Cheesehenge: I Would Appreciate Some Critiques

[Tommypants]

Hi everyone:

This is my first "real" post (aside from my intro thread in the Salon area).

I made the cheese parts of "Cheesehenge" in ZBrush and 3DS Max and composited it in photoshop. The other elements were from random photos I found on the net.

Not proud of "stealing" those elements but this is just for a portfolio piece/practice piece on photo compositing and not for a professional job.

I have been staring at this for so long I could really use some feedback from some fresh eyes as to what doesn't look right and/or could be improved upon.

Thanks in advance!

[0lBaldy]

I would check the shadows on the far right compared to the expansive areas supposedly in shadow on the left, that seem bright to me ... Other than that.... Great Job!

[lkroll]

lol; almost can smell it. Thanks for sharing.

[Veralisa]

I think you've created a wonderful atmosphere. Great work.

[palms]

I think it is brilliant, one idea, maybe you could age the cheese a bit ?

(and instead of human visitors some mice ? swap the heads around like )

sorry of for my coffee now !

Palms

[Nasturtium]

I love this kinda of stuff. One of my first Photoshop efforts was potato-henge. Where is the "like" button? :-)

-Nancy

[Tommypants]

Thanks so much everyone for your comments and suggestions!

I posted this on another forum and got some useful tips there as well. As per everyone's suggestions - aside from the mice (which was a great idea but I didn't have the time to do that), I made a few modifications.

What do y'all think?

[palms]

The improvements work well even with out the mice

Palms

[Tommypants]

After a final bit of changes as per suggestions from a person on another forum, I am leaving this piece alone.

[Steve13]

Strange that the cheese doesn't have any shadows on the ground, like the people.
Also they look like they are lighter toward the bottom... should be darker?

[Tommypants]

Ok, as per some helpful suggestions from a friend, I took one last pass at this thing and I think I am putting this one to bed 9unless someone points out something else I missed):

[kkamin]

Looks great. One thing I might try is to add a finer, more detailed texture to the cheese. The rest of the image has an immense amount of articulated detail (grass, clothing texture of people, etc.). The fact the cheese is so smooth sort of makes it clash with the scene and potentially reduces people's ability to accept the image as a cohesive whole. I know no one is going to believe it is real, but it is so close to seamless right now, I would keep pushing it a bit. I like someone else's idea with aging the cheese. It would make sense in connection with the theme. Super good work!

[5600k]

Its great. But i agree to what 'kkamin' suggested. The cheese seems a bit too 'CGI clean'.. It could use a bit more imperfections in terms of a bit more broken up specular hits and a not so smooth surface. Another dead give away for CGI stuff is the sharp edges it creates. If you bevel all the edges you have in your 3d model it would really help the look of it. The only other thing i would change is the contact point with the ground. I would cut down the intensity on the cheese especially the specular layer near the contact point with the ground just a tinge to make it gel together. But all in all its a good work you got there. Just giving my 2 cents. Good luck!