Here’s a close-up of the cat. I was going to use hair for the cat, and had the hair system in place and it was looking good outside the Radiosity scene. Until I hit render for a test. I think it’d still be rendering today! Hair and Radiosity at this size (2K x 3K) wasn’t getting me where I wanted to be. Kind of hipocritical, but that was a short-cut I did allow myself to take.
So I created more of a velvety shader, and applied a photoshop “hair” texture. After the render, I DID take it into Photoshop and “fuzz” out the edges of the cat to create fur.

My intention was to keep the cat small in the image, but draw your eye to it. Especially since I was wanting this image to be poster size. I wanted all this largeness around the cat. Kitty is the “star” of the Popbot comic, and I’ve always loved that he is this tiny thing.
to Ephesus: The tip of my cat’s tail is actually grey. Maybe that’s the “shadow” that you see? I struggled with that area of the scene…the grey of the tail kept on blending into the door at the end of the hall. But at full rez, I think it pulls through.
REFLECTIONS of KITTY ON THE FLOOR:
The floor only has Blended Relfections at 5%. Not really enough to tame the cat down, but the bright reflection on the floor doesn’t bother me too much, but yeah, it’s definately bright. It might be one of the things I would change if I had to do it again, but I kinda like the attention it brings to the cat.
More answers and pictures (wires) soon!