Tooned vs More realism

Whilst Muranu the Vampire inspired, The War of the Worlds is taking me in a hew direction. The more I work on the project, the more I am pushed to create a more realistic vision, though to be honest my approach to animation has been that only the real world should be realistic. Realistic animated productions seem to be pointless. It's the exaggeration of reality and fantasy I admire in animation and comics, so I am near meeting a comfortable middle ground. Subsurface Scattering is a wonderful, if albeit slow, improvement to the look and feel of the living. And in many ways I'm thankful for one thing, now I have no excuse but to learn the one thing I have been trying to avoid all this time, UV Mapping

I have also improved on the Martian considerably and decided that shape Keys and curves are the best way to approach the creature. This allows me to create a more mollusk look to it's movement and gestures. Also making the creature Breath and pulsate to give it that more alien appeal.