For this newest project, we were told to create either a 2D or 3D image of a creepy halloween creature. I decided its finally time to bring one of my nightmares to life.

In terms of research, there wasnt much to be done, as it was quite a vivid nightmare. The main concept for him is a living stone man, with light shining from the eyes and mouth. I had a few looks at things like the weeping angels in Doctor Who, and also more at enviroments he would be in, like the tunnels of the london underground.

I began by doing a quick doodle to get my idea on paper. It wasnt super cohesive, but got the general image across.

I then went into mudbox and grabbed the huan form msh, and began to play around with it, seeing if I could maybe bulk him out or pose him differently. I also attempted to paint him with a stone texture, yet the effect was very underwhelming, making look more like he had measles.

I then took the mesh into 3DS Max and began creating an enviroment for him.

The main focus of the render was to get the lighting spot on. I ddnt want to have much in the way of lighing behind him, just enough to give him an outline. I used two Area lights with a slight decay to get the effect.

I also created 3 spotlights out of his eyes and mouth, pointing directly at the viewer, to shine across the walls.I rendered out an image of the creature by itself with the area lights, and the enviroment by itself with only the spotlights.

I then took the renders into photoshop and began working on the final lighting and texturing. I added a brickwork texture to the walls, after adjusting the levels for the creature and tunnel. The creature still looked a little too dark, so I added small lense flare behind him. I painted on his eyes and mouth in pure white, to have the light effect, and added a strong lens flare over it in a lighten layer. I started playing around with a few other things after this, such as adding in a cracked stone texture to the view, although very lightly, to show that the viewer has been slightly turned to stone already by the creature. All in all Im pretty happy with the way it came out, although it would have been nice to get the creature looking a little more stonework like.