what do you think?
Edited by alek76 on 12/10/01 10:06:28 AM.
I guess this is a bit of global illumination on which I have a few views...
1) Just beacause there are loads of photons flying around in your scene and some light gets everywhere doesn't mean you should abandon good lighting technique, key, fill, rims etc. If I see one more lambert shaded model with a hemispherical arealight and GI I shall scream. OK rant over, you've got some nice texturing on the plant but everything else is a little flat, in the case of the ground literally so, so try to add some more texturing and perhaps a slightly more exciting camera angle BUT DEFINITELY change the lighting. Look at the sky. Looks like dawn or dusk to me which usually means quite directional warm soft lights but your scene has "soft-box from above" kind of look. You should also consider...
2) Maybe you don't need radiosity...Shocking but true. With some cleverly placed spots with soft shadowing (depthmaps maybe not even raytraced) you can fairly easily achieve the look you have here. On more complex geometry the effects of radiosity are much harder to cheat but here I reckon it's possible.
It's admirable that your keeping up to date with new CG trends (I too have been playing with HDRI stuff) but always keep in mind that it's a VERY expensive technique which is often unnecessary and especially so in a production environment where rendering time = lots of money.
thanx for all advices 
I'll try to lighting it without FG
although i wasn't expecting not to comment, i must say that for some strange reason i totally like this.
i dont know why. I like the camera angle, i like the stylized subject matter, i like the total flatness of it.
infact i nejoy the lack of texturing per se ... even though you put some basic shaders on.
strange, but if I were you i wouldnt touch a thing. then again, i'm not you.