Hey! I've been working on this apple decomposition shot. This is where it's at now, but I'm going to be taking another stab at getting it to a higher level of realism. Any feedback on how to approach it better/critiques on whats standing out are appreciated! Thanks!

https://vimeo.com/253311528 [vimeo.com]

It looks pretty good!
My criticism would consist mainly regarding the initial apple's texture, which is not very realistic (too rough and rather low-res) and the integration with the BG image.
The aging effects themselves look somewhere between great and amazing.

Thanks man! I really appreciate it. And yeah, I think it could stand to have better textures! It was my first time into Mari, so I was happy at first, but now looking at it I should probably take another pass at them.

Hey! Here is the updated apple shot. I really tried to focus in on getting a higher level of detail/realism. Any Feedback and/or comments are welcome!

Hi David,
The sim looks, as stated previously, very good. The issue that I see, w/o deconstructing to very well defined points, is that there's too much specularity on the bite area and too much bump on the initial red surface (I also mentioned it previously) - fresh apples are much smoother to the naked eye than what I'm seeing there.
It would probably help if you introduced an “overall shape noise” (<- simulations illiterate speak) that deflates the volume a little bit less similarly to a balloon. Searching on your search-engine of choice for “insert_organic_stuff growing in slow motion” but applied in reverse for your case, could help you better understand what I'm trying to convey.