So after the last test I decided the water layer had to go through a series of alterations to blend it more with the environment.

With a combination of Ps and After effects filters I have the ocean a more flattened appearance...
I duplicated the ocean frame layer and applied the Palette knife effect on in PS on the top layer and turned the opacity down. In AE I added some grain and and darkened the scene to create a more night-time/dark setting for the storm.

The light layers were a little too bright and distracting, however, this will be easily altered once the layers of the ocean are rendered out separately so that I can control their brightness in post production.





In this test I removed the light reflections in PS and placed them back on top of the layers post filter, but I feel the first test had a more stylized appearance.