Haunted House Continued

Well, my house is starting to take shape, or at least the rock island it's sitting on. I've darkened the shadows to highlight all the cracks and crevices in the rock faces and turned the line settings off (leaving them on reveals all the triangles and geometric shapes that the rocks are composed of.) Also, I added a cloudy backdrop. It'll do for now but I'll look for a more dramatic one later on. (click images to view full size.)

I'll admit that the rocks have a simplistic, road runner cartoon quality to them. But since the source material is a cartoon, that's the direction I'm sorta taking with this. Besides, if I end up doing a paint over in Photoshop (like the graveyard scene last year) then I can add more detail there.

Here's a slight aerial view. I turned the water grey here because it was distracting (still stumped on how I'm going to pull off a decent ocean.) The rocks in and around the stairs took the most time. Other than the dead, twisted trees, I'm kinda wondering what other vegetation, if any, I should plant on this island.

Back at the boat dock, I found a weathered fence texture in sketchup that seems to work well. Also, the sketchy line style I've turned on brings out the cracks and grooves in the the boards. Unfortunately it also reveals the triangular edges of all the rocks which I'd rather not see. Grrr! Anyway, now comes the real fun, detailing the house itself! See ya next time.

Haunted House

Gettin' close to Halloween time again, so I thought I'd get a head start on a new scary scene. Second only to Jonny Quest, Scooby Doo was blessed with some of the best background paintings Hanna Barbara produced. I grabbed this off the secret funspot blog, and am using it as inspiration for a haunted house on an isolated rocky island (click on images to view full size.)

This was from the episode where Scooby was to inherit a share of some guy's fortune. But first, he and the gang had to spend a night in the old family mansion (complete with two green laughing phantoms.) I love how this pic combines the house on an island motif with the house built precariously close to the edge of a cliff. Below is the start of my design.

I traded the winding path for a stone staircase and tossed the gazebo. The island rocks are still just basic geometry, and will require a bit of carving to look all craggy and weathered. Also, still need to spooky up the house and add some twisted gnarled trees.

Here's the dilapidated boat dock (still needs a little detailing.) All those decaying boards and posts are actually stretched and distorted copies of just three components, which saves a lot of time. As always, the figure is just temporary to help with scale.

Here's another camera angle with different shadows (oops, forgot the sky.) Not sure if I'm going to use all the sketchup colors and textures or do a paint over in Photoshop. Either way, keep checking back as the haunted house slowly evolves into the terrifying abode of PURE LIVING EEEEVIL!