Interesting POV and wonderful texturing on the characters and clothing. I'm not the one to advise on lighting, cuz that's a weak area for me as well. I like the posing, there's good interaction between the characters, but two things I do notice. There's a little ding on her hand (right side of the screen), but that could be me, and her lower arm needs adjustment, it seems inside his shoulder. The story seems intriguing as well.

Crap! I thought I fixed that. SIGH. The ding on her hand seems to happen whenever you bend her hand a bit farther than it likes. There is likely a postwork method to fix that. I'll have to check around. :)

Interesting Story & picture. Technical Notes --------------- I think you need a few shadows, I think he is sitting - yes, but looks a bit odd, like he is floating because there is no shadow on the bench. Same as the background - no depth, again I think because there are no shadows.

I was going to make the same comment about the bench he does look as if he is floating in thin air :)

It must have been very difficult to have the characters interact as they do. So, congrats for that! Apart from what was already mentioned, with which I agree, I also feel the scene would benefit from a much darker environment overall. I would suggest a dark environment with a few spotlights directed to where you want to call attention, some in the background, some for the characters. In the full-size view we can see many imperfections in his hair and some missing anti-aliasing in the structure. So, either you need to increase your render settings... or not give such a big full-size view.

ok, this is going to be a quickie (for me ;D). i've seen some of your other work in this series, so i'm going to make a few assumptions about your goals. please let me know if i'm wrong (for future critiques). you're going for a toon/stylized look. you want to tell a story with your images. * you want a dynamic or dramatic look. let me first congratulate you on such precise interaction between your figures. their lips seem to meet perfectly. i'm just amazed at that. the colors are very muted and earthy, which is somewhat puzzling in such a passionate scene surrounded by metal. you appear to have no cast shadows at all, and i think some adding some could add drama. i could see some raytraced shadows with no blur at less than 0.5 doing wonders. the last thing i'd say is that the floor's texture seems to have a very large scale. and the angle of elements seems odd. they makes me feel we're much closer to the ground than possible considering the size of the figures. it throws off the my spatial understanding of the room. cool story, and fun tale. i hope you flesh out the villains and give them more personality in the future.

Wonderful posing! Excellent scene and work!!

The odd part is that I had shadows turned on for everything. Do I need to shadowmap them instead of raytracing? I do tend to go for a slightly toon style. Since I'm just not good enough for realism, I chose not to try and go with the toon style instead. I do like to tell a story with the pics, and just can't stop myself from writing a corresponding mini-tale with it. :) Not sure what you mean by dynamic/dramatic. Action scene where movement is implied? Then yes, I do. I try to avoid static images if I can. I saved the project file for this one because I had hoped for good crits, which I got, to help me improve it, especially the lighting. :) Thanks.

I've just been so busty with my pet project to remap Posette, that I haven't had time to keep up with my comments. Although I can only spare this a very quick glace, it looks to be a very good render. DO keep up the good work. David P. Hoadley

I like your chosen POV. One thing I would say is that if you're going for a toony look, the very realistic textures on the male clothing and the female hair may throw that off a little. It's hard to say, but maybe try an experiment... Her little finger looks a little awkward on her right hand. Other than that, excellent work on the posing.

This pose and setting is really awesome... I agree with using some spotlights and darkening the general lighting, also it looks like her bottom arm is kinda going into his shoulder and the pinky looks a tad stretched. Other then that the interactive pose between the two is really well done! cheers!

I think the posing is really well done. But you might want to repose her right little finger. Try putting your hand like that,with the ring finger curled and the pinkie extended. it hurts. The toon style works :)I like it. What color lights are you using? You might want to add or switch in a yellow or blue for a harsher, more nighttime feel. And I think a smaller render would smooth out all the jagged edges that show up in the full size version.

No shadows at all that I can see. Some info on how you currently have the scene lit would be good to offer - it looks as if you're using 2-3 Infinite lights with shadows un-checked. My advice would be a set of low power spotlights placed to simulate actual lighting points within the scene, with a softer shadow radius, and a wide spread (120 or higher). Raytracing (the render setting, not the shadow type) with a fair number of bounces will give you some nice softening of the light and help get light onto shadowy surfaces and keep them from being completely black. Then you can look at one or two key lights to get good illumination on the characters. Shade is posed very gracefully, but her left elbow clips into Sweetwater's shoulder a little bit, needs to come up. The right hand is a little tight and awkward. Sweetwater's got a little bit of Duck Lip Syndrome, you may want to tone down the pucker setting just a little bit. The little camera-bot spying on them is wonderful, very subtle and cute. Overall a very romantic and spontaneous-looking scene.

I like the overall concept of this image. One thing that leaped out at me was the lack of shadows. Without shadows the image looks flat. Unfortunately I'm not that strong in the lighting department myself so am not able to offer you any suggestions, other than to check Olivier's tutorials in the Poser 6 forum at RDNA or shoot me a PM and I'll give you a link to a thread filled with lighting tutorials.

Poses are exelent...lighting not so. if you have P6 or P7 IBL lighting would make a big difference.Cool Story and Pic.

It's so cute and romanticals and a lovely story too ^^

"Shade and sweet water" come from Elfquest. It was spoken several times by Shen Shen, younger sister of Leila, lifemate of Cutter, Chief of the Wolfriders.

Ah! Finally someone who knows Elfquest! I was beginning to think I was the only one. :)