Haunted House and Fall House

The "Haunted House" project was created in 2016 for the Haloween Weekly CG Challenge #112 “Haunted House”, (Now CG Boost Challenge) a fortnightly competition that was held on a related Facebook group. This was one of my first attempts at an online render competition after retraining myself in Blender 3D, and an early project.

My concept was to create a run-down old Victorian haunted house at the end of a pristine suburban street, drawing inspiration from 80s movies and TV shows such as Stranger Things. The final rendered image showcases the eerie atmosphere of the house with the open door and light streaming down the path, emphasising the abandoned and haunted feeling.

During the creation of this project, I used the Beacon Hill Dollhouse Kit as my main reference and inspiration. Additionally, I also looked at several houses on the internet, everything from real houses on Google Maps, to movie houses from films and TV. My biggest influences came from the house from Psycho and Bates Motel, and Phantom Manor in Disneyland Paris.

The composition of the final image effectively guides the viewer's eye through the scene, with the open door and light streaming down the path leading the viewer's gaze towards the abandoned BMX bike, emphasizing the eerie and abandoned atmosphere of the house. However, the placement of the house at the end of a suburban street could be improved by adding more elements to the scene to give it more context and make it feel more believable.

The lighting in the scene effectively enhances the mood and atmosphere, with the warm yellow light coming from the inside of the house contrasting with the cool blue light of the moon, creating a sense of unease. The use of rim lighting on the edges of the house and the bike also adds to the eerie atmosphere. However, the lighting overall could be more dynamic and varied to make it more interesting and add depth to the scene.

The color palette of the scene effectively enhances the mood, with the purple color of the house complementing the autumnal colors of yellows, oranges, and greens, as well as being a traditional cartoon color for Halloween. However, the color palette could be more varied and more expressive to make the scene more interesting and engaging.

Overall, while this project effectively showcases my ability to create a believable and eerie atmosphere, there are areas that could be improved upon such as adding more context to the scene, dynamic lighting, and varied color palette.

I have included Sketchfab interactive 3D models of the House and BMX, to showcase my attention to detail and texturing skills. You can explore the models in 3D, rotate and zoom to see the attention to small details like the texture of the wood or the aging of the metal, which help to create a more realistic and believable scene.

Fall House

I also love this other shot I took with the car as the focus of the image. It looks to me like an old armature Polaroid picture that has a nice aesthetic to it.

I added fallen leaves to the car using a particle array as and weight painted out the areas that would gather more leaves. As well as editing the textures to give it a more dirty and dusty look as you will often fine with cars during autumn and winter.

Unfortunately the vehicles aren’t to the quality I would hope to achieve now as these were the first two vehicles I chose to make when learning Blender and Substance Painter. I was attempting to make a low poly vehicle with harsh edges with unfiltered pixel heavy texturing, but they were poorly unwrapped. I may return to one of the cars in the future to give a clear indication of how I have improved.