Yeah, great job and i agree with @finalbarrage. This will be nice to look at wireframe.
This is very beautiful, nice work:yes:
I love the sand. Was that a bump map or particles or what?
Also the bottom ridge texture on the bottle makes it seem like you could touch it. One simple detail that adds a lot.
The fish felt a little out of place to me, but all in all it’s quite a cool piece.
When I clicked the thumbnail image I had no idea it would be inside a bottle, so it was refreshing to be surprised.
Ooph. There has been a wondrous string of art lately…I look forward to my visit to this site every day more and more.
Nice work. 5 *'s! Congratulations on top row! 
Beautiful work! Third time glancing at this image I noticed the monster fish below. Great use of composition, storytelling, and excellent lighting. Only critique is the uncanny HDR; Depth of field seems to have made something look wrong. Overall, fantastic.
I thought it was only a painting, which was maybe enough? But anyway, it is beautiful! Congratulations!
thank you guys!
the sand is just a mix of displacement and particles on top.
here is a clay render of the scene, that shows it
i like it but i wont say that i dont want the full one but i might say can you show me how did you made that water looks like that? like it,s relay on a bottle
Like the details, how did you do the sea foam and splashing waves. They look really great.
Really nice idea and fantastic execution
This is fantastic work. The details are astonishing. Mind me asking, how did you do the foam and splashings of the waves? Thx
Again no caustics.
the foam is just painted onto the surface of the water via texture paint. the splashes are painted in post
great concept! beautifully executed:)
Hey, just wanted to say thanks for posting the clay render and explaining about the sand!
Absolutely stunning. I want to model an old ship myself!
I don’t want to rain on your parade, but this is one of these works where use of the caustic component is not only justified but also very necessary, since the result would not only be more correct but also would change the image into another completely different result, more suggestive and interesting. The bottle and the water surface inside should be throwing caustics all around, moreover if it is the sun lighting up the scene.
I think there’s only one thing to be done with an image like this: put in The Gallery! :yes:
It’s a very simple scene, in one sense, but it’s also very peaceful and very artistic. I really like the way that you leave a little ambiguity in the placement of the ocean-horizon: is the ship in the bottle, or is it somehow being viewed through it? By that I mean, you’ve effectively placed the ship in both places at the same time … and I really like that. It is, to me, a very original, very artistic, and very effective statement.
thanks for all your comments!
@ alvaro: i guess you are right, that caustics would be nice in front of the water/bottle, but i wasn’t able to create nice caustics with cycles.
it was almost impossible to create renders without so much noise in it (and render times were already high without caustics). so i decided to render without caustics and just tint the sandy area in front of the water a little bluish in post.
@sundlalsvc4: thank you for your kind words
here is the beginning of the image. at that point i had modeled the main objects, shaded them quickly and started to test how i wanted to lighten the scene. first i tried a daylight setup:
Cool work!