Cress whip with postwork

Very nice job with what you had. You're kinda like me, an artist on a poorman's budget. If you look at my stuff I've done a couple of things to save cost and time. First, I studied what most people like or are willing to look at over and over again...sex. I also studied from the best, Hugh Hefner of "Playboy". Third, I keep my renders simple. The less clothes, props, other charactes the better. If you work hard on the emotions and expressions in the face the composition doesn't have to be complicated. There's an artist called "lost girl" that has some excellent photographs that are very simple, most only one subject in a close up. What makes them so unique, at least to me, is the emotion and mood portrayed in each. I too do a lot of post work, masking, saturation/contrast adjustments, smudging (joints and hair and smoothing of skin), etc.

You also have to remember that most of these really good CGI'ers work for Warner Bros., Disney, Sony, etc. and have the program resorces at their finger tips.

You're doing good...