It's my senior year, and it's time to choose what I want to do for my thesis. After talks with my professor and the department head, I've decided to do a short 3D horror rather than a live action short or a 90 page script as per tradition in the film department. Thus, I got a lot of pressure to get this done right (only guy doing a 3D short) and I can use some feed back as I progress in my thesis.

Currently, I have two test scenes rendered out that's in semi-final production.

An exterior shot of a hotel of sorts, where the thesis takes place. I actually have updated the lighting since I last uploaded this (ambient light for general purposes, and a directional light to mimic the sun's position). What I wanna do though, is somehow get a better sky than what I got, either added in After Effects or in Maya. Don't ask why I used Galactica music for the render test, I don't even remember why.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9JH9yuwcYY


The other scene takes place near the end of the thesis. I did this first because it was the most intriguing scene, where the character thinks he sees his mother's hands appear out of a mist, but to his horror they slowly transform into a pair of demon hands (character yet to be included). For the fog effect, I decided to use a Simple Fog and modified from there. If anyone knows of a way that might make it look freakier, I'd appreciate it. Also, the damn fog moves too fast for some reason when it switched to the "side view" of the hands moving. The hand speed itself though is fine (I think). Is there any way I can control the fog's animation so that it appears to be moving more smoothly?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i6dHCl17YI