Monster idea technical advice, please

DaWaterRat

Okay, so I finally got around to watching this week's Face-Off and I was really inspired by the character Rachael made. My Exalted Players are not going to be happy with me. :)

In short (for those who haven't seen the ep) she was a demoness with a large vertical mouth along her breastbone (and some awesome puppetry to open and close the "lips" of the mouth)

I've modeled simple props and managed some clothes (though with crap UV's) but I've never tried anything like this. (Oddly enough, it's not the first time I thought of doing something like this, but that was someone else's horror story we were discussing turning into a Graphic novel, and that was on the forearm.)

So... any advice? I've never tried Geo-grafting, and it feels like a rather major project to experiment with that with, but I think geografting would give better depth (the real-world model used for the episode obviously had a "conforming" version, since it was makeup.) But Conforming would probably be easier for me to actually do.

Anyone have something similar in the works for Genesis 1 for Halloween so I don't have to bang my head against a virtual wall for months and can just throw money at it? :) (Looks hopefully in RawArt's direction)

Xenomorphine

Raw would be well-placed to answer this. :) Would suspect geo-grafting would be your best bet.

I'd suggest using the two 'The Thing' movies for visual inspiration, however. Especially the most recent one. There are some mouth-along-the-entire-torso effects in both of them which could be useful for a biological jaw-related reference.

Come to think of it, I'm surprised nobody's released a set of various limbs, mouths and other such things inspired by 'The Thing' for Genesis 1/2, as of yet.

DaWaterRat

For reference, this is the design (along with her story) that I was inspired by.

SickleYield

I love chest and belly mouths, but I haven't been able to come up with a way to reasonably market that yet. It's a lot of work for a specialty thing not everyone might need.

I was thinking a geograft with an edge blend layer, or lips extruded past the graft edge, so that it could work with different skin textures.

Xenomorphine

Oh... Very 'Hellraiser'!

Now I see what this is specifically referencing, I actually think this does have wider-ranging applications. Hallowe'en sales would clearly benefit tremendously from this, but... If someone could get the basic technique refined, this would be excellent for creating 'wounds-in-action', in general - especially gunfire; which opens up the eventual sales to beyond horror themes and into military and crime, too (just add either the liquid pack or the splattering effects in the zombie add-on for Genesis pack).

So, yes, a 'mouth' version for horror, but the same basic technique to create explosive-looking flaps of skin as an additional thing, too, I could see having many uses in rendered art. The chest cavity would be obvious placements for both of these, but the head and abdomen, too. Or if it's a prop which can be scaled in size and moved to different locations on a body, that'd be even better!

In fact, here's another idea: Make another version which can be parented to any object and allow the 'flaps' to have individual shaders applied of the user's choosing. Bingo! You've got yourself an effect which can be used on metal structures and vehicles, to make them look like they've been torn and shredded by a hail of bullets! If the individual flaps can be individually posed, I could see this being duplicated in a single scene to create unique-looking impact hits all over, say, a car or spaceship. Or even to make it look as if a creature or robot has literally torn open a metal wall or door.

If someone can successfully diversify such a product into all of those above ideas, I'd imagine the resulting sales potential could be huge! Someone wants to create a monster-looking creature? They use this. Someone needs to create a blade or explosive bullet wound? They use this in conjunction with the recent liquid effect pack. Someone wants to create a scene of devastation or solemn aftermath of a war? They also use this! :)

Not at all sure if all of this could be done, as I'm not a modeller, but it seems as if there could be a lot of potential, once the basics have been sorted out and properly refined.