Poisanally I don't like the cloak, think the first option would be better. I wonder if you could just render the figures and lay them in as a 2d plane reversed? Or just make the explosion bigger? It's almost more interesting that you can't really see the explosion......... How would it be if you darkened the (blue) figure slightly and lightened the explosion a lot, so the figure was outlined a bit more starkly? then you could also darken the area to the front right-hand side. That way you might be able to intensify the confused feeling? The lighting is very flat, considering what's going on outside.