Road through the forest

The first work of the year. The inspiration was given by an older masterpiece by Sebastian Zapata (blenderartists). I tried to make my version of a road expanding through a thick coniferous forest. A road telling a story. And light tells stories if it lights the scene appropriately. Various addons were used (botaniq, GeoScatter, Vegetation), some megascans and textures from Poliigon and Quixel. Rendered with Cycles with extreme settings (Full GI, 8192 samples with 0.001 noise threshold). It took 2hrs 16min with my 3090. Not bad considering the weight of the scene and the volumetrics which are hard to render in general. Post processing in Photoshop.
I dedicate this work to my sweet and patient wife, with whom I’ve created a big and lovely family. She’s the light of my eyes. For full resolution see here https://blenderartists.org/t/road-through-the-forest/1442238