An idea I had late last night. For some reason, I can’t seem to get the shadows to throw in the render… Shadows are turned on everywhere I can find the option…
UPDATE: Got the shadows working… Thanks Erufailon!
Please LMKWYT.
cool image… I think the specs a bit high, the piecesdont look that realistic.
My friend had that shadow problem, his sdadows were projected really far away. Maybe the board isn’t quite touching the table? Make sure stuff isn’t too far apart.
thats really cool i like the blood 
about the shadows have you got a spotlight which is able to cast shadows pointing at the board or pieces if you have i don’t know how to fix it, what type of lights have you set up around the scene
i also think you need to soften the colour of light
I’ve got 2 spotlights right now. That’s it. Both have shadows turned on.
All the surfaces have shadows and receive shadows on.
I tried scaling the whole scene down, and up but no difference 
Thanks for the input. I’ll tone the lights down a bit.
I think that if I can get the shadows to throw, then the realism will take a nice bump up.
And even when you have shadow casting spotlights you need to set the clipping values right, so it starts where it needs to, and ends where it needs to end.
I see some interference lines on the table, so I thought thi might be the problem
Not to be obvious, but do you have Shadows turned on in the render buttons?
i just ran a quick test try my light setup two normal lamps don’t change any values setup to the left and ght a little behind the camera t the same level hiegt wise than setup a spot light s low or high depending on ow large or small you want the shadows to be set it up so it points in the way you want the shadows to go and then onthe display buttons (F10) click the shadows button in between the render and animate buttons try this and let me know if it works it did for me
AHah! Clipping values…
Never would have guessed that was it. Thanks!
I’ve uploaded an update (if you don’t see the new pic above, reload your browser cache).
What think?
BTW, it’s all procedural shaders. I will probably do the board with a bitmap, but the pieces are going to stay procedural wood… Can think of any other way to do the turned look. I’ll probably fine-tune the shaders for the pieces tho.
Anyone have any ideas on how to do Depth-of-Field Blur? I’d love to have the pieces in the background a little blury…
Nearly completed!
Please let me know what you guys think… I value any Comments & Crits.
Nobody has a comment? Is it that bad?
Pretty nice.
There’s something funky about the positionand texture of that hand like it’s missing some fingers and wearing a latex glove or something. 
vp
i like the feeling, but i don’t see well if the weapon is a knife or a gun, can u light it a minuscle, nos so to ruin it, but to make it more visible.
pixeldust: Thanks! I’m not too happy with the figure model… I’m going to try rendering it with a better one.
varg: I’v ehad a few complaints about the darkness of the scene I’ll try bumping it up a bit.
THanks!
No no no the guy is perfect. He looks like a dead corpse.
Cool idea, it makes you think
That’s what I wanted people to do. Thanks 
I was really going for sort of a “Film Noire” feel.
Who was he playing? Why did the other guy leave so quickly? (cig is still smoking) Did he kill himself, or was he murdered? Why?
In any case, the man is a really bad mesh… just technically… not very good. I’m looking for a better one, but the pose/scene will be the same.
Looks really good. That blood smudge is really realistic, and I like the texture on the pawns. I love the game of chess btw.