I added ambiant shadows to the chains. They are suibtle, as they are not in direct sunlight. I wanted to use Gimp's Cage Distort tool to warp the shadows around their body, but I find it very hard to use. Instead, I just used the scale tool. The shadow and the chain converges where it connects to the collar, and becuase the proportions are scaled different, they offset slightly when they move away from the collar. Doing this, I couldn't make the shadows react against the curvitures of their bodies, but I offset it differently for every 'surface' that has a distinct cut off, where their breasts overlap with their torsos, and between their torso's and arms. I also used feather edges, to have the shadow's fade out at parts. I also changed the shading on the chain a bit.
I ws going to upload this, but then I saw
@Jollyrei's suggestion to work on the contrast of the chain, so I decreased the contrast in the darker segments of the chain. I cut and pasted the lighter and darker segments into the different layers, so it is easier for me to make changes to either segments independantly just by selecting that layer. Then I also decided to vary the blur on parts of the shadow, based on distance from chain, which I wasn't going to do initially. I used feathered edges, so that there can be a smooth transition from the sharper parts and the blurred parts
Although I used an illustrated chain, I thought it would blend in more I shade it to match the ligthing, but it still looks a bit to cartoony.
I think the chain gets way too flat and two dimensional as it comes into the forground, especially between #1 and #2 and between #2 and #3. I scaled a two dimensional image of a chain to fit, how do other Cruxforums users apply chains in manips.
