Thanks everyone. Yeah, I've had a difficult time getting the strawberries to look good. In my previous renders they look too cartoonish. I scrapped the material and started over, using BbB's strawberry mat for the sides (Thanks BbB!). I think these look better. Anyway, here's an update. The slicer d...

Small update. Made the strawberries non-uniform, but they still look a little funky to me. Made the dripping chocolate syrup look a little better. Made the plate a little thicker, although probably not enough. I zoomed in on the cake so the tiles didn't distract as much. Now that I'm more or less fi...

It's just the environment, so yeah, it's the "world". It's not tied to a lamp or anything.

Ahh, yeah, you have to convert the hdr file to exr. Forgot to mention that. There are lots of free programs that do this. I use Picturenaut. (http://www.hdrlabs.com/picturenaut/)

At least you didn't fall for this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfPJeDssBOM

Yes, as long as you select the right type. The ones in the link I sent you are obviously spherical.

EXR maps are more than just plain images. I don't have a complete technical understanding of them, but from what I understand, a photograph is taken at multiple exposure levels. These photographs can then be compiled into an HDR image. The information from the different exposure levels can be used t...

Hmm, where did you get the maps? Did you try adjusting the gain? What if you turn off the meshlights and try to use an env map? Still black?

As for the fluid issue, what was your setup? Did you have a large enough domain box?

Nice! The fluid looks awesome! So, to make it more lifelike... Wine pouring into a wine glass might look a little more realistic. Also, give the glass some absorption. Right now it looks too clear to me. :) The wine bottles are faceted. Did you "Set Smooth" for them? What kind of problems were you e...

Thanks for the crits Phr0st, I agree with each.

Update.

I'm originally from Hattiesburg, but went to school at MSU. I just finished my master's this summer and will be working here at MSU as a research associate for about a year. I love having spare time on my hands, something I haven't had in a while.

Thanks for the comments pixie and everyone else. Yes Deus, it's quite a simple model, but right now I'm just trying to learn texturing. Once I'm finished, I'll be happy to share the final .blend and textures to help out beginners like me. :) crojack, I'm using a displacement map to get the grainy lo...

Looks great!!

Interesting... Could you zip and post your .blend file? I'd be happy to take a look at it.

EDIT: If the two meshes are intersecting each other, it could be a precedence issue.