I think the lack of shadows, as djthomas has mentioned, are one the primary ingredients missing from this image (even the first one). Shadows, however subtle, add that extra "3rd" perception of depth when viewing a 3D image. Without them, the image just seems flat, or more "cartoony".

Another thing might be the textures/materials used. The ground mat doesn't resemble anything realistic that we humans know of in the real world. Perhaps marble, but not quite. Try going for more realistic texturing on the clothes and ground. Use more bump and specular properties in combination with each other. Aside from adding detail, bump maps help break up specularity, which provides more realism by nullifying the smooth, "plastic" look of CG. Before bump maps, everything in CG looked like plastic or metal. ;-)

As additional touches, you may also consider adding some DOF (depth of field) to give it a more 'photographic' appearance, and even try to fake some SSS on the skin (if you have P5 or P6), so that the skin seems to have some life. Without sub-surface scattering, CG skin tends to look lifeless. SSS gives the illusion of light being absorbed and scattered under the surface of the skin, much like the properties of real human skin, which our eyes are so used to seeing in life.

Finally, a much over-looked component to realism is expression. Her face needs some kind of expression on the mouth and eyes to tell us she's "real", and not just a department store prop. ;-) Work on some interesting facial expressions for her, and I think it will make a world of difference.

Hope this helps a little. Good luck.

Message edited on: 08/24/2005 12:00

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