A submission for the recent Poliigon Halloween Competition. The main idea of the challenge was to create a Halloween themed image that related a story. I created this in about two weeks using textures from Poliigon and a wolf model from Poser. All other models I created from scratch.
I know this needs quite a bit of work, things like volumetric lighting and more detail on the vampire and wolf. So I am posting this on Cookie to get some input from the Citizens. I welcome all serious critiques.
Cool idea :) , Personally I would do away with the wolf. When you first look at a scary picture, you want the viewer to jump when he/she first notices the scary part , but when you have two "scary" points of interest it interferes with the initial reaction that you are going for. Also the lighting on the grass and in general is a bit too well lit and also takes away from the scary-ness I think. As you said, some volumetric lighting for fog will work well. Also , for a more interesting composition and to lead the viewers eye, I would have "Granny's house" up on a hill in the centre of the scene with a winding path leading down.. If you have some glowing windows , then the viewers eye should look at the house , follow the road down and then get a shock at the vampire. Possibly light the vampire less, so it isn't immediately obvious untill you finally notice it and jump! If you make the scene portrait instead of landscape I think it will work better with this idea.... Finally, I would add some variation to the size and shapes of the bricks as they are too repetitive and plain I feel. Only my opinion, but I hope it helps :)