Those are lovely trees and plants, Cec! Better than most tree models I have seen. Certainly interesting for sharing if you feel so inclined.
I cannot help thinking that most man-made objects can be reduced to very simple models, but once you try nature's own creations it gets pretty complicated.
.. heavy objects on separate levels...
Absolutely, but even so, working on a slow (but blissfully fanless and very portable) computer, it has advantages using very simple tree-outlines until rendering. Even if the simplified tree models are annoyingly ugly, they will show light and shadow with a very limited payload. Useful for, to take an actual example, chopping down a tree in front of the house and get an impression of interior light at different times and different times of the year (using sunlight simulation). The illustrations below show some ugly models in SF 3D models 261. Note the link Puybaret posted for generating more complicated trees: Arbaro. Another trick is to use multiple instances of a very simple tree scaled to different sizes, and then simply open the zipped (compressed) .sh3d file and replace the simple model with a more advanced one at time of rendering. That way it is possible to change an entire little forest of ugly trees to prettier ones with just a couple of key-clicks (caution, keep backup).
As for the .pngs - I am sure you know, but for those who have not used the .png format a lot - there are some tools to reduce sizes (like PNG optimizer for Windows) which at least is helpful for file sizes.
ok
PS. And thanks for the interesting extras - Stelton/Magnussen kaffekanne, witchbrew, Dagbdalet... Always a joy.
SVG rendering of sunlight. Sunlight rotation fairly easy to change.
