Looks like a really great start! Forests have many shadows and great depth though......... maybe you want to explore that a little more? Is that strictly a Poser render?

Judith is right. The bear looks like he's floating because there are no shadows to say his feet are on the ground.

I think the bear should have shadows, and it looks like surprised by something... it is a very good picture

OK, there are two areas we can address, which would improve the picture immediately. Finessing can come later. The bear. We don't see what s/he is looking at, so it is difficult to guage his/her intent... and the body language gives us no clue. Is there a cub in danger? A backpacker eating a salami sandwich? A bigger bear? If the body language expresses some emotion or intent, we don't need to see the object which evokes that behavior. You might change the position of the bear: move his weight forward in anticipation or backwards in fear, raise his head to sniff the wind, something like that. Even raising a foot and moving his weight to the other 3 would be a start. You might also try unchecking the "use limits" box and applying one of the poses for a wolf or other 4-legger and just play with it for a while. The lighting. You probably don't want the bear to blend too much with the shadows, but Judith is correct: there are lots of deep shadows in the forest. If the bear is backlighted so that his furry outline glows, it should help the eye focus upon him. If you want the source of light to be behind him, put another spot light where you have the sun and have it "point at" the bear. Also, the trees look like they are gently side-lighted, although the sun is in the back of your scene. With the sun there, the trees immediately between the light and the viewer would be quite dark with bright indistinct edges. Did you add the solar glare in a paint program such as PhotoShop? You might add a layer if so and paint on top of it until you get some depth to the trees. By having the changes on a separte layer, you don't risk changing the underlying image until you are satified with the results. There are a few mushrooms and woodsy plants in the various free-stuff areas, and I think it was Geralday who put up the downed and broken branches and twigs. If you add a rock or branch or a couple of plants to the ground, and then put in some shadows, it would be more interesting. You have a good beginning, and I hope that these comments will help you make it better. Carolly

i don't know if i'm right, but you rendered the image in Vue, where you used that flare for the sun, and then imported it as a background image into Poser, where you added the bear. that's why there's no shadows around the bear, and because you put the flare in front of the trees, there's no shadows in the forest either As far as i know, you can import a picture into Vue without losing the textures, so i think that's what you should do do what Carolly said with the pose, give it a bit more 'character' and feeling, and then export the model into Vue you'll have your shadows, and the bear's expression :) that probably sounds confusing, so just IM me if is and i'll try to explain better :)

You could always add the shadows in a good paint program...Sharen

I think maybe the ground texture, the grass, is too light. Should be a darker green. It looks like a flood light is focused on the ground around the bear. The bear seems kind of stiff. They're very heavy animals and tend to sort of "slump" around. He seems kind of rigid (but he's very cute). I really like the trees in the background, though. There's that "denseness" of the forest, where you can't really see where it ends. So thick, you can't see through the trees. I like that. I think it's a great start for an image. I'd like to see how it ends up. Melanie

Use some value degration. Either dark in the front and light in the back or visa versa. The ground is all one light tone. Its should probably get dark in front and fade to light as it goes back. The bear needs a shadow in the direction of the sun. Toss a few "anchor" objects around the bear to clamp him to the ground. Also, sink him in a bit so his paws are a bit obscured. The tree in front also needs some shadowing. One problem people have with shadows in Poser is they don't realize what a shadow map is. If you ground has shadows turned on, it will fill your shadow map with black and your objects won't shadow. Think of it this way. Imagine a camera is put at the light and a monochrome pic is take. Anything of substance is black and anything the light passes by is White. Poser uses this map to render its scene. Now if the ground has shadow turned on, the entire light map for that light will be black so nothing else shadows. If you could pry up the scene after rendering you'd see a shadow for the ground. Nice pic.

Hi, IMHO the bear has a shadow. If you look on the left you can see it, slightly backwards.. Probably it's a case of the bear being illuminated by a different light source than the visible sun, that makes this image look a bit wrong. Probably even deleting the flare from behind will give it a better look.

Summing up and agreeing with most of what was said above, given the position of the sun, the bear, the trees, and everything would be in deep silhoutte, throwing shadows forward - towards camera. The light filtering through the trees would put dark slashes of shadow on the ground, which currently looks completeley flat and evenly lit. Regardless of where you put your sun, as dense as the trees are this whole area should be much darker and have higher contrast between light and dark regions. Our subconscious is VERY good at picking up inconsistencies about light and shadow direction. That's why it looks "wrong" to us.