Sea Monsters

[Reality Forge]

An encounter of two of Earths' most terrifying life forms. Architeuthis dux and Homo sapiens

At this stage critiques are most welcome, I want to make this is good as it can be.

Still missing: Right arm [human], one tentacle, one hunting tentacle and suckers.

In addition, is it just my monitor or does the background gradient have a 'stepping' problem?

[Reality Forge]

This is a version with more realistic scattered deep water lighting. I am not sure which direction works best at this stage.

[Wolfbane]

Think that you should go for the underwater aspect, just not that much... try to lower the opacity on the water efect, just so you get the submerged feeling

[vallan1]

the torso on the diver seems to be a bit small in relation to the limbs. how deep of water are you talking about? if this is really deep then you need to darken the entire picture. Also, i would suggest adding a slight highlight on some other areas of the squid. As well, I think the diver would probably be a little scared at that moment, so maybe so that he has been startled or something by have more bubbles around his head. Hope these ideas help you out.

[Reality Forge]

Cropped the composition down, altered values and have begun to add some details. Much of it is very rough still.

Outstanding problems I still see include:

Lack of suckers, lack of right arm on human, need to bulk up human, fix his wetsuit rendering.

Many others besides. I would also love any suggestions about how to set up a stronger composition.

Re: the bubbles and torso suggestion: next update I promise :P

[Reality Forge]

Another Update. Not really sure.

[Zenne]

I think that the most recent version gives the best feeling of being underwater. The only thing I that bothers me is the implementation of the idea you're working with - it seems like something you could do a lot more with, especially compositionally, to better show what you're going for - is this a scary encounter? a weird encounter? a wanted/unwanted encounter? Right now, those questions aren't really answered when I look at it. ^^