Its a very nice attempt and effect you realized, after looking at your work i got an idea. your picture is laying on a table.. the ball is like a marble laying on top of it, just like now except its missing the background. holding off my vote in case you want to play with it

You're so right. I added a shadow to the ball, but it still seems to be just sitting there on the picture, not actually flying out of it. Hmmm, I'll see what else I can do to it...Thanks!

Ok, I gave some motion blur to the ball, and moved the shadow. I think that helped a lot, although I think I may have added too much blur...Thanks for the advice, this is definately a nicer chop.

Thanks so much for the help!

I like what you've done author. I'm a big fan of O.O.B. imaging. Perhaps if you crop the picture on the left or right side and allow either the hand or foot to go 'out of bounds' with a shadow cast on the table it might help prevent the ball from looking like it is just bouncing. Right now, it's the only item that is defying the 2D rule. Does that make sense? Nice job, author!

smudge the edge of the ball very soft n slightly to get it nicely rounded again and you get rid of the dark line around it.. perhaps a soft blur will help too on the balls edge.. its a great improvement author.

ok, I swear this is my last attempt. Even with my poor drawing of the new leg and foot, I think you all have helped me create a much more interesting chop. Thanks for all the help!!!!

dont think the drawing of the leg was such a bad attempt at all to be honest lol my own drawing skills are far worse yur chop for sure got more interesting, and you might not want to chaneg anything else here anymore which i can understand very well but for your next chop you have a lot to take with you in consideration .

I like the idea. It's a vary cute composition

The shadows on the dog and the "bone" don't mach. And using refine selection and Decontaminate color is a good idea for removing that green fur on the kitty. And you can tweak the exposure a bit so all the segments mach. A soft color overlay might do the job.

Thanks Nichev for taking the time to make some helpful advice. I worked on the changes you suggested, I think it made the work better.

check the shadow of the cat... it is not as dark as all the rest of the shadows in the scene... fix that and it will be better... cat also appears to be hovering above the ground slightly...

Agree with bjaockx...I like your approach to this contest author! Nice job!

Thanks for the help!

I worked on the cat's shadow, I hope it looks better now. thanks again!

Good job, author, you got the theme of this contest perfectly.

I like the shadow treatment author.

Hawks are much larger, and the red flesh tones of the hand sources could be toned down, but it's a good effort.

Thanks CMKY. I had not noticed how red the hand is, you are right. About the size of the hawk, though, all the doghawks I have ever seen have been quite small.

LOL @ Doghawks...okay author, you win that one.