OK, I am happy with the image (it'll be in the next post, if you got a fast modem WAIT FOR IT! :^D ) Here are the trees I made for the pic, I spent a lot of time on the names, LOL. I had a reference pic of a river in Africa located in a dry area, I just was taken by the starkness of it. I approximated the 3 types of trees I could see on the far bank and used some tweaked up versions of my metephants to add a little life.

I like this as a final, but I really want to hear some C and C. Sometimes you're just to close to something to see it clearly. Let me know what you think.

Awesome trees! I dunno how you did the bent look but looks fantastic! Are those metaball elephants? Wow!

hmm... it's interesting, but it's missing SOMETHING, and I can't really put my finger on it. The elephants are awesome, the splashes of water are incredible, the scenery is okay... maybe make the water dirtier and give it less reflection....? I don't know... and the lighting is also somewhat unreal.. solid effort though :)

The elephants are cool. I think it's missing the african feeling. How about making one of those beautiful african sunsets. Make a nice tree in the foreground with a leopard in it looking through the branches at the elephants together with the camera.

Could use a bit more stuff in the background too. It just seems like standing at the edge of the world. The concept is great, the elephant model is great, the plants and trees are great (although your tree seems to be a little high on the ambience). The POV is okay too.

your elephants = win. Looks cool so far. Maybe make the water texture larger, and thus much less repetetive. Possibly a backdrop behind the trees to make it look like there's a forest back there, and not just a row of trees.

Tjohn, elephants and trees are wonderful. I specially like the dead tree. Splashes give lot of movement to the scene. As for the image, I agree with Drac: maybe the water has too much reflection. Just MO, of course. Or try blurry reflections? I've not used them too often, so maybe I'm saying something stupid.

Hmmmmm... it is missing something. I agree with a few of the above, mostly with the water. I agree that it could maybe be less reflective, and more blurry. Perhaps adding a little more of a tannish hue to it to make it look dirtier. Also, I think that the bump on the water looks a little unnatural. Your elephants, although they are superb metaballing, are all different sizes, yet the water line comes up to the same spot on the younger ones as it does on the much larger, older ones. Maybe lower the smaller elephants down a bit??? Great start however, and excellent theme!!! I really think you can improve it!! brholte (Benjamin Ross Holte)

Looks great, This is just my opinion, but I think the image would look even better in monsoon season, IE rain and a darkened sky. Because it looks more like a flood than a river. Mainly due to the shallowness of it.

Good points, all, but I thought I should post my reference photo so you can see why I made some of the decisions I did. The elephants were modelled from a different photo reference. I do agree that the water isn't quite right, but this is the closest I've been able to get so far, and I don't want to deviate too far from the reference, although it's obvious I'm not trying to duplicate it, only using the composition and color. Maybe I'll have time to tweak it a bit more this weekend. There's not a forest behind the trees because this river is the only source of water in the area, and it's pretty arid there, just dry grassland. Elephants tend to destroy much of their environment for food (sound like any other species you might know of?) even pushing trees over to get at the leaves. Thanks for the comments, I will make every effort to improve this with some of your suggestions before posting to the upload page. Tjohn