A third and final (for now) day of Jason Bradley Thompson creature drawings. I've had to pick and choose, and we're probably going to go with ones from the other two posts as opposed to this one. Not that this is bad, but the other ones are more what we're going for.
Here's another page of sketches that I received with the former post. The last'll be posted on Tuesday.
This one depicts a Living Hindu Idol (the jellyfish with human heads), an arabesque (it might read "centipede" after it), a plant-like demon, and a bubble-congeries (with embryonic monsters!).
Today I received three-pages-worth of roughish monster sketches from Jason Bradley Thomspon that'll be worked some way or other into the 9"x12 commission. I think they're amazing, but, as they are quite rough, I'll only show one.
Now Jason's one of my favorite artists on-board the violet light train. His Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath adaptation is really a remarkably faithful and interesting adaptation. No one can really draw those fantastical landscapes and weird creatures quite like him. Leong Wan Kok (Ben Avery on the adaptation side) and I.N.J. Culbard (whom I contacted, but was too busy), amongst others, have both made their own wonderfully imaginative versions of this rich-but-rambling tale, and our own KingOvRats had depicted fine Dreamlands monsters, but - as I said - NO ONE does Dreamlands like Jason.
I thought he'd be perfect for the film. So, after chatting a bit, a $75 fully shaded drawing was in place, depicting the Twilight Abysses. And today, as I said, I received three pages. I'll only show one, and end off by saying that some of this is going to have to be incorporated into the film.
Richard Svennson is posting about his contributions to the Witch House on his blog. He finished the one on the Octopus today. Check it out for some more behind the scenes imagery and a proper detailing of the process!
"Here's one of those collaborative projects: the video-horror-musical 'The Dreams in the Witch House', based on the rather good tale by H P Lovecraft."
That thing is STUNNING. There are no words. Just...nothing to say. I'm so freaking happy! It looks GREAT floating in it's alternate space! And the blue-color...so vivid. On that blue color, Richard (who will be covering the creature in a blog post, perhaps later in the week) wrote: "...You can't really tell on this photo, but it's spattered with a greenish gray mottling of tiny dots. It doesn't really matter what colour it is now. We can alter that in AE editing if we want to tone things down. It really jumped off my green screen background, which is a good thing."
Some multi-perspectives:
And some shots of the creature in progress:
The first shot I saw of the W.I.P. clay sculpture.
The final head sculpt before the plaster mold was cast.
Richard working on the Octopoid this morning.
Richard Svensson's workroom. Note the Interdimensional Octopoid on the table towards the bottom-right corner.
Richard Svensson, the Lone Animator, has started to work on a puppet. I'm not fully sure which one it is, but its only half-sculpted. We might have some photos tomorrow.
That said, I asked him about backgrounds/sets on Tuesday. I had sent him the sketches for the inanimate structures of the Abyss, of course drawn by KingOvRats.
Richard kindly agreed to do it himself for us. In the end, he shot for the more organic structures. KingOvRats had told me he imagined the Abyss as a more bacterial structure, as seen below.
Now, I hadn't told Mr. Svensson that - but in the end, he came up with exactly that - Lovecraftian bacteria. In summation, the Lone Animator sent me a 2D mockup of what the Hyperspace Abysses might look like.
And it is amazing.
We thank Richard Svensson from the bottom of our heart. He created the perfect image.
Daniel Lenneér sent me a message yesterday. In essence, he wrote that the animation he used for monsters was 2D cutout animation.
An example of 2D cutout animation from Daniel's own work: Cthulhu arrives on Earth to fight against the Elder Things in his Terror from the Abyss, a comedic adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness.
Then he wrote that 2D cutouts were NOT the way to do these creatures. He said this because he had done test animations of the Bubble Congeries (using pictures from the Internet) and the Polyhedron (using a drawing he made based on the design). While they had a slight charm about them, they weren't horrifying. They were good, but they were NOT menacing in the slightest. They were strange, but not scary at all. The Bubble Congeries didn't do much justice to the design (but it was still strange) and the Polyhedron looked "funny" (I disagree: I liked the look of it, but it still isn't right for a horror movie). He said that if the Arabesque was done in his style, it would look AWFUL. Now I can't show you the actual animations. They're tests. But I can show you some screenshots.
