This is my contribution to the CG Boost ´´Folklore´´ Challenge.
I chose a topic from local legends of Slavic myths and fairytales. This is a ´´Rusalka´´ a water nymph who seeks and attracts the victims into the swamps where deceived by their beauty they found their death.
I learned new things like create my first character, use and texturing a curves with traditional symbols and embroidered ribbons and I improved my skills in composition, lighting and texturing a new kinds of materials at all.
Now for some ideas…I am surprised that cycles didn’t render the water droplets very well…perhaps you might need to add either a glossy shader or perhaps a clear coat?
Would need to see the node tree for a better idea…
The skin is a bit Plastic…Normals and or Bump Maps should help…did you model the Base Figure figure?
If you don’t want to Model in the details with Sculpting… you might try using Materialize to create a set of Maps for Normal/Roughness/AO, etc. from the Diffuse texture. Works quite well in most cases.
Not sure, if you are looking for feedback or not, but I’m gonna give mine anyway I think this is a great piece. Makes me want to look at the details and I’m questioning what the hell is going on. Overall great stuff, but in my opinion lacks a bit of post processing and color correction. Some things I would work on in post. Change the color balance up a bit, I think with this scene a blue tinted light source works much better. Since you went for a realistic scene, usually I desaturate the hell out of these scenes. Photorealism and color saturation just doesn’t work together, unless you know what you are doing. Make the boobs a bit more saggy cause now they look like full on silicone implants, maybe even make on a bit hanging lower than the other, a small break of symmetry the image is already too symmetrical and everybody will be looking at the boobs anyway you got to nail them. I would work on the skin shader a bit more to make it more realistic. Also the face expression need a bit more work, but it’s already pretty good. I would darken/blur the foreground, it competes with the middleground which should be the focus of the image. I would get rid of the slimy water falling from her left hand, it just doesn’t work and doesn’t look realistic. You either make the extra effort and do a quick water sim on her hand or not do it all, definitely not with box modeling. I’m not sure about the story here, currently the water ripples suggest that she popped up from the water in that spot, but there’s no water splashes or trickling down her body, so I would make the ripples only appear in the back of her to suggest forward motion. I would also move the Obelisk thingy that’s popping out above her head, now it just creates confusion, is it part of her decor or is it just another thing like the others in the background. I made some small edits on the image, here it is, I’m not saying it’s better this way, this is super subjective and it’s only my opinion. Again great piece!
For your ideas - I was surprised too that the water droplets was too black or too flat from my point of view.
I was have too simple shader from one tutorial about create sweat on skin.
This was from my first try with IOR value for water 1.33 with black droplets of water so I decerease a value of IOR to 1.25 for better result.
The skin - I was using a Manuel Bastioni LAB addon for Blender for help with create my first character. This is skin material from MB LAB with add droplets for roughness map topreklad create droplets flow on skin.
You will get a better Droplette if you set it to pure white. ( see Nodes Below)
After you work on skin shaders ( I personally do not like the shaders From Manuel Bastioni LAB, before the major update I think they looked a bit better…but the characters still look like The Sims textures)… you can make a texture white on black and use the face /body UV maps and do a pseudo wet map…then when you get adventurous you can use the Particle system and make an animated Wet map…
The facial expression looks a bit plasticky… I would make one of the eyelids open more then the other, also add some asymmetry to the mouth. Just a little bit.
Yes, it looks far better, check the transparency in the node set up…take notice that I pushed it way down in the mix shader to increase the transparency and leave a specular rim on the droplets…
Must say that i love the way people help each-other out.
My opinion:
The skin colour is still a bit off (looks like she is freezing - lacks the warmth), could also benefit from some more subsurface scattering (probably take a few tries - at east I don’t know a better way)
The light strength that shines on the person is a bit to bright for the background (or vise versa)
The far backdrop right behind her body lacks some detail (to make it more realistic - usually in real life there is always something, we just don’t notice it and same goes for renders)
There’s something with the face that doesn’t sit right with me, might just be the the sub-surf, though I would touch up the face shape. The cheek bone is a bit strong for a female - but it might just be what you are going for (i like how you, despite making a very revealing act, didn’t go all-in with sex-appeal)
The minor touch-ups would be: I would make the foreground elements more unified (the current shade is a gradient, I would experiment with more “flat” 3 plane aspect)
It is my wish to help you better your work, but remember this is just my subjective opinion.
very nice! it’s good that you remembered mermaids (rusalki), they often act as magical “pure” creatures, but in fact they are insidious and cunning girls
I think this is a great piece. Makes me want to look at the details and I’m questioning what the hell is going on. Overall great stuff, but in my opinion lacks a bit of post processing and color correction. Some things I would work on in post. Change the color balance up a bit, I think with this scene a blue tinted light source works much better. Since you went for a realistic scene, usually I desaturate the hell out of these scenes. Photorealism and color saturation just doesn’t work together, unless you know what you are doing. Make the boobs a bit more saggy cause now they look like full on silicone implants, maybe even make on a bit hanging lower than the other, a small break of symmetry the image is already too symmetrical and everybody will be looking at the boobs anyway you got to nail them. I would work on the skin shader a bit more to make it more realistic. Also the face expression need a bit more work, but it’s already pretty good. I would darken/blur the foreground, it competes with the middleground which should be the focus of the image. I would get rid of the slimy water falling from her left hand, it just doesn’t work and doesn’t look realistic. You either make the extra effort and do a quick water sim on her hand or not do it all, definitely not with box modeling. I’m not sure about the story here, currently the water ripples suggest that she popped up from the water in that spot, but there’s no water splashes or trickling down her body, so I would make the ripples only appear in the back of her to suggest forward motion. I would also move the Obelisk thingy that’s popping out above her head, now it just creates confusion, is it part of her decor or is it just another thing like the others in the background. I made some small edits on the image, here it is, I’m not saying it’s better this way, this is super subjective and it’s only my opinion. Again great piece! 
