would add that the distant background is underdeveloped.

Don't forget that in many forest, especially northern forest, you are going to see almost as many dead-stranding and deadfall trees as you will uprigtht living (and you can probably cut out a lot of triangles but reducing the amount of leaves this way). Also smaller, younger trees and some malformed trees. For a really nice touch you might have LOD-0 of the birch tree have some of its papery bark peeling off. Near trails people always peel it off because it's good kindling.

The grass you have could very well be growing in this particularly sunny spot, but I'd expect it to be a lot higher and thicker. If you don't want that much tall grass you could breakup the undergrowth with large rose bushes, willow, and/or alder plants. That's all stuff that grows here in Alaska but if you go just a bit further south you can get many more species so I'd just imagine where this particular forest is, google what species of fl aura liive there, and get a bit more going on than just  1 tree, 1 grass, and rocks.

Two games with fantastic, realistic natural environments are Codemasters Dirt Rally games :

and Avalanche Studios TheHunter:Call of the Wild

this game makes heavy use of displacement textures and LOD's ^^^

also this fellow has some great tips  for natural environments on his artstation:

https://www.artstation.com/artbyalireza