Thanks guys. My boss just (astutely) pointed out that perhaps they only consider new entries monthly. I figured since they send out a weekly email it must be done on a weekly basis, but I don't browse VM myself very often so I wouldn't have noticed. Sorry if I've jumped the gun.
Agreed on the second backdrop. The tree's too thin -- I substituted a ground level shot when an elevated angle was needed. Drat!
Rob -- not too nitpicky at all. Definitely agreed. I'm eagerly awaiting the new VRayDirtmap shader, but Vlado's keeping the beta closed now. You could do it in Photoshop, but it came down to time constraints really. The client was swapping refrigerators on me up until 5 minutes before I had to render!
We model everything custom according to spec'd materials from the designers. In our free time we're building a Turbosquid library, but it's slow-going. Check us out!
http://www.turbosquid.com/Search/Ind...lAuthorExact/y
Thanks for the kind words, guys.
Shaun