Creepy Candy House


Been working on this the past couple of days. I’ve got all the basic pieces I wanted to hit in place, and am looking for some feedback on what can be improved at this point. Some things I’m feeling could be better:

-Lighting/mood is dull, or not quite right. Wet/foggy scenes seem really hard to light well since the natural light is so diffuse. Currently, the light is largely from the sun to the right of the frame, plus some world fill.

-Ground texture and grass feels a little too repetitive.

-I want to add some extra FX, like smoky mist on the water, and water drips on the camera. Those aren’t in yet.

-Camera angle/composition. I’ve gone back and forth on this one, wondering if the scene could be framed better.

Any feedback is much appreciated.

I like this concept, but you’re right, theres some spots that could work better.
The lighting makes it look almost monochromatic, I’m assuming an early morning scene or something. This could be exaggerated some more. I really think that adding a fireplace or some kind of glow coming from the windows would look great, making it a more obvious focal element and making the composition work a little better. In terms of the camera angle, remember the rule of thirds as well as that the house is almost completely orthographic to us, blocking 3/4 of your model. The morning fog vibe works for you though, some subtle steam or low fog on the water would look good too. A little postpro after that and you’d be doing fine!

Updated version:


I made a hole in the right side of the treeline to get better lighting in. I think I like the result a lot better. Some fog over the water too, and I’ve tweaked the framing and camera angle as suggested.

Oh, you posted an update. Was just returning to post a bit overpainted version of the previous


The fog could make it really creepy. Started to play around with an idea that what if there was a window with bars, handprints, “something” hanging from a tree, and maybe the water extends closer to the camera and there’s a kid’s shoe in it… and then I decided that this is going from creepy to outright horrible.

JNinja- the update looks good, composition especially. I kinda agree with JA12 about adding “something” in the shadows, his silhouette is very creepy and adds a narrative element to the scene.

Creepy candy house is a really nice idea. Since you already were and are thinking about composition and critique your own work, I tried to come up with elements one could add to tell a story better but started to freak myself out. Playful and bright colors so it could have something to do with kids but suggesting abuse/kidnap/murder of children probably goes too far.

I like that badly painted and worn out look on the house. Could keep that on everything that has been painted with bright colors, similar look to old toys in nuclear disaster areas. Maybe the house belongs to a insane clown who has been painting all kinds of stuff to make them look like toys, thinking those will make visitors happy but in reality those only entertained himself because no sane person will ever come near that place, or him.

Painted wooden dolls, pipes painted as candy canes, clown gear, and suggesting the end result of his solitude in the fog could do it.

Awesome.It reminds me Hansel & Gretel fable.

The composition improved on your second render.

One thing that don’t realy work for me now is the wall of the hosw that dont realy look like candy they dont realy look like anything right now and reworking this material may improve the scene.

If you find a way to add a concentrated atmospheric fog or particulle efect to have a denser layer of fog on the ground it may be interesting visualy and had to the unreal crypy effect ( I have no idea how to do this though)