To kickstart the Forest Car Showcase Project, I focused on gathering detailed reference images to inspire and guide my modeling, texturing, and rendering process. Using PureRef, I created an organized reference board, categorized as follows:

• 🌳 Forest Roads Without Cars: Capturing untouched nature for realistic environments.
• 🚗 Forest Roads With Cars: Observing how vehicles interact with the environment—studying shadows, reflections, and scale.
• 📷 Aerial Views of Forest Roads: Understanding broader landscapes and compositions from above.
• ❄️ Different Settings: Mountain roads, snowy fields, lakesides, and other diverse scenes for inspiration.
• 🍄 Forest Floors: Details found on the ground—mushrooms, moss, leaves, creeks, and other natural elements.
• ☀️ Forest Lighting: Exploring various lighting scenarios such as dark scenes, light scenes, sunbeams, northern lights, winter atmospheres, and more.

These references will help me visualize the forest environment and identify the best settings for my car renders. This process also gives me a clear direction for the next stages: modeling the car and creating the environment.

Here’s a snapshot of my reference board: