[elvis]

Hi,

Perhaps an odd question - but I'm having problems with making monsters/creatures look evil, and scary.

Does anyone know of any good tips/tutorials for making real scary beasties?

I'm thinking composition, features, colors - or anything really.

Thanks!

e

[Buzzsaw]

in my opinion it all happens in the eyes.
you can make a sweet little girl look like a serial killer if the eyes are right.

[ September 30, 2002: Message edited by: Buzzsaw ]

[elvis]

Thanks, though kinda knew that, but does anyone have any thoughts on what works doesn't work when it comes to eyes?

Also not all nasty monsters have "eyes" as such - look at some of gigers work for example.

Illustrated examples would be real cool!

e

[daeldren]

The eyes are a big thing to watch out for, I know from experience if you give a character the wrong eye shape or such it totally destroys the mood of the character, Ill let you know if I think of any tutorials.

[ELLioT]

Think about lighting, composition. Empty fields, hard lights can set the ambience & feeling of evil.

[daeldren]

designing a creature is the hardest thing to do first of all, but its also easier than coming up with a regular character because there are no rules really when it comes to designing a monster, here are some links to one of my favorite artists Brom. Hopefully this gives you some good idea.
Brom Art - Creatures

[elvis]

daeldren: Yeah, Brom is class - love this stuff. Looking at these guys, one common denominator is that they all (almost), have a quite thin and protruding jaw/chin. Also, a lot of them have no eyes, just like egerie talks about - having no eyes (or no eyeballs) seem to sometimes make for a scaryer look.

Also, bare bones, and insect references seem to work - anyone else have thoughts on this? I'm betting there must be someone out there who has done a bit deeper analysis of this???

Cheers
e

[egerie]

A brilliant thing Giger once said is that his aliens (minus the Freudian part) have no eyes because it makes them scaryer... you don't know where they are looking ! Creepy eh ?

[Blind Tree Frog]

Evil looking stuff:
Hard lines
Darker colors
More defined features
Narrow eyes
Pointie parts
Dark in general
Show teeth/claws

Good looking stuff:
Soft lines
Bright Colors
Features more squishy and huggable
Bright, round eyes
Curvy parts
Light in general


Gross generalizations there, but evil things thend to be more angular and defined. And good things tend to be huggable. Hardcore characters are given a more dark, angular look to make them look slightly evil. A good character could never do such evil/intense things that they do.

Of course, that was a 2 minute thought and there are exceptions everywhere. Buu from Dragonball has many of the features of "good" characters. Very brightly colored, very curvey. The only real evil feature is his slitted eyes when he gets his evil smile. As he evolves to being more evil though, he loses his squishyness and starts to become more angular and "harder" (although, still quite squishy)


Does that make sense or am I talking out of my ass?

[tilokani]

I think when deciding what is scary, you have to determine what things scare YOU as a person. Then protrude from there.

[tilokani]

I also suggest setting a scene in which people or things in the scene wouldn't feel out of place with the background. You know what I mean? Giving the appearance that nothing's wrong, when there really is something wrong, helps a lot. For example, a woman being eaten alive would look much more scarier if she was smiling rather than yelling for help. Also, if a man was drowing, if he was laughing, it'd give a really creepy appearence.

Also, you have to discover what qualities brings down a picture's "eeriness". For example, very bright colours, cheerful mood, style of colour applied to the picture, the quality of the picture (rough, sketchy lines could give a worn, tattered appearence, but also make the picture look "amature-ish".

Just two examples from what I fished out...
This one would clearly show what message you're trying to get across, but yeah, what a joke. Trying to hide the message that something's wrong could also greatly affect your picture in good or bad ways.

BAD EXAMPLE

And this one, completely opposite, which I made in english class with a ball point pen and tissues. Although, there aren't many colours to express the feeling, and even with the bright red, it sends a message that something's wrong. Which is an essential part of the picture.

GOOD EXAMPLE

Again, I'm making this up as I'm going along, from experience, (yeah right, experience my ass! started grade 9 a month ago) anyway... this is what I find essential in getting spooked.

[elvis]

Thanks for the comments...

This is one of the things I'm working on, it's definitely not ready, and the coloring sucks - but any comments/overpaints on how to make this dude a bit scarier?



Thanks

e

[AndyT]

Maybe the posing and smiling for the camera is a bad idea? The weapon is great but it looks twisted? A scary neck might help?

[elvis]

Totally agree. That's what I'm getting at, the posing is all wrong, does anyone have any ideas of what pose will work for a more threatening look?

I'll get rid of the smile, I never even thought of that before...

The weapon is f***ed up, haven't really focused much on that, but I guess that's beside the point.

-e

[AndyT]

Be careful! I tried to come up with a different pose (didn't save) and it looked like a heavy metal guy. A scary one ... but you might want to avoid that.

[tilokani]

I would rather have him much taller, and much skinnier. With a long face, instead of a heavy one. Rid of a lot of the muscles, the skin and bones help. The picture isn't bad though, it isn't promoting enough "BOO!" though.

[-=]AzraeL[=-]

This an image i made long time back ...
ITs basically how the eyes are shaped and also how the jaw is shaped ...making the eyes look like triangular slits and point upwards makes it look the angry kinda scary ...
making them hollow makes it the zombie kinda scary ..

i have a feeling hands also play an important role in this ...

[Vhy]

One thing you should be aware of is features like a short nose that give a youthful appearance. It might be harder to get the effect you want if your subject looks cute.

[Mindsiphon]

I think lowereing the brow and making it heavier, showing his teeth clenching and bulking up the muscles will make him more ominous. Also deep set eyes always add to it.
Here's a quickie overpaint to illustrate what I'm rambling about.