Here is the final image I submitted this morning. The background trees are more faded and the characters have minor corrections, done in photoshop. I wish I had more time to spend on the background, it is the one thing I'm not really happy with. i suppose the character's poses could have been better as well (they seem a bit rigid and static to me), but time is a cruel mistress.

Here is a decent sized posting of my final image. Thanks to everyone who has given me comments and suggestions, and good luck to everyone who entered the 3d challenge.

An image of the scene with the for effects and lighting corrections. I've darkened the background and increased the contrast in the characters. I don't think they stand out from each other enough, but the time is up, so there you have it. I'm afew hours from finishing and posting the final image, it will be a big relief to get this contest over with.

Here is a render of my final image, without any effects of touch ups. I'm still tinkering with the lights, especially the rim lights on the characters. I hope to add some fog effects on the ground and around the backgound trees.

I've finally finished the set and now I've started to light the scene. Here is a render of the character group, I still need to add a rim light around the female character to help her stand out against the creature. I'll be rendering the characters and background in high rezolutions tonight, so I hope everything turns out.

It may seem a bit late for this, but I've just finished modeling my set. I've got a matt painting for the distant background and I'll add a few more 3d trees in the distant background. I should be done texturing it my tomorrow, and tonight I will post my first ligthing test of the posed charcters. It's going to be close, but I hope to finish the whole thing this weekend.

This is a screenshot of the characters posed. I'm still playing around with the poses and the camera position though. I'm trying to get a better silhouette for the figures, and a more dynamic composition. I'm working on the background right now, it's going to be misty forest type setting. I had planned for alot more but there is just no time. Now it's just a race to finish with something respectable.

A render of the creature with full texturing. I've given him a similar colour as the female character because they are part of the same army or guard unit. Hopefully I can make them stand out enough from on another with lighting in the final image. Now I can pose them and get started on the back ground!

Here is the female character with completed texturing. The shaders on the armour still need some reflectivity, they're looking very matt right now.

Here is a render of my creature character's skin texture. The armour will be similar in colour to the female character. The texture is a blending of images of aligator and elephant skin, with alot of re-working. I think it's looking ok right now, but I'm not sure about that eye colour.