I vote for the smile also. Or perhaps a surprised and at the same time amused face. The volumetrics are a good addition. I have no idea what she is looking at and what these two sticks in the foreground are for. Is that a kind of steering unit?
All I can say is hats off to that chick, looking so cool, calm and collected with that GIANT octopus coming for her and the ship.
Nice work here Photox, really coming together now.
Shaun
I think she and the octopus are in cahoots, I hear they can be very bright.
looking good photox like it
i decided to drop out of contest wont have render done on time been working on a 3d printer i bought a week ago and have not had time to do any modeling.
good luck. 
I rendered for about 40 hours to get the volumetrics, and I’ve gone over a full pass of post work. Anything looking off? I’ll give it a day to settle and get some feedback on finishing touches. If something looks funky, point it out and I’ll fix it. Thanks guys. 
Click image for 1920 x 1080
Look IMHO this is ready for the printer. And, amazing work, Photox. You took care of the background nicely. Volumetrics are nice and… and her expression is spot on. And, the damn lighting is outstanding. A well composed scene with a lot of work modeling but the lighting brings it over the top, guy. I think that is what Doris was speaking of.
Juried art shows are a hit and miss thing. And, living in Florida you probably know that with the boardwalk shows. Take the first twenty and just re scramble them. Best of luck and just amazing work.
I can’t fault it, it’s a fantastic piece of work, I can only agree with the old ghost, and add that there are some great entries in this competition. I wouldn’t want to be a judge.
great! yes, now color and lightning really work to show off your work! backround is interesting witout overpowering. composition well thought, the tenkakels work great, in storytelling and composition … one tiny thing i see… the reflection on her left eye sits below the pupil. i know this can be, but it is more appealing when it sits in the top half of eyeball, ,you know evrybody first looks for the eyes… i press my thumbs, so that you win good luck!
Old Ghost, Carel – Cheers! Thanks for the input along the way.
Doris,
Thank you! As a quick test I went and cloned in a real eye photograph. It looks shockingly better. Hmmm. There is an actual light (functional within the goggle) which is causing that. I’m going to delete everything but the eye socket and eye and rework it with similar but better lighting, and just clone it over it.
thumbs up on the tentacle.
Awesome entry! Just one thing though, being that close to the subject, I think you should have some DOF, the background and part of the tentacle should be a bit blurred. Don’t you think?
I hope you don’t mind, I did a bit of compositing to show you.
Also, I added a stronger vignette to emphasize the center of the image.
What do you think?
I agree the DOF is a good touch.
Post update #1
Added more (there was a little) fake DOF, and a stronger vignette. You can drive yourself crazy adjusting vignette levels. Remodeled the eye and cornea with proper concavities and repainted iris map, darker and more saturated. The eye is physically accurate although the lighting is faked to produce high reflections.
Click image for 1200 pixels
This is my favorite of the entries I’ve seen so far.
I see the eye area was improved and It makes for a great focal-point. The thing that bugs me the most is the glowing tentacle in the upper right background. It distracts my eye in the comp and therefore… could be a little bit darker. Hope this helps.
Post Update #2:
Thanks steady. Now that I look at it thinking that way I agree. Here’s a version with some brushed smoke and another tighter, but very faint vignette to bring down the levels on the top right tentacle. Also, some fake eyelashes and eye shadow.
p.s. I have been lurking on your thread. A) it’s awesome, B) you are hilarious!
Click for 1200px
I know this is in WIP and you expect some advice to improve your work. But I come here just to say that I think is an excellent scene in all aspects. I love it!
yes, eye is great now!.. the dof, i think, is now too strong. i know it is often used very strong, but to me, subtelety is much better… may be it is just my bad eyes, that i don’t like dof much…lol,so please, ignore this suggestion freely, if you feel dof is good …vignette works great, yes here also it is hard to balance, but i like what you did.
I tend to agree on the DOF. In general it is overused, I lowered the opacity on the blur layer to 35%. It leaves enough to push the eye towards the center while still showing some bump on the tentacles. Other small pixel level changes. It’s almost time now I think. Kind of sad. :no:
Click for 1400px
My thought was print this and party the natives while basking in the glory until I enlarged it. Now I agree with Doris. Heck, I would rather see the old ‘Alfred Hitchcock’ one with no depth of field then this. If I’m not mistaken he was the first one to have everything in focus. Regardless in head shots I’m a big fan of DOF. Otherwise not so much unless it’s not even perceptible.
So what are you saying oldghost? You prefer more DOF, or none at all?