Afraid of the Dark

   Mechmaster finally came up for air from his comic
 (check it out here: http://www.mechmaster.co.uk/cg-lair/daleks/secemp-index.htm )
and sent me back Afraid of the Dark to correct my numerous past tense errors.
For some reason I've been creeping into present tense while writing... it's become epedemic. I've created a file to search for the wrong tense with find/search and zap any. It's tedious but necessary.
   Anyway, he sent the file back and I spent part of Sunday evening and all of yesterday cleaning the manuscript before sending it back to him. Hopefully that will get the editing of it back on track. (or even speed it up)
    I've paused in working on Princess Rescue Inc, I started glossing over rough patches in order to get the editing done... not a good thing. I realized that I need to stop when I do that and go back to it later. I've gotten 1/4 of the book done, I've cleaned it up and even added alternative view points to flesh it out a bit more. Hopefully when I get back to it and when it's all said and done it will be a better product.
    So, anyway, back to Afraid of the Dark, I sculpted lots of the aliens in Sculptris last year and earlier this year and even explored turning the book into a game using the UDK engine. I've gotten some progress done but then I tabled it to get back to writing. Here are a few of the aliens:

Gryphon: It is a predator/scavenger, it has one or two small cameo's in the book.

Another alien that has a small cameo, this one is a daddy long legs, a forest herbivore.

 

I was tempted to do a forest scene with the daddy long legs. That critter like some of my others are based on ideas and concept art from Deviant Art and from http://www.creaturespot.com/

 

And last (for now, I actually have over 100 images) is the Strider.

First the baby called a medusa puppy:

Awe ain't he cute?

Now the parents:

Striders are all over the book. Think of a 2 legged 2 trunked elephant with a gangly body and spikes.

 

I modeled this guy/gal in low poly as well in order to put it in the game. this is the high res version textured in Sculptris (like all the others) and rendered in Cinema.

Imagine herds of these things and alien plants and other animals taking over suburbs and cities. :)