I don't hate this part, though you're the second one to mention it.
Yeah, I wasn't sure what exactly to do with it. I tried something (see below) but here it didn't really work.
It is in fact one layer. I'll keep thi s in mind.
Agreed on both counts.
Same as #1, I personally don't care about it but I'll change it up in the future.
I actually made all the background and other stuff myself ?
I just recently discovered layer masks and that's what's going on here. The render is duplicated, with the bottom layer getting all the effects that I put on the background stuff, while parts of the top layer have been made various degrees of transparent. I thought it would work a bit better than it actually did.
I tried a few things in that regard. The top left corner is colored in white with some opacity on it, and I've also put in an admittedly shitty "light source" behind the render.
I'm on Gimp right now but wouldn't mind a good photoshop...would have to work on Mac though as that's what I'm stuck with using.