Damon Lavenski posts a multi-part tutorial on how to render foliage With Arnold Renderer.

There are lots of components that go into creating nice or realistic renders. It’s not just shaders, maps or lighting; it’s all of these. That is apparent in Damon Lavenski’s latest multi-part tutorial that shows how to render foliage using Arnold. Lights and materials need to come together to create a viable looking plant.

Lavenski’s tutorial looks into using Maya lights to set up a still life scene for the plants. It covers an essential studio lighting set up, using blockers, and adding final touches in preparation for the rest of the process. Lavenski then shows how to create a fern texture using displacement details, alpha masks, and set-up up subsurface scattering to make a double-sided leaf material. It’s the double-sided shader and the subsurface scattering that will help to make the foliage look believable. For more information on double-sided shaders, have a look at Brent LeBlanc’s tutorial that shows creating leaf material maps here.