It's common knowledge that pretty much every zombie film probably has a 'dead rising' scene. The classic shot of a brain-muncher's hand sticking out of the soil getting ready to climb on out and eat half of the main cast, it's textbook horror.

With this in mind, I decided that a great Halloween project for people to try could be to recreate this classic scene, simply using only an iPad. This was in-fact my very first project on 123D Creature, so if I can do it, you should find it a breeze!
Since there is no asymmetrical limb building on the app (that I could find), I decided to use this potential problem to my advantage, creating a 'dual-hand' style scene.

Got your iPad? Great, let's go.

Step 1: Grab the App

This first step is a doozy. Just head over to this link to download the app.

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/123d-creature/id594014056?mt=8

Sweet. Now the fun begins.

Step 2: Layout to Limb Building.

Once you open the app, all you need to worry about is the 'Create New' button on screen.

Pressing this will bring you to a fairly uninspiring stick-man, and a few simple options below it. If you are new to this like I was, I'd recommend familiarizing yourself with the buttons through experimentation.

If you're a whizz at 123D then feel free to skip this step.

Step 3: The Initial 'Blob'.

In this initial step, we are simply making the base in which the hand(s) will be reaching out from.

This is done by removing all of the stickman's limbs (clicking on joints and pressing the 'bin' icon) and adding a couple of limbs to create a 'cross' shape, so then by both moving these joints around and 'fattening' them, we can create something like the image below.

Now, to the hands!

*SAVE*

Step 4: Modeling the Hands.

This step is something of a 'prelude' to arguably the most difficult step in the project, this is the first stage of the modeling of the hands.

Focusing on only one side (the other hand will magically mirror it's counterpart) we can use the 'add joint' feature to drag out both a rough wrist shape, and then five finger features (don't worry, it won't stay like that).

We then can make the fingers a little thinner and lifelike through the 'thickness' feature.

Now these weird little sticks can eventually become a fully fledged zombie hand!

*SAVE AGAIN*

Step 5: The Hands (Phase 2).

Whilst the image below may appear to depict a hand with several broken digits, it is in-fact, the beginnings of the final hand structure you can see to the right of it.

To achieve this, we need to utilize the 'pose' tool.

With a bit of experimentation of both swiveling the joints into a realistic 'grasping zombie' pose, thickening the limbs to give the fingers a better look, and moving the joints into a lifelike post-human place, we can create a more realistic hand, and then we can move onto sculpting and painting.

Now, the FUN part.

*SAVE, DAMNIT*

Step 6: Sculpting and Painting Prep.

Now we have the rough shape of a hand, we can begin to sculpt finer features into the hand.

The main use for sculpting here is to make the 'blob' in the middle more earthy and distorted. Using the flatten and smooth tool can achieve this.

This part really is for you to give the hand some personality,using the sculpting tool to add, remove or improve features.

Perhaps you could add claws, remove a finger, add scars. It's really up to you.

We can now prepare for the painting!
So we can mark out where the base meets the forearm, where nails are etc. using the basic air brush and paint brush.

We can now get ready to add the final bits and pieces.

*YOU GET THE IDEA*

Step 7: Image Painting.

Another step to let your creativity flourish, this step involves using the 'Image Brush', to add finer features, such as skin etc.

By turning this feature on, we can select a texture either from the pre-made selection or from our camera roll, and then 'spray' this texture on (kinda like a stencil).

So for his step I added a rocky texture for the base, basic but contrasting skins for either hand, nails, cracks in the base and finally some eery, black veins for the zombie hand.

Once this is done, it's finally time to render.

*DON'T FORGET TO SAVE NOW!*

Step 8: The Render.

An easy final stage, it's simply a step to add lighting, a background, various FX.

Experiment with the lighting rotation, the backgrounds and other features until you achieve the desired effect.

That's it. Done. Finished. Fin.

Congrats, that's a horrific hand for your Halloween hijinks!