Brick Suburbia

Swamp Blossom.

Global illumination is slow. And so subtle. Horribly slow, did I mention? Especially for animations. Where the viewer doesn't really have time to see much of a difference.

But it does look good. Makes things appear more tangible.

There actually are shadows in there, but they don't have hard edges. The shadows are further de-emphasized by the fact that thin poles don't cast much of a shadow anyway (technically speaking, there is a large penumbra, but it isn't darkened much). The whole sky is a light source, and one or two thin needles don't occlude much of it.

You can see shadows occasionally where two larger bubbles are close do each other. And, of course, in the undergrowth of a briar patch.

Let me retroactively add another disadvantage to advanced illumination: it makes long thin shadows disappear . So yes, there is definitely room for improvement, and I am not done learning more about creating imagery.