This is my new submission to the BlenderGuru competition (I wasn’t happy with my first one). So, as far as critiques go, fire away!
Larger image: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HJyhDPqWryo/T-3stQEnnkI/AAAAAAAABKA/Ph63E9SjWgQ/s1600/Soccer14.png
Guessing by the length of the grass (and amount of weeds), I’m guessing you’re going for an abandoned soccer field. if that’s the case, you might want to add some tears in the net. Also some more dirt on the ball, and if you’re up to challenge, some patchy/muddy areas that were played on a little too much. Anyway, it’s a very nice start. Cycles or internal?
Thanks for the critiques! I’ll definitely apply them in my next update. It was rendered in Cycles, with the exception of some very, very slight volumetric lighting coming from the upper right corner (which was BI)
Nice work!
Here’s a little more dirt on the soccer ball, some tears in the net, and the moth in the foreground isn’t quite as bright (it’ll be even darker in the next update, though).
Looks good. the only critique I have is that it looks like there are grass blades entering the ball’s mesh
Thanks, Trenn! You’re right, there are. Does anyone have any tips on fixing this? The only way I can think of doing it is converting the grass particle system into actual mesh objects and manually editing the grass with the proportional editing tool, but I’d love it if there was an easier way :yes:
what about a force field? Not sure if they would work…
Particle mode perhaps?
Force fields don’t work out too well on things like this, unfortunately. And I would use particle mode, but I don’t think it works on mesh objects (as this system uses grass blade meshes instead of hair particles). But for now, I’ve added a harvestman to the lower left side of the ball, and a few spider web strands in the upper right corner of the image. Does this make it look better or worse?
I like the harvestman, but i think it draws attention to that area. It’s a great image, and the grass is minor imo. 
I like the rips, I was thinking some ripped part might look cool hanging from the top middle. But I think you have a very nice image.
Wow, this is great! The overall scene is awesome and the addition of the bugs definitely makes it more realistic, and just gives it more flavor. Awesome work.