It’s still not quite where I want it, but it’s close. The lighting is pretty tricky (though not as complicated as the image that I am currently working on). The ad copy, aside from the title line, is placeholder, and the original image is considerably larger (8.5" x 11" at 300dpi). Thoughts?
Very nice Felderin¡¡¡
Congratulations¡¡
Wow. Great setup. Lighting, texturing, and mats are great too. Overall, its a great image. It gives me a good feeling. Body copy is a blast…oh yeah…and very profound…lol. I am a Rock Star man myself but RB does the job when it has too.
Thanks for sharing.
~
Thoughs…some 121 :
Love the caustic simulation of the bottle. Thats a wicked awesome touch right there. The reflection may need a little more to it but it just might be that it is a small version and I am not getting the whole of it.
I think the alicorn is a bit too specular and it wouldn’t hurt to add some bump/texturing…maybe even the appearence of your typical random sparkles. The chain and clasp on it are a wonderful touch.
I kinda feel as if I am loosing some of the objects in too much shadow. Maybe some reflected light would help…just a small pinch though…so as not to lose the old, aged (antique) feel. Philosopher’s stone Rocks! (pun intended). Texture is awesome! Wood feel is awesome as well save I would increase the bump a little more in size and intensity. Oh yeah, this is just me but I would add my initials in the wax seal. ssshhhh 
I could be mistaken due to the size (once again) but maybe slightly heavier and darker on the carved text. But just a touch. Or even a torn, aged piece or parchment or metal plates as a labels. Also, attached by some small rusted nails. Would add some detail. One last thing, I would crop out some of the outside boarder yet still leave some. Not too mush though. This would open up more room for the rest of the image.
Thats my quick little critique but like I said, this is still well done Felderin. 
Awesome stuff man.
edit I change posts all the time…its a curse…finding new things…might want to read it again in case…blush
Awesome.
I am assuming this is a ZBrush render. I am assuming this because the one small flaw that I note is the lack of reflection of the picture-box on the reflective objects in the box.
This is a very small thing that does not detract from your work, but it is something I would like to see in ZBrush soon.
Great picture. Are they paying you in cases of Red Bull?
Thanks, Mahlikus–very useful comments.
I agree re: the specular lighting on the horn. The material needs more work. I want it to have a slightly shiny look, but it definitely needs softer highlights and a softer transition to the shadow areas. I’ll play with my specular and diffuse curves some more.
The bottle caustics are made with the Highlighter brush–I just lightened up the wood texture on the wall behind the bottle. It looks odd in preview mode, but works fine when rendered.
The reflection is tough. I agree that it needs more (especially since the can has such a prominent environmental reflection, but I’m having a hard time getting my environment map to play nice with the Gel Shader. The problem is that Gel Shaders give you a double reflection that is strongest on surfaces at an acute angle to the camera (i.e. the edges of the bottle) so it makes the edges (especially the left edge, which is already too bright) look unrealistically bright. They should actually be fairly dark, since in the real world they would be reflecting the walls of the box and not the outside environment. I’ll play with it some more, though.
The shadows look more acute in the small version of the image than they really are. The objects don’t fully disappear in shadow, but they come very close. I tried giving them a rimlight at first (with a radial light), but even at very low levels, it didn’t look convincing. The image is also designed for print, and the shadows are slightly less contrasty (wider color gamut) on paper, so I purposely overcompensated in the original image to keep them from getting too washed out.
The wood material’s color bump is more noticeable at full size. I also “painted” deeper graining in the wood surfaces (especially on the edges) with the bump brish, to give the box a worn and eroded look. That’s hard to see at this size, though.
Thanks for the comments!
beautiful! i agree with fp, I love the trompe l’oeil style, and you have it really fine with this picture! M.
Yeah, print is always a different story. I could hang myself at some of my image rgb to cmyk conversion…thank god for PS. As for the gell shader, I would maybe try using double, triple, or even a quadshader and really drop the diffusion curves on them…you can find the trishader here.
The quadshader here.
One other thing…just a trick…I don’t know if you have tried it but you can take the mrgbz tool and take a sample of the empty box area and use the grabbed texture as your reflection/environmental map. It kinda looks as if you did that but just is case you didnt know. 
Good luck and let us know when it reaches publication. 
Dear Felderin:
Great work! I am particularly interested in the carved border detail. How did you create it - can you post the bitmap?
Thanks.
Steevo
The border is modeled in Rhinoceros, actually, and then imported into ZBrush in .OBJ format. I split my modeling between Rhino and Zbrush, typically–I use ZBrush for anything organic, and anything precise or mechanical gets modeled in Rhino.
Mahlikus–The environment map that I used has a “border” along all four sides that is essentially just that wood texture. I was hoping that the environment map would just be projection-mapped onto the object from the front (thus the border would sort of “crop out” the reflections on the sides of the objects). Unfortunately, that’s not how it works for Gel-Shaded materials. GelShaders almost seem to turn the reflection inside out, so the brightest part of the image ended up on the sides of the objects. I think I can still get the effect that I want, but it’s going to take more experimentation.
One note–the image is not an actual Red Bull ad (I wish!), but just an assignment for an illustrative design class that I am taking.
Felderin:
Thanks for the input. I, too, use Rhino as my primary modeling tool.
Keep up the good work.
Steevo
Excellent piece of artwork. I hope this piece gets accepted by Red Bull in real life (even though well it’s not really for Red Bull but for class)!!! Here’s a suggestion proposal:
<i took this out darnit!>
Sorry for fiddling around with yr image to bring across an idea but i think u’ll get teh point better rather than I post a lengthy description. I was thinking maybe you could make the necessary adjustments to make the Red Bull bottle stand out better and have more unity between the 2 opposite corners (text and red bull bottle) that act as focal points using the exact same colors…providing more corporate identity! Of course, since you said it was for a magazine, it might not be necessary to be overly-obvious …since the reader is expected to be scrutinising/exploring the image and discovering its hidden meaning. Also, blatantly bringing the 2 colors together can be rather cheap-looking, right? As a piece of artwork, i suggest you ignore my suggestion.
I must have a problem seeing your work as I’ve just checked out your gallery and I haven’t seen any of your work until tonight and thats a damn shame as it is indeed …awesome. I love your individual style and your use of materials and textures is inspiring. Cool stuff.
G
