making a forest
 

whats the easy way to make a good forest for a camera fly through with out using a bunch of paint effects that will slow your computer down.

Be very careful with modeling, UVing, texturing and lighting.

the best bet would be using a software designed for that, Vue, teragen etc.

I seem to recall seeing a mel script somewhere one time that would allow you to model two or three basic tree shapes, low poly, and the mell would randomly deform and copy them about a predefined area in your scene, you determine the number of copies, ect ect.. I don't recall where i saw it, but. My guess woudl be highend 3d.com.. i'd start there if that sounds usefull to you
G

could bring down the piant effect display from 100% to say 5%??

Gster as always has a good answer but the render times for a good quality animation are scary in Vue., it was supposed to be quicker in Vue 6 but they are still scary.., but then again i dont have the slightest about render cow.