Here’s my finished image for the Blender Guru competition!
Larger Image: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nD_RzBjjmPc/T_3q1E0Ir6I/AAAAAAAABLo/J6nrv3WrEQk/s1600/FinalSoccerImage.png
And a render of solely the ball:
And since some people were interested, here’s a .blend file for the grass/dandelion setup (hosted by blendswap): http://www.blendswap.com/blends/plants/cycles-grass-dandelions/
really nice 
very nice 
imo it drops into the depth of field blur too early as you move back, but if you like it the way it is, its still an awesome project
Thanks, both of you!
This is amazing! The spider on the soccer ball is a great touch!
Excellent work on this image, that is the most realistic CG soccer ball I’ve ever seen!
The attention to detail is simply stunning on this piece, however I think that the amount of bugs on the ball is a bit too much and neither of them is in focus either. I would throw out half of the smaller bugs and the ladybug to place the spider somewhere more in focus.
But man this is truly awesome, this definitely deserves the first prize
Thanks, both of you! NinthJake, none of the bugs are really the focus of the image; they’re merely additions to add more life to the scene, as the ball is the main element :yes:
Great work, I loved it!
Thanks! Glad you liked it!
Wow! That is some exceptional work.
Really exceptional! The only issue I have is the grass penetrating the ball Also, maybe a bit more focused specular on the ball.
wow just awesome! i like the grass a lot.
Thanks, everyone!
very nice shot, it has a great mood. Maybe a bit too much assorted animals on the ball…
Nice work, particularly the grass.
Thank you, everyone! I removed an ant or two from the ball to make it slightly less cluttered; I also tweaked the contrast, sharpened the image by lessening the chromatic aberration, and removed some fireflies from the image (I’ve updated the first post).
Great progress of the scene, it’s really beautiful now!
The texture of the ball is excellent and adding the spider and ladybug was great.
I’d like to see a little more of the goal on the background though.
