Bryce and Vue d'esprit are the two most used for that type of render as far as I know.. be prepared for a steep learning curve though and won't hurt to have a box with plenty of memory and a fast processor \ vid card...although not neccesary.

WWW Link I've seen Vue Infinite mentioned.....could you check this out ....

WWW Link demos & tutorials

looking forward to seeing what you come up with Philly......

I actually fooled around with vue for a while.. was kinda fun, just not my bag.. however for what your talking about maybe right up your alley.

Good luck bro.  

Wow, just looking at that software made my head sweat. I think I'll try the web search and see what I can come up with.   

Terragen and Genesis are in my opinion the oldest yet easiest landscape and topographical apps on the market. Straight forward and fairly simple to get the hang of. There are freeware versions of both. Most of the landscapes you see in my images have been done in Terragen    

Thanks for the suggestions MountainHawk. I'll take a look at them.   

The best advice on learning I can give is to let yourself go and just play with them and have fun. The more you play the more you learn. Do not be scared of them.....give them stink and take no prisoners....lol  

The truth is though . . it's not the tools; it's teh artist.
Having said that, good tools can help make art easier . . but the best tools can't make an artist that doesn't underdtand light and color and balance, etc. good. 

Well said!  

Beware the 'wow...look at this' - factor which is an issue with 'image generators'.

Ninetynine point nine times out of a hundred what you suddenly discover 'you can do' with such proggies as Bryce and Terragen, etc. has been 'done to death' by countless thousands before.

That chrome torus floating above a rippled water foreground with dolphins rampant over palm trees is actually less rare than rocking-horse poo ...by a long shot....

There are sites/examples on the net of amazing results achieved with that lowly MSPaint.....where it is definitely the talent of the artist and NOT the program used.

Think....

1. Experimentation

2. Practise

and

3. MORE practise.

Doing your 'own thing' is what it's all about.  Don't expect the proggy to do it ALL for you.  It won't.

Main thing is to 'JUST HAVE FUN' ....

It will if you want a chrome torus floating above a rippled water foreground with dolphins rampant over palm trees.

  

Appreciate the input Jafo. One thing I have is an enormous amount of time.  

In another life, when I was very young, I wanted to be an artist, my father even forked out money for lessons. Unfortunately there wasn't much support after that. I than grew up and found other interests. Doh! So hopefully some talent is left inside my brain!  

I really think this is something I want to try and see what happens.

Hey Zubaz appreciate your reply also.   

Hey MountainHawk you have to know what I got when I search Genesis, a rock (which I grew up on) and the Bible! You wouldn't happen to have a link would you?  

"Practice"?

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/practise 

Dagnabit!

Philly, a good tip . . if the softwaer can do it for you . . don't do it.