Beautiful work author...nice mix of 2d and 3d...well done

Nice 3D work in this photoshop contest, author. Several of your sbs steps are impossible to read, tho. Try using a color with more contrast to the background, and larger type.

really fun... except hippos live in rivers, not on the savannah

this is freaking great. i really cannot find a thing wrong with it.

Kyricom, that's why he's hungry, hungry,
and dead.

I know it's hard to find any suitable Hungry Hippo photographs. Excellent creative use of resources at your hand. Overall a nice looking piece of work. I used to like playing this game with my children, many moons ago.

I really like your idea and the image itself is really well done. Just a few suggestions for you...perhaps if you could dodge some of the newly added blades of foliage in front of the hippo to vary the luminosity...giving some highlights etc. This would help keep them looking the same and sorta flat. Also...there's a visible hard line edge of the hippo's neck that can be seen...maybe cover that up or brush it out. If you could also possibly remove the real soft fringe around the front of hippo...it's a bit distracting and doesn't really need to be there. Sorry to nitpick...trying to help.

Thank's all for the comments, I had a lot of fun making this entry! pixelkid regrettably I missed the opportunity to re-submit with some of your suggested changes before competition close, I agree especially that some finer attention to detail on the grass, matching the 3d presence of the rendered figure would have drastically improved the image, a suggestion I will certainly keep in mind for next time. Thanks guys, p.s ichappell hopefully no one shows this hungry hippo to their kids!!

Great compilation but what's the thing on the background?

LOL Akassa.... I was wondering the same thing, it's in the sbs though and is a knight chess piece, once I'd seen the sbs pic I found it hard not to recognise it. A lovely composition author

Nice job, author! Really appealing composition of the sources you used. I had the same question about the knight piece in back. Perhaps make it more recognizable somehow...

I had the same thought about the chess piece, its base is not visible, perhaps that would help. Author, what are the source links for the two wooden pieces - the one the feather is in and the smaller one behind? Nice composition overall, tho.

Thanks for the advice all but I leave it the way it is, let's say your confusion just adds to the meaning this piece has for me. Cryptic, I know, but I will not explain.

@Pearlie: the source is there: both are made out of the chess figure in source 1

Oooohhhhh, I see them now, author. Nice chopping and disguise!

I like the dice within a dice part, very cool :P

great job, i like it

like the idea, and the feel of the image. as for execution, it leaves something to be desired. Many many masking and blending issues throughout. Also, one quick fix would be to blur the tree you added to the background. it should be slightly less in focus than the tree that is behind your castle. Good luck!

Well bjaockx, at first thx for ur comment, but i think ur over reacting by saying that there r many many masking and blending issues. Im pretty familiar with photoshop and won serveral prices in here, and i have to disagree with u. If there were many blending issues like u said, it would mean that i just copy and paste the images without blending them together and that is just not true. The only thing u mention is the tree well then just tell me what more is wrong with this image

I really like the overall look of this author! The color and idea make for a really nice composition. What bjaockx might be referring to is the masking of the main chess piece. The upper left area side is a hard edge, but the rest of it seems really, really soft. If you perhaps make the soft edges a bit less soft and slightly soften the area mentioned...it might help. You've done well with this and would love to see those changes which undoubtedly would improve it...especially when viewed high res. GL author!

EDIT: Looks

thx pxlkid for ur compliment and suggestions, i changed the image of the chess piece, found one that i liked more, made the changes hope u like it

Wow, very nice mood. Good luck!

the top hat... the black and white dots all over it. either you placed a dissolve blending layer to it (never do this) or you rendered a noise layer (do this) if you did the dissolve blending layer, then remove it and make a selection of the hat and render a noise to a new layer. With this new noise layer, use a Gaussian blur on it to match the blur of the hat. Use the "Opacity" slider for the noise layer and reduce the opacity to about 75%. Try a few different blending layer options to it... most likely "Overlay" or "Multiply" will yield the most desirable results... good luck!

It is noise, bjaockx, and was tweaking it when I saw your comment, had tried levels but that really didn't work. Your suggestion of blur and overlay has worked the best, thanks very much! Was going for the 'beam me up' effect, I think this is better.

I like it, cool peace of work. That hat and gears look purdy good to me.

that is cool i like this i really do

The varying colors of the dice look very appealing in contrast with the stark orange feeling of the entire shot. NIce job, author!

thx pixelkid!