Well, as you can see I’ve been nonstop blending trying to push myself to get better so here’s another:
To get the fur effect I used a simple smudge brush. The panda bear was modelled and rendered in Blender with a preliminary bump map to rough up the furry surface. I didn’t finish modelling the entire panda, just the top of it. A background gradient fill (green - yellow) was also used in Blender. Using a Wacom tablet I gave the panda something to munch on, make the background a little more interesting, and, more importantly, pull out pixels and eventually get a furlike effect. Very time consuming technique though Can’t wait for The Beast
I love the smooth almost acrylic/oil looks of this pic (and also the wizard you did) its great to see someone using post processing well and not accepting what the renderer spits out (in the words of landis) I can’t really fault this much but the mouth/jaw area does look at bit like a muppet. sort of.
The panda is very good. I like his expression.
But the background … makes it look like he’s a super power panda who came from the future, or something. But the panda itself doesn’t look like that …
Great panda. Great postprocessing. I don’t like his jaw. Looks strange. Like he has no teeth. And the background sugests, he is not eating that grass, but smoking it…
Here’s another version with a background composited and refined details:
I did the postprocessing this time in Paint Shop Pro, which has a great noise smoothing filter that I used on the background photo to make it gel better with the foreground.
It looks a lot better now! Like the halo around him. His eyes still bother me a little. But can’t say what I don’t like. Mhm. I think bears have greater iris, don’t they? Less eye-white.
good good the jaw looks great now, although I prefered the other background!
oh and btw. is there any chance of seeing a wireframe and/or a non-post processed render? Just because I’m curious to see what you did and how you made it
thorwil: Thanks. I toned down the lighting a little in the second version.
Jerri: Thanks! Part of the halo is from the compositing process. I liked it so I left in in there, as if light were coming from back through his fur. I’d have to check on the irises.
irgeorge: Thanks. I think the first background, as some else pointed out, could give the wrong impression. Here are wireframes:
the head looks a little wide but I have to say the second picture I can so see the lastbackground threw the fur, compositing not a good technique with fur!
trying to push myself to get better so here’s another:
Can’t wait for The Beast 
It’s a panda with an attitude 
Wow you almost had me concerned there for a moment. I just double checked a couple encyclopedias (Britannica, Encarta) and pandas are said to be classified as bears. The World Wildlife Fund (
