I would be most grateful for any opinions, tips or advice, observations, thoughts etc...:) Does the lighting look okay? How about the shadows? Textures? Colors? Compostition? Object sizes? POV? My main focus is to learn to use lighting correctly. I must admit I'm a little bit overwhelmed by all the lighting options! I'm using Global Illumination with the City HDRI. I've made some changes to the lighting. It seemed too dark to me. Also a bit monotone. This is an attempt at realism. Basically I'm trying to put a few things I've learned into practice and hopefully learn as I go. BTW I'm using VUE5 standard. No modules. I created the spikey doodads in VUE and the "containers" I imported from KnotPlot. The mat on the cube object is AgentSmith's (with some minor tweaks). The deck is a Newtek texture. The rest of the mat's are preloaded VUE mats again with some minor tweaks. This was rendered in preview mode. Thanks in advance for your input!!! :) Persevere...

Looks good to me,a few stains on the boards maybe, but otherwise I would be happy if this was mine.

I like this a lot. I would follow Jilly's advice. An ultra render would probably create excellent anti-aliasing for these wonderful forms and textures.

definately post it up again with an ultra render, looks great, and would love to get my hands on that floor texture. good work!

Looks great! Nice idea. The color of the light is a touch too blue maybe, and also the shadows are kind of soft if these objects are out in the sun as it looks, but otherwise a very well composed and interesting image.

Thank you all for responding. It really means a lot to me! :D @Jilly: Yes! A few stains here and there would be a nice extra touch. I'll try that! @sittingblue: If it wasn't for your tuts two of those objects wouldn't be there and that killer texture on the floorboards would be out of focus. @Richmathews: I got the floor texture at: http://www.newtek.com This particular texture is 1600x1200! They have every texture imaginable and almost all are hi-res. It's broadband heaven for sure but even on dialup you can just browse the thumbs first and just pick what you need. Registration required but free. I found out about it from AgentSmith. BTW they recently released a new texture pack. Well worth checking out! :) @pisaacs: I totally agree with you on the blue cast. In trying to convey a slightly overcast/foggy ocean atmosphere I think I bumped up the blues and greys too much. Maybe allowing a little more sun will illiminate that AND give the shadows a bit more presence. I hope so anyway. I'm gonna work on this a couple more days and then repost at the ultra setting. Thanks again! You took the time to help out a beginner like me. You're good people. Persevere... PS. If anyone else would like to add anything please don't hesitate!!! :D

Yes, a better render would be easier to critique. Nerver heard of this cool "KnotPlot" - will have to investigate! Composition: Guess you wanted to include the left shadow, but that unbalances the composition. Add more on the right as well, or crop off some of the left. Light: Shadows are too soft, as are the highlights. More contrast (brighter highlights and sharper/darker shadows will give your objects more 3D "form". Shadows should be sharper near the casting object, and blur as they get farther away (but don't ask me how to do that - something about sun size or number of light ray bundles or cone angle or such). I like to color the sun rather yellow and the shadows rather blue. Making the one warmer and the other cooler seems to help the illusion of depth (since cool colors "recede" in human vision). But watch that the bluer shadows don't blend the shadowed part of the white object with the blue object. In fact, maybe the blue object should be a different (warm) color, so it stands out more from the blue-gray floor and such? Maybe you would get more highlight/shadow detail on all these intricate forms if you just scaled everything up by 10X? Or maybe it just needs a better render. Very nice work so far - well worth the effort of getting everything "just right". And always nice to see someone willing to take advice and striving for perfection. What fun is art, if you don't use it as one place where you can really do your very, very best?

Was it worth it?? Should I post this to the gallery? Please, if you can suggest any more changes or improvements I'll give it one more shot before I move on to the next one taking what I've learned here and applying it. I made a lot of changes and some things I left alone. I think maybe I should have left more things alone. Oh well. I sure learned a lot. After 3 weeks of working on this I'm starting to get just a little burned out. Gonna take a break for a couple of days. Any thoughts?? :) Thanks again everyone! You've really helped me grow more than you know.

I like it. You do some fine artwork. I would post this image, yes.

I'd say it's improved for sure. And you aren't the only one learning for your experience - thanks for sharing. Certainly post it to the gallery.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=907642

Thanks so much for helping me with this!!! :D