The Bubble Congeries, drifting through outer space/the sky with a rainbow cloud hanging about it like some sort of gas. It does look strange, but it certainly isn't scary and does not do justice to the design.
The Polyhedron, floating in a room which Daniel presumably meant to be a room in the Witch House or whatnot. Daniel says it looks "funny", but I disagree. I really like it, and I like the Bubbles too. But again, it wouldn't work in a horror film.
He used the Bubble Congeries screenshot and put some effects and filters on it. In his opinion, it helps a lot for the mood and feeling of the clip.
Dirty stains are seen below the Bubbles, and there is a black-and-white filter.
Beams (tentacles?) of light emerge from the Bubble Congeries. The black-and-white filter is still present.
I wanted to do my own versions of these screenshots, so I played around in Picasa.
The Bubble Congeries in a bright shade of pinkish-violet. I tinted the picture that color, then added a focal black and white effect. The glowing effect was added afterwards.
I think the Polyhedron turned out much better than my attempt with the Bubble Congeries. I went much darker, and tinted the Polyhedron a dark shade of violet/purple. Then I increased the shadows so only a very subtle violet light and a few vague shapes can be seen in the background.
I went to KingOvRats to see what he thought. He personally agreed with Daniel that they were not right for our project, but preferred the Polyhedron Creature.
I'm going to close off this post with a quote from a message from Daniel. It was some important advice. Grammatical edits by me.
If I were to give any advice; don't put to much focus on the creatures in the project. Lovecraft himself always hide them in fog and smoke and darkness, playing with the fears of the reader. Put focus on the rest, deliver a good story and let the creatures be the topping of the cake.
WOW! KingOvRats uploaded a lot of Abyssal awesomeness tonight, and even a Brown Jenkin skeleton sketch! Now let's dream into the twilight abyss...
A cluster of spider web-like planes.
A surrealistic Cyclopean building.
The movement of the glowing congeries of spheres and bubbles. Michal says that it should move more like a group of spheres rather than a single entity.
This serves as both the movement of the Polyhedron Monster AND a multi-perspective, as the Polyhedron constantly changes.
"I'm such a pretty skeleton!"
The "ophidian animation" of the Arabesque Creature.
The jellyfish-like movement of the small Bubble Congeries.
A sketch showing the Abyssal Centipedes interacting with the Abyss.
The cartoonist, filmmaker, and friend of Richard Svensson, Daniel Lenneér (founder of Millroad Film), has joined us as the computer animator for the Abyss. He will be bringing the non-stop-motion designs of KingOvRats to life. As of present, these will be...
The Arabesque Creature
The Bubble Congeries and the Polyhedron
We will also ask him to animate other "inorganic" creatures in the Abyss when we have the designs for those.
Mr. Lenneér has worked on many other Lovecraft films (all of them notable), co-directing and co-writing (with Richard Svensson, another collaborator on our project) one of the greatest amateur Lovecraft films ever - The Shadow Out of Time.
His earlier attempts, Eye of Evil (with Richard Svensson) and Earthbound (this being a parody of the formula of an H.P. Lovecraft tale), are also wonderful. Another - the first ever adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness and a sheer masterpiece of entertainment - is Terror from the Abyss, which successfully combines Lovecraftian horror with comedy. Richard Svensson obligingly supplied a stunning stop-motion shoggoth.
We appreciate Daniel's cooperation and cannot wait to see what he will put together!
Enjoy some Abyssal goodness, brought to you by KingOvRats!
Puppet Movement
Michal (KingOvRats) sent me some rough sketches for the movement of the Hindu Idol and sketches for the front and back of Brown Jenkin a while ago. He didn't want me to post them here because they were very very rough. Then he sent me more composed sketches along with a new one for the Octopoid Creature, but he did not want me to post it here until he posted it there.
