[SVRy_Steve]

Well, the Moclips branch is progressing quite well, trac's in from the main town of Hoquiam to Moclips, beach is pretty much done, other than some driftwood and other little details, now I'm starting in on the forests.

Mostly I've made a bunch of trees and other plants that are common to the area. This includes Alder, Cedar, Fir, Spruce, Vine Maple, Big Leaf Maple, and Skunk Cabbage.

Since the Skunk Cabbage are at their best right now, I've been mucking around in swamps with the digital camera and getting them down on pixels. For those of you not familiar with them, they have very green leaves that are humungous, sometime 5' tall and 24" wide. The yellow flower is 12-20" and does smell a bit skunky. The leaves last most the year, so they are very obvious in wet areas. Since I'm modeling an area with over 100" of rain a year, they are a must have!!

I've been experimenting further with aces that have multiple trees on them, then using them as forest objects. I post about this a few months ago. It is working out very well, and I'm getting thick forests with very little hit on frame rates!