Wish I had time to post something more captivating and imaginative, but I did wanted to thank again those of you who kindly volunteered suggestions on how to improve the image I first posted here.

The final image above suffers a lot from size reduction and jpg compression, but I think it looks much better then the original. The final render size for the image was 3,600 x 3,000 pixels and I'm reducing it to 512x712 pixels.

Changes made...

-- I added the water caustics and the water does look much more believable now. However, the caustics reflected from the water on the inside of the storm drainpipe didn't turn out as I would have liked. No more time to fix it though. There also wasn't time to see if a similar faint reflection might have worked on the red curb above the water flowing there.

-- I re-applied the dirt to the pavement a little differently and hopefully improved it.

-- The water flowing down the curb has been sunk a little into the curb to help eliminate the levitating look it seemed to have before. Also changed how much it is soaking into the cement for the same reason. (That's water mixed with mud and anti-freeze.)

-- I also played with the shadow cast by the storm drain grill, but decided to leave it alone in the end. It looks OK in the large image but gets lost in the small jpg here.

Thanks again! Comments and crits are still welcome.

Looks good.

I think both images look terrific! The caustics turned out great in the first pic and I like the exploded view of the product in the second. I'd be happy if I were the client.

Pauljs75, Oh... It just so happens that one of the illustrations I had to complete did depict an "Ooops situation" in which a forlift punctured and knocked over some drums in a factory storage facility. :) Erlik and danamo, Thanks for the encouragement.

Didn't use multiple renderings (multi-pass rendering) this time and there is not post work.

That was suppose to read "no post work" and not "not post work".

Cool illustration, it looks great and if I were the client I'd be happy with it. One question about the illustration gets at me though... Who's going to spend money filtering storm run off? (Idealistically it's good, but after a while cleaning out the thing and perhaps changing the filters would seem to be a bit $$$.) I think a more sensible location would be in an indoor drainage situation such as a warehouse, etc., where chemical spills are possible, etc. (But then again what do I know. The warehouse wouldn't be a bad start for an illustration - you could have an "oops" situation with a forklift driver and some barrels that have fallen off a pallet and started leaking.) Also if it's just a device to skim oil, it would be fairly low maintenance outdoors. However some chemicals such as antifreeze would pass through the thing since they are water soluble and don't separate readily. Just my 2.

pauljs75, Thanks for the comments. :) I didn't design the product, but it is made for instances were it is "required by law" to have the storm drain protected in some manner. It isn't just used in curbside situations alone. The Safe Drain is used in a varity of situations which include using it within and around factories that store hazardous chemicals. It is even used at airports and construction sites to control run-off. The company that sells the SafeDrain also services it if the client so wishes. Also, the SafeDrain comes in a varity of forms with different filtration devices for different situations. It is even possible to control and monitor it by remote. And, yes, some forms of the product allow for less maintance. Jeeze, I sound like a bloom'n advertisement for the dang thing. :)

They look great, Alan. One little thing - you misspelled "patented" and "product" on both images.

Perfect Illustration. Everything is spot-on as far as I see! ;o) Also, it's a perfect example of those little extra efforts that REALLY "sell" a picture. In this case (for me) it is the dirt. It is absolutely perfect, imo. How you have "scattered" it, not only in you gutter, but on the curb, and a few other places...just looks great. And, of course how the dirt has it's darker areas where it mixes in with the water... Wonderful detail. AgentSmith

I bet it's a messy job opening the drains again if they were closed for any reason/length of time..... Great illustrations. I think if you posted these you would get in the top20 without even trying....;-)

Interesting, and nice work on the illustration! The drainage for our parking lot at work uses a similar method of filtration but the waste run-off is stored in an underground "vault" and pumped out by specialists every so often.

Cool image. You have a gift for attention to detail. Obviously an asset in work like this. I appreciate the exploded image too. That helps to make the operation of this filter more understandable for someone like me who has no background in these.

bigbadelf,

Thanks for catching those spelling errors. Damn, thats what I get for being in a hurry. Arrrggghhh. Well, at least the errors are just in these two images and not in any others. Too bad I cant easily edit the images in this post to correct them.

AgentSmith,

Hey, thank you, it's a real boost to hear that you think the images look OK. Your work in Bryce has been one of my inspirations.

90% of the lose or scattered dirt is accomplished with terrains poking through other terrains or objects. The other 10% is accomplished with Bryce stones. Even the scattering of very fine dirt particles on the concrete is just a few terrains poking through.

TheBryster,

I can't remember what you call them, but there is a tool in the form of a metal rod with a fork on one end and a handle on the other, that you insert through the drain's grille to turn the valve handle to open and close the valve, if it isn't motor operated. If the unit does fill up with solid matter, then yes, it can be a bit messy to clean out (company uses vacuum trucks design just for such cleaning jobs).

Atomic Anvil,

Thanks. Yep, there are a number of products and methods on the market that do the same or similar thing.

zescanner,

Thank you. :)

Alan: Sounds like a 'Claw' or a 'Wheel-key' to me. Of course, nobody would want to get dirty anyway....;-)

Aye, I think it's a wonderful illustration, Alan. Keep up the good work, it is greatly improved and honestly I love seeing real-world applications of our favorite renderer...