This is a reworking of an image originally done about a year ago... believe the composition is better but i still have questions about it and hope to see if anyone else feels the same.... The skeletal warriors is a retextured and in most cases reworked John Mallis character. Bryce 4, Poser 4 and just a weee little bit of Photoshop 3. Comments appreciated.

Very ghoul.

jason and the argonauts in colour

The forward skeleton looks like it's missing if right arm. Maybe have the skeletons lead with different feet and arms (ie. lead with shield arm instead of sword arm) as they mostly look the same with minor variations. Just some suggestions. Otherwise it looks fine, I like the skull in the mist.

Good color scheme and backdrop image, might try just a touch of ground fog. Great pic

other than what's been said, I'd try a dirtier texture material on the helmets. They look a bit too clean and smooth. Otherwise an awesome, creepy pic (yeah, I like that skull in the myst too). Atomic Anvil

Appreciate all of your comments.
The arm guard on the lead character does need to go doesn't it... and probably the arm repositioned as well.
Airflamesred - appreciate the reference to one of my favorite flics - that's the type of feel i was hoping to achieve.
Fog i might try, but i want to keep the image a bit crisp, but will see how it does.

And... what is bugging me the most - or at least concerns me the most - no one's so far mentioned so maybe it's not worth the concern i feel..........

best to you,
hewsan

How about some boulders or ruins, and it does have promise, in a sort of Army of Darkness kinda way...:)

I really like the lighting effects. I think it needs some work on the ground though (as Zhann has alluded to). The background has a nice eery feel about it. Far left skel looks out of perspective (but thats pretty nit-picky).

Dirty it up. Make some differences in the color of each skeleton, to make it look a bit more varied. I would actually shrink the size of the two skeletons that are in the very background to make them look farther away. When I focus on the hills background it seems to me the back skeletons are "giants". Maybe even bring the most forward skelton even farther forward, towards the camera, we don't have to see his legs. Your scene here reminds me of a wallpaper made up for a series of Todd McFarland toys. It might make a good reference for you. Here's a link to download an 800x600 pic of what I'm talking about. http://www.spawn.com/features/series22/images/wallpaper.01.800x600.zip AgentSmith

hewsan, Jason and the Argonauts was a favorite of mine too. I thought of the last Quest for Glory game where the hero is in Hades looking for Stix water- Yours is a lot more detailed of course. About the forward most skeleton. Perhaps he should be getting ready to swing, sword drawn upwards a bit? I really lile the lighting and the texture of the ground terrain. I think scale has already been mentioned, as to the background, can't quite put my finger on it but maybe the flames should be a little sharper? - TJ

That's not bad at all. The backdrop is really very good. I'm doing a pic ATM that has a faded "evil-type" head as part of the backdrop, so I hope mine turns out as good as yours. I like the saturated colours, too, although the textures could be improved. I'm not sure why the landscape is symmetrical. I don't think it harms it much, but is there a reason? If not... unsymmetricalise it! (I made that word up, as you may have guessed) IMO the main problem you have is in composition, in that you have no foreground, no focus, nothing that draws the eye more than anything else. If it was me, I'd have a close-up head & torso of a skeleton warrior, maybe half-off the screen, in the bottom left corner (shifting the other skellies around to fit, obviously) Another thing (damn, I bet peoeple cringe when they see my name on a critique post!) - the skellies need to interact more with the ground. They appear to be floating a couple of inches from the ground, and the distant ones have a too-high ambience - they should be darkened with distance.

I would love to write some more than this, but I have to little time at the moment. So here's my comment for now: Cool image!

First off, i appreciate all of you taking time to make comments and give me some feedback on this image. In some ways i consider it still a good work, but it does indeed have problems... Where i posted suggestions on another's post, decided to go ahead and post mine to more or less illustrate what i was trying to express there.

As for my own image... the original version was done a year ago and had a human necromancer that was placed in the foreground as well. I still think that he turned out well, but the scene was being disrupted by his presence - having to many points of focus - but i resisted taking him out till now... And now that he's gone, think it works much better... i do actually try to give composition in my work some serious thought, even when it "hurts" me, to take something out.
Now the first point of focus, intended for the viewer, is that lead skeleton... and then... everything else is arranged... so that subconsciously the eye is being directed towards that green updraft and skull that's in the back. All the rest becoming eye candy as the eye scans the scene. That's my reason for keeping it so clean, relatively uncluttered, and laid out as it is. If it actually works as planned, you have to be the judge, and might even now be seeing what i did to try and cause this to happen.
Agent Smith and Bikermouse confirmed what i find my greatest concerns. The foreshortened depth of the "hill" and resulting scale of the back characters. If i do scale the two down, they lose any semblance of detail at the rendered resolution the image will likely be seen, and i feel the need to add even more characters to keep the eye moving where i want and avoid a break, by a negative space, which then complicates the goal of simplicity I'm after.
And the "funnel" coming up from the bright light source, i am trying to show is still confining the "malevolent" force, but want that to be subtle, and that as well might not be working well enough...
The texture maps for the bones are the same on each skeleton. And agree adding at least some minor variety is needed there as well.
And Aldaron again thanks. I had a case of not seeing tree for forest. When i moved the lead skeleton, didn't notice how that would make his lead arm now seem to disappear.
By writing all of this, i hope to express a bit of the how and why this scene was done as it is... and why so far... being my own worst critic i haven't managed to complete a scene beyond the point of perpetual WIP status.
best to you all,
hewsan

Place objects, i.e.boulders ruins, heavier textures on the ground need not detract from the image's flow, make them indistinct enough to enhance the look but with enough detail so you know what they are, a hint that there's something there. Even the broken ground from which they emerged would give enough texture without the distraction...just a thought...where they're coming from has to be dirty, right? Few demon planes have maid service LOL...=>

Zhann - appreciate - and you may be right... but I'm putting this one on back burner for awile, got a project that's time limited to work on & heading on vacation soon as well. best to you hewsan

Vacation, what's a vacation, you actually go somewhere on these? LOL...