Thanks CrazyMerlin. I worked more on the stones and got the grass to grow around them, but to do so I had to change the grass some. This image shows the reworked grass, dirt and stones. Crit and/or Compl are welcome. Thanks.

the grass growing up the side on the right looks really good!!!

nice adjustment!

~~CM!

Thanks again CrazyMerlin. I realized that the shadow of the tree on the stepping stones is cut off when it hits the grass so I made saslite receive shadows, which drastically increased render times, but I think really helped the image. I also played around more with the blue light on the mosquito's face, it still has a kind of hard edge but it was the best I could get. Crit and/or compl are welcome. Thanks.

I know you have already done the render now, but you could lay a plane across the top of your grass and render the shadow onto that, then composite the shadow into the scene, or add it post-production.

~~CM!

Sorry, but I don't know much about compositing or what to do in post. How would I go about compositing the shadow onto the grass? Or how could I add it in post?

To add it in post, you would render the shadow onto a white surface with nothing else, jus the shadow.

Then you would take this into an image editing package, load your scene pic, then in another layer load the shadow and set the shadow layers Mode to 'Screen'.

This would get rid of the white and overlay the shadow onto the scene.

If it covered anything it shouldn't that would be easy to work around with some selection.

The smoke in my scene was rendered in LW, but I rendered it in a scene on its own, and layered it over the other image of the whole scene.

There is nothing in the rules that says you are not allowed to use post production techniques, so you could get you electricity to really BUZZ!

lol

~~CM!

Thanks a lot for the tips, I think that will really help me in the future. Thanks.

Hi everybody...
It might be just me but could you move the zapped mosquito a bit higher or lower to see it better on a darker surface, since in the position it's in now you can't really see it because of the stone wall.
Also, I'm not sure, and I might just get a lot of bashing for this but something doesn't look right with the bug zapper's base... if one's not carefull one might think that it's actually touching the cobblestone walkway, but again...it might be just my eyes playing tricks on me at 1 o'clock in the morning :zzz:
Anyway...keep up the good work and sorry if I popped out uninvited like I did...

P.S. Just a thought: you could rotate the eyes of the mosquito, the living one, of course, twards the left (from his perspective, to the right - from ours), like it's trying to look behind him to see if he's safe. At least that's what everybody on TV in a horror/ thriller does: look behind to see if someone's following them, fall, twist their ankles, die...well, don't wanna spoil the end ;)

And since you gave the little flier human eyes, maybe even dilate the pupils a bit... a bit more.... to give the impression that he's actually scared and not just flying around, minding it's own business while some other unfortunate buddy of his comes across a shocking experience :lmao: ok, so maybe it wasn't so funny ....

BTW It's a scientifical fact that when we get scared, among other thing happening, our pupils dilate so more light reaches the receptors on the retina to help us better understand and react to the current situation. Just a fact.

I agree about the base looking like it is almost touching the stones.

This is probably because you have no DOF. And so everything is in focus, so it looks like the objects are all together.

If you add a little DOF it will give the scene volume.

You could move the bug by the zapper away to a darker area, and then use post-processing to add the electrical zap, giving you more control over it.

I hope you don't mind, but I copied your picture and added some post-process gaussian blur to get the image below. This is not exactly what you would get with DOF, but is similar.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ithwalkway.jpg

Doing this also makes the front bug the focus of attention.

I'm not sure if DOF would work for you, but as the scene has a lot of depth, I would certainly give it a try.

~~CM!

Thank you so much for the advice NoStr0m0 and CrazyMerlin. Those suggestions are really gonna help thank you. CrazyMerlin, I had DOF on my other renders but I didn't make it strong enough, thank you for doing that, as it showed me how much that would help. This render has more DOF blur but I'm not sure if it is enough. I also changed the eyes as NoStr0m0 suggested. Also I moved the zapped mosquito down adjusted the glow and played around a little with the electricity in post. Please give crit and/or compl. Thanks.

Yup!

That'll do it anyday!

It looks much better. The eyes give the bug a look like what's happening is now, in the moment.

The DOF is just enough I think. Too much and you may as well just composite a background image. That amount makes the bug stand out but keeps the scene depth.

The new position of the back bug, and the electricity is much better. I would personally show a little bit of that bug, so that it looks like the electricity is more around the outside of it rather than all over. I think that would give it more of a comicy (comic-like) look.

Anyway, I think it's better!

~~CM!

Thanks CrazyMerlin. I tried showing more of the zapped mosquito and putting the electricity around him instead of him just being eaten by it. I have tried a couple different things. This first image is of the mosquito with the green/blue electricity around him, and white lines of electricity coming at him from the zapper. Please give your thoughts and comments.
Note: this image has limited region and my computer wouldn't let me crop it for some reason so that is why there is all that black.

Here is another test of the zapped mosquito but this one has a white outline of electricity all the way around the mosquito. Please give crit and/or compl. Thanks.

Very cool scene you have there!!

Keep it up! and good luck to you:)

Thanks vedic kings! Here is yet another test of the electricity, this one the white lines connect to the mosquito but do not border him. Please give crit and/or compl. Thanks

I like the new render better:)

nice!

The thing to remember is that electicity is also a light source and as such would disipate.

Try blending you lightest color and your darkest color across a range.

Gradient them.

This would give a more convincing look.

Small details really effect an images overall composition and mood. Like the DOF. Your image suddenly has 'Mood'.

~~CM!

Thank you for the comments and advice vedic kings and CrazyMerlin. I worked more on the zapped bug and the glow around him. Now I have more of a medium between the all white original and the much more visible bug that I had changed too. I think the glow on this one is much better, and I didn't do anything in post except add the white lines from the zapper to the bug. Please give comments, crit, and/or compl. Thanks...

Dude, that looks really good!

It looks like electricity on a bug, lol.

Nice update.

~~CM!

Thanks CrazyMerlin! I rendered the entire scene with the new glow settings and the revamped zapped mosquito. I think this is most likely my final image. Please give comments, crit, and/or compl.

This is awesome!

One thing I would add though is motion blur to the fly in the frontground. Like the wings etc.

Thanks vedic kings! I like the idea of motion blur as it really creates more action and movement in the scene. but I do not want to blur the mosquito too much. I blurred the wings somewhat and the entire body very subtly. Please give comments, crit, and/or compl. Thanks.

Here is another render, not much difference but a tad more blur than the previous. Please give comments, crit, and/or compl. Thanks.

Sorry, but I am not sure about the motion blur so I keep trying different stuff. Here is one with no blur on the body, just on the wings. Please give comments, crit, and/or compl. Thanks

Here is yet another render. This one also has no blur on the body and less blur on the wings, but enough so it looks like they're moving. Please give comments, crit, and/or compl. Also please say which one you think I should go with or a combination or no blur at all. Thanks.

Sorry about that, saved the image in the wrong format. I don't know if anyone could see that so here is a better one.

Still not working:headbang:. One more try.

I think the whole blue thing on the wings and body should be removed, IMHO.

The front bug looked great before you started playing with the blur, now it looks ok.

Revert before it's too late, dude.

~~CM!

Thanks CrazyMerlin. After trying out the different settings and then looking back at it with no blur, I think I agree. Thanks for the advice, I will probably use the image on the previous page as my final.

hi Dooster
i must say u have a very original concept and u got it to high quality in 3d. good work!
the earlier render was better, i think also
good luck:beer: