Turtle

[Sytrax]

Did nothing for about 2 1/2 years... wanted to come back in shape so i tried a Tutorial:

http://pshoudini.deviantart.com/art/...et=50#comments

and this is what i came up with:


So maybe someone could help me with the few points i'm not happy with:

The "stripe" around the mountain... and the spots at their "paws" (dunno what its called for turtles ;D )

Critiques wanted

[ruhGz]

It looks good, but could use some work. The soft lighting around the legs looks like you just soft erased the turtle and place it right in.
I don't feel like the water is quite as foggy as it should be, and the rocks in the ocean floor look too big for it to be the size it should be, and should be smaller, since the turtle is a giant.
There should be a huge shadow under the turtle, since there is a relatively bright light source :P
Also, the turtle itself looks quite lq, as well as the ocean floor.
The water, where it is cut off, looks too flat and not very wavy at the line where it meets the underwater surface.
The effects look good, but could use more work on them, and maybe a bit more realism work added.
Maybe the piece could use some better depth too
It's pretty good, though, and I like it ^-^
Keep it up, man

[Sytrax]

Wow thanks
I'm really happy that you took some time and gave me this critique
Especially the thing with the stones... i didn´t even thought about that ^^
So... i think I'll go and learn a bit more about the basics like depth ect. as you mentioned
And in some time give this one a second try ^^

[Impasse]

There is certainly a lighting issue going on here. Your turtle is way too dark if you ask me. A piece like this is going to look better the more time you put into the smaller details and here you have most of them covered in darkness. If you look to your right, where the sun is you have the sun bright enough to blow out the image in that area. It then continues to have bright highlights across the water which looks about right up to that point. Then you get to your turtle that is ridiculously dark and looks as if none of that light is hitting that side at all. Judging from the lighting in your scene you should have pretty decent natural light on the sunny side of your turtle, as well as a possible halo coming from the top of the shell area. Shadows underneath the turtle to please. Normally sunlight creates hard shadows but since its an underwater thing I would assume they would be a little softer than usual. All in all the main thing to focus on here is matching the lighting on your turtle with the lighting from the scene. Once you have that set you will add a lot more realism to your scene for sure.

[Sytrax]

Thanks a lot for this detailed critique... will work on this

[Helios]

Can I see the original picture you started with?

[Sytrax]

Here you go:

[img=http://www.abload.de/thumb/cousine-island_wildli3zdx9.jpg]

[img=http://www.abload.de/thumb/desert_sunset_by_nighgccxn.jpg]

[img=http://www.abload.de/thumb/german_mountain_1_by_35f15.jpg]

+ two water pictures i can`t find anymore ^^