Voodoo

Aah, love it.

Thank you. Thank you for your comments, they are greatly appreciated. As to some of your suggestions, the render is 100% DAZ|Studio. I have just recently started to learn this program and immediately I found a few shortfalls in the lighting area such as very little shadow control, 3 options and no ability to adjust shadow color or depth that I have found. The "skull" is actually covered in dried skin, thus why it doesn't look like bone. All the models were created in Bryce 6.1 and imported into Daz and the textures were created by me. For the most part, I create all my own textures for the scene at hand. Photo-realism is not my goal but rather to convey an idea.

Generally this setup looks very good because of how the models and textures+materials were arranged and used. This skull looks more like an ancient stone-sculpture rather then real skull. The shape of the jaw and the texture speak of stone surface. I like how the "mouth" is sewed though, very dramatic appearance. The material you used for wax - is it the translucent one from the BrycePrize collection (if you rendered in Bryce, not DazStudio renderer)? If that's the one, then I can guess why your machine had a hard time calculating this image. The flame texture however needs far more intense "light" (high exposure color) to be taken as hot flame. The radial you used for candle light can benefit from higher intensity and quicker falloff (like squared falloff for ex.). If you feel that you'll lose the background this way, you can always add another candle back there (sadly this will increase rendertime too). I believe the smoke in the back is also a texture with transparent channel - very fitting and well executed. As Rashad stated, the shadows look a tad brighter under the skull compared to its low shaded part. Using no postwork on the image and making it look this way compliments your skills very well. One last thing, did you modelled the candle and the "box" with the star in the back or are those DAZ objects as well?

Hmm. We may have another masterpiece here. The textures are nothing less than masterful. The dof is perfect. I sense that some shadows are not quite as they should be, the skull shadow seems a bit fainter than I would expect. Wee need to discuss this whoie candle thing in detail because I think that is the best looking candle I have seen in Bryce ever.Please share a secret or two. Anyhow from me it is a 5 even though I take slight issue with the shadows.

We finaly see Victoria without her make-up! Seriously this is a great picture. Wonderful textures and great models.

This thing is going to give me nightmares

That is really creepy and really well done. I like the cup/bowl with the smoke coming out of it. The star on it looks good.

Oh, this is a really frightening skull. You're really good at dark scenes. Light on the skull is excellent and the background fits nicely. Candle and flame are both excellent but this flame doesn't give off that much light. This is my only qualm.