===== From rich@brickbots.com: This is a good start, nice modeling and attention to detail... I would recommend loosing the checkerboard (one of the older CG cliches) and trying a wood surface or just a flat color. Lighting is so much more important than texturing, so spend your time there. Try for soft shadows (usually), and a better sense of form through your lighting. The key handle is especially problematic in your render, there is no sense of the shape or form. I bet your spent a lot of time modeling it, but your lighting leaves it flat. Try more lights, with less intensity each. Softer shadows... If you are using raytraced shadows, see if there is an area light option, or a light radius you can adjust. If you are using depthmap shadows, reduce their resoltion and increase the blending or sampling number so the edges of the shadows are soft. ===== From simplepsy@aol.com: I like the idea. However I couldnt look at the picture for long before the harsh checker pattern was destracting me. The keys dont apear to sit on the surface, and there is some strange blue phenomina going on south of the keys shadow. looks ... strange. ===== From uglycasanova420@hotmail.com: I love the chrome texture you used for the metal ring. But its kind of plain. ===== From terraform@upnaway.com: This is a great rendetion of a key ring and ost of the textures look good. A diffrent backgound would help to see the details as the coulrs are nearly the same. ===== From marlo.steed@uleth.ca: Conceptually this image works. The textures are excellent. Two things would have moved this from a good image to a stunning image. First, the foreground and background compete with each other. A difference choice for a ground surface would have helped. The second thing is a more dramatic lighting setup - perhaps softer lighting. ===== From file: very simple but the key looks as if it is hovering over the floor by about a 1/4 inch. And the grooves in the keey need some shading.