Expect the Unexpected

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/47677637/

pretty much done i think, might do some touch-ups based on the comments i get here.
any ideas on getting it to look more realistic?

Lighting on elephant doesn't look right. It doesn't match the sky and shadow. Shadow looks fake too, it's too defined and too close.
That is a good idea though. Animals and photoshop is a good combination.

looks cool, but the shadow needs to be scattered, lightened and blurred quite a bit. cool idea though

yeah, rabies said it. with that lighting on the elephant, the shadow underneath should be more to the left (more toward that darker patch of grass). save the document without the shadow as a separate psd, use the displace filter on the shadow (which should be on its own layer), and use that saved psd as the reference. experiment with the settings. blur it after that, and probably a lot, just look at how fast the shadow of your hand blurs as you lift it up. like they said cool idea though I'm sure it's been done somewhere before.

leave the balloons in colour and do everything else in b&w.;

The elephants shadow needs to show that parts are being blocked out by grass, and the shape of the floor...

nice idea :) almost works man

If you expect the unexpected, doesnt that make the unexpected the expected??

Ahhh I do love elefants, adn teh creativity of this makes it great regardless of the finishing touches

thanks for the comments, i'll touch it up later

tried to correct the shadow/lighting, still doesn't look right to me..


http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q...edshrinkv2.png

not gonna put it on dev till i get the comments from you guys.

better, but i still think it needs to be blurred more as there isnt a single strong light source

hmmm... well shouldn't the balloons create a shadow on the elephant?

I think the elephants shadow is too stretch for the suns lighting. The shadow you've made is more for if the sun is closer to the horizon. Try making the shadow less stretched an closer to the elephant...

If the balloons were lifting the elephant i believe the rope should be pretty much vertical instead of curving around the elephant...

And last of all i think the cutting out of the elephant is too crisp try blurring the edges a little. There's also a light glow on the right edge...

hopefully that'll help somewhat :)