2D and 3D composites

These two pieces are very experimental just to see how well-constructed I would be able to create them. I suppose you could say they are excercises with photo manipulation and compositing. The assignment was to discover the amazing possibilities of using 3D in photo manipulation.
In the first image I created smoke in Illustrator using this AMAZING vectorstuts tutorials, which I've used before and am absolutely in love with. At first I had my hesitations with doing something I've done before, but I really liked my concept, so I went ahead and made it anyway. Plus, I liked the challenge of making the smoke a head but also act the way real smoke acts, whereas my piece before concentrated more on just shaping the smoke images into a person. My favorite part about the image I created for my current assignment is the wick, where the smoke is blowing away from the direction the wick is pointing, meaning someone just blew it out. It's subtly active, and that little detail really steps up the image, I think.

The second image I created was again more of an exercise than a final piece. I used a 3D image linked from the Photoshop 3D website of curtains and placed a picture of my friend on a beach. It was really simple stuff, just practicing making realistic shadow and making the lighting dynamic and interesting. I also added hair strands to make his hair look more realistic rather than masked out, which normally happens. I discovered only when I saw it really badly done on a Mad-Eye Moody graphic for Order of the Phoenix. I think this graphic looks like it could make a nice CD cover.