KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!!!

Or a really, really big bug zapper.

I'm pretty sure that's what the black-flies up in northern Ontario look like under a magnifying glass. O_O

:S

Gross.

And vicious!

and this is why they are killed

That thing will hunt me in my worst nightmares

Maybe he's sorta like a spider - the sort of creepy thing that preys on other creepy things, so you end up kinda liking it for being the enemy of an enemy?...

... probably not, though.

The art director usually gives me a kind of point-form description to work from.

now one of the things that crosses my mind is this...

If that's NOT part of a hive mentality... and the creatures act alone... then that's bad..

*BUT*

if it IS part of a hive like bees or wasps or such... what the hell do the "Warriors" and the *queen* look like if those are just the drones...?

Wow, that's a creepy thought :S Hah, now I'm curious!

as a sufferer of minor insect phobia, this is freaking terrifying.
I love it.

I wouldnt even fight this. I'd be legging it completely the opposite direction.

Let the big ass orc barbarian deal with the terrifying flybeast

Haha, thanks so much! XD

Hey, it's Jeff Goldblum! Sorry, I couldn't resist XD

XD Man, been a long time...

Yeah I saw the movie about a couple of years ago for the first time XD

Haha, yeah, I hardly remember it, to be honest, but it does make me kinda miss oldschool physical special effects. Had a real visceral feel to it.

I agree. CGI has gotten to a point where it looks really good and realistic, but nothing can beat the old school practical effects. One of my favorite movies is John Carpenter's The Thing and I read somewhere that Carpenter actually patented lighting techniques with flares for filming when he made that movie.

*nods* There's something... crude, and raw, and undeniable about certain types of old effects. In comparison, CGI often can look too perfect, too shiny, too clean, too orderly, too precise. Those rough edges and unexpected behaviours and things that happened with doing things physically from scratch added a lot of bonus flavour... although I suspect people unaccustomed to seeing them done that way would probably disagree and just feel it looks shoddy (shitty :V)

It's actually kind of why I like old-school sprites in video games left as old-school sprites, rather than being updated. It's like trying to take a stylized cartoon and re-rendering it as realistic: you lose some of the stylization and "feel", as well as the imagination in "filling in the blanks" when you just render the characters straight-up. ((I find the same thing happens going from a rough sketch to final image, often - there's a kind of "life" in rough scribbly sketches that's lost when you clean it all up and make it polished.))

You know, I actually read and heard that what effects people actually try to do with the CGI monsters and such a lot of times is try to invoke the "Uncanny Valley" effect. I find that particular thing really interesting because it explains why people get so freaked out over rather benign things like clowns and dolls and such. Intentionally trying to invoke it though can be really tricky, depending on how they do it.

*nods* I've been trying to do the same with some of my monsters, actually :b

I don't know if you've ever read the original Jurassic Park book, but it was a bit more visceral and almost horror-esque than the movie. It was referenced there, too: about why the velociraptors were more terrifying than the tyrannosaur because of their human-like size, intelligence, and communication. Along the lines of "It was their man-like qualities that frightened him more than their teeth or claws."

Putting creepy spins on the familiar or expected is a great horror/suspense tool. I'm a huge fan of an older game called Eternal Darkness, where your characters are prone to lose sanity. One of the first effects is tilting the camera and making it wobble and distort a bit, ever EVER so slightly. Super effective when used in combination with great sound and level design and such.

That's one I really need to read because it definitely make sense.

"Why wont anyone kiss me?" -Acies Reaver

hehe, pretty scary creature. Amazing job! I definitely don't want to have to meet him in person!

Hahah. "Why does no one love me :( "

Thanks a lot :)