This one was actually a nice story-board style sketch.
Michal imagines the movement of the Hindu Idol in a way that almost seems as if it is "unfolding." The entire body is in a ball, then opens up. The fan-like headdress unfolds, the tentacles erupt from the arms, and the tongues roll out from the mouth. It screams.
"Tee hee hee!"
THE BUBBLE CONGERIES AND POLYHEDRON MONSTER
Some downright lovely images of the Bubble Congeries and the Polyhedron Monster. Note that I did not put in the violet text.
Shuddery things, they are!
THE ABYSS
KingOvRats does not think he is great at environments or architecture, but kindly supplied a few sketches for the Abyss itself and the non-organic creatures. Both look fantastic.
The first is a labyrinthine, non-organic monster of the Abyss. The second is a web-like structure in the Abyss itself, where you can see the Octopoid and the Centipede in the darkness. I decided to put these two together as their singular images were much too small.
KingOvRats on DeviantART is designing creatures for the abyss scene, along with others. Here is a quote from the story - "All the objects—organic and inorganic alike—were totally beyond description or even comprehension. Gilman sometimes compared the inorganic masses to prisms, labyrinths, clusters of cubes and planes, and Cyclopean buildings; and the organic things struck him variously as groups of bubbles, octopi, centipedes, living Hindoo idols, and intricate Arabesques roused into a kind of ophidian animation." This series consists of the monsters he designed.
KingOvRats has sent me a couple of design sketches and something else very special I'd rather not talk
about.
LIVING HINDU IDOL
I already posted about this, but I decided to delete it and put it here instead. I must say he's really outdone himself here. I really like how he applied a Mythos twist to a traditional Hindu god. This is a stop-motion puppet for sure!
Michal talks about it in the two quotes that follow. I made some grammatical edits, though.
I inspired with statues of elephant-headed, obese Ganesha and some multi-handed deities trying to give it as alien look as possible, while retaining the basic likeness of those idols.
The last one so far. And possibly the creepiest. I actually tried to make it seem as alien as possible while retaining visual similarity to multi-handed dancing statues of Hindu deities. Can't wait to see this guy in stop motion! ... And I was obviously inspired with Harryhausen's classic Kali stop-motion scene. :)
Here is the Kali sequence he was talking about.
ARABESQUE CREATURE
...violet text by yours truly.
That is a nice Arabesque monster! The Arabian feel is a contributing factor. It's really a throwback to One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights). Lovecraft really loved that book. So do I. This is one of my favorites, and we'll use some computer imagery for this feller guy dude thing.
Says Michal of the Arabesque Monster (with one grammatical edit by me) -
The first of the creatures that Gilman encounters in the abyss. I was inspired by actual arabesque ornaments as well as flatworm anatomy. Note some (intended) similarity to Hound of Tindalos.
ABYSSAL CENTIPEDE
...again, violet text by moi.
This is a nice and creepy character that we will DEFINITELY be doing in stop-motion. It really has that shuddery bug feel to it. We quote Michal -
Another creature Gilman mentions. It was supposed to be centipede-like.
I think Michal was very good in evoking that bug-like sense.
OCTOPOID MONSTER
This is such a good interpretation of an alien octopoid monster that I feel its one of the better Lovecraft drawings (like all mentioned on this site). The back actually appears to have a dorsal fin and a swordfish head (gimme a second...). I really like this semi-fish semi-octopoid bent. We're probably gonna have this somewhere in between computer imagery and stop-motion, although that approach may change.
Says Michal (with grammar and spelling edits by me) -
Yet another one of monsters briefly seen by Gilman. I decided to give it a pointed snout (as, what you might have noticed, that's the feature I am rather fond of, often appearing in my creations and I'd love to include it in this project :D). Anyway I picture it as a predatory animal, using that serrated, pointed head to impale it's victim and drain away blood with holes on the side.
