contest is over and the winner is..someone who spent a whopping 5 minutes taking a snapshot of a sleeping kid. gee i could have done that and saved me 3 days work -_- not that it doesnt look good but doesnt anyone read the time and effort put into some of the other entries i think the elephant should have gotten 1st place that was my personal fav of the bunch and alot of work was put into it. Software used:Adobe Photoshop 7 Hardware used:Canon PowerShot A590 and a Tripod Supplies used: 1/2 a pound of Super Sculpey Compound,20 or so toothpicks, and a cardboard box. This project took me roughly 24 hours to do spread out over 3 and 1/2 days. i molded by hand each of the 3 family members, tree, and presents then 1 at a time i secured skeletons on their backs with broken toothpicks and propped them up in front of a solid backdrop, snapped a picture then colored and shaded them in photoshop. Once i had them all textured i drug them all into a new file with the cardboard box pic and re-sized and placed them. then lit the scene with the star as the light source. i did not use anything in photoshop but the default brush,dodge and burn,eraser, and the soft-light layer effect. furthermore except for the window everything in the scene was physically there either by the clay or box. If you like what you see make sure to check out the rest of my gallery =)