To be a good render, it must not have obvious flaws. My pet peeves are: * Light sources which cast no light. A 1-day gallery-duty day turned up the fact that more than 10% of the images used a giant sun or moon in the background or torches and braziers in the foreground which cast no shadows. I don't care if you spent a fortune on that gorgeous background pack... use the thing as it was intended and match your lights to it!!! Otherwise all you have is a photographer's fake painted drop from the 1840's :pfffft: * Body parts which intersect other body parts, especially when there are 2 bodies in the scene, and her arm is going into his shoulder and his thigh has a foot in it. :pfffft: * Painted highlights in the eyes which don't match the scene lighting. Why don't you just use a doll instead of investing hundreds of dollars on photorealistic textures? * The absence of shadows connecting the figure to the ground or prop. Maybe angels and fairies float a bit, but that commando wearing 300# of plate armor and another 200# of weaponry ought to be solidly planted. * Hiding the character's feet in water or cutting them off the picture entirely doesn't hide the fact that the artist can't deal with shadows. :pfffft: So, if the lighting and shadow-casting is right, and the figures touch where they ought to touch and not a smidgen more (this is what the orthographic views are good for... checking the intersections), we pass the hurdle of believability and have a good render, perhaps one worth posting to the Gallery. What makes it great? Emotional appeal, story-telling, unusual and revealing perspective, etc.. anything which reaches out and starts a dialogue with the viewer. Art is communication, after all, and if the image presents no message (other than "here is what I bought at the store this afternoon"), so what? I don't care what you bought... I want to know what is going on... who are these people and what is the story and are there hidden layers of meaning and anything which will involve me emotionally or intellectually in the image. THAT makes a great render. Carolly the Opinionated