The Interdimensional Octopoid

Here is the original KingOvRats design.

And here is the F-KING FINISHED PUPPET!!!!!!!!

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.

First Abyssal Set

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.

Cool Stuff Coming...

Along with some major changes to the design of this website, something really cool is going to come from a member of the  (possibly tomorrow). It isn't a puppet, of course, but its pretty good and comes close. I can tell you it relates to the Living Hindu Idol.

The major changes to the site will take longer, but it'll be worth it.

The Photography in the Witch House - Effects, Part Four: The Seal of Nyarlathotep in the Angled Room (and a Violet Mark Foster)

Going back to an old idea, the fantastic, devoted artist Gregg Stockdale has done some work in the Angled Room.

The original Angled Room.

The original idea for it was that there would be purple/violet, esoteric rays of light forming into orbs.

Expanding on the idea, he changed the shade of the image to a vivid fuchsia-pink, made the back window a maddening arrangement of fuchsia, blue, and green, added a glowing Seal of Nyarlathotep, and defined the lines and angles. The Kamea of Mercury (seen emerging from the window in the original) has been heavily faded and is almost gone, but if you look hard, you can see it.

A LOVELY piece of work has been done here.

Gregg, at my request, put the Mark Foster into a shade of pinkish-violet.

While its very good, it was not QUITE what I was looking for. So I did some experimenting of my own in Picasa. Excuse the poor picture quality.

It has been darkened, so you'll note that some areas are now pitch black where they were not before: in particular, above the heads of Brown Jenkin and Keziah. The text I did not do such a good job with, but there it is.

Gregg and I are going to call it a day. It's all over, at least for now. We thank him for his top-notch work for the film. He did some truly stunning work.

[Note that these images are supersized. YAY!]

Some Updates

Hey guys! Back from Ireland! I'm putting the polish on some filmed sequences and they're looking good.

Some updates: Gregg and Michal have done some new pieces.

While working on the Elder City and the Temple of the Crawling Chaos (more about this soon), Michal decided to update the Living Hindu Idol. I've put together the Hindu Idol Evolution process.

LIVING HINDU IDOL EVOLUTION

Stage One

Rough Design

The first rough design.

Stage Two

Original Design

The original, finished design: the first Michal sent to me.

Original Design Movements

The tentacles move in and out like tongues in a rolling movement. In a embryo-like position, it sits until disturbs when all limbs fan out and ROAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stage Three

Update

The latest incarnation. KingOvRats thinks its MUCH better in terms of form (i.e., the melting shape and the tentacles) and detail (the eyes, the head, etc.). I would personally prefer a combination of both from a directing standpoint...

Update Movement

Instead of fluently rolling the tentacles, Michal now would like a more convulsive movement, similar to this.

While my feelings about this update are mainly positive, they are mixed, and I will be using both.

Gregg Stockdale has finished the grimoire page.

Note some extra symbols (including the Sigil of Nyarlathotep at the bottom) and pseudo-Arabic reading "Nyarlathotep watches through the angles of reality".

Exciting times for The Dreams in the Witch House. Stay tuned!

 - BRIAN

The Photography in the Witch House - Effects, Part Five: The Tendrils

With a few tweaks, the Tendrils design from Gregg Stockdale is finished.

Wow.

The Photography in the Witch House - Effects, Part Four: The Beginning of the Tendrils

Our main concept artist has revealed a rough draft of what he's been working on since we started. Yes, Witch House's own Gregg Stockdale has revealed the first draft of...THE TENDRILS!

For those of you who don't know, the idea of this is to make foggy tendrils emerge from the Window, which represents the higher dimensions. Its a fabulous idea and Gregg has been working on it for quite some time. This is only a rough draft, but I think it looks amazing and eerie.

Now I don't know where he got those shadow tentacles from (other than Gerald Scarfe or a drawing by an inmate of Summer Breeze Mental Hospital) but good God that's cool. I mean, its enough that he takes fabulous violet photos, creates the hideous faces of Keziah and Brown Jenkin, makes a Grimoire page, and designs the Sigil of Nyarlathotep to represent the film, but this? WOW!

And this is only a rough draft! Tell me, is there one of you who wouldn't like to see this in its finished format? I DON'T THINK SO!

Thanks, Gregg for being a devoted member of the Witch House team.

The Sigil of Nyarlathotep

Gregg Stockdale has designed a new symbol that will represent Witch House. I call it the Sigil of Nyarlathotep. You can see it here imposed over the Violet Window and the Logo.

The Photography in the Witch House - The Grimoire Page, Part One

Gregg has a new concept in the making...one featuring a page from a grimoire, kept in Keziah Mason's loft.

It contains "Instructiones for Conjuring a Rat Thynge".

Gregg is getting knee surgery tomorrow. BEST OF LUCK, GREGG!

The Photography in the Witch House - The Brown Jenkin Gap

Gregg, who will be going through knee surgery on Friday, slapped this eerie image together.

Note his Brown Jenkin image peeking through in the top right corner.

Its very creepy! Best of luck with the surgery, Gregg.

The Photography in the Witch House - Effects, Part Three: Brown Jenkin at the Violet Window

Since this is being posted following the previous one on Gregg Stockdale, please view the Photography in the Witch House Effects, Part Two: Keziah at the Violet Window for more photomanipulation.

Like Keziah, Gregg composited three different photos together to make Brown Jenkin. The result is truly disgusting.

Now envision this, on a rat, nuzzling you in your sleep.

Yet again, he just put the images together, making the subtle features of the furry little horror appear in the Violet Window.

Before...

EEEK!

We thank Gregg for his valuable contributions to The Dreams in the Witch House concept artwork. We'll definitely be coming back to him for other Red Death Productions films.

The Photography in the Witch House - Effects, Part Two: Keziah at the Violet Window

The Violet Window.

We bring your attention to the photograph above, dubbed by me "the Violet Window," for it is here that the next installment of "The Photography in the Witch House", wherein Keziah lurks into the window.

First off, Gregg took photos of three old women and composited them together. When this was finished, he distorted the horrific image. The result achieved, Gregg ended up with this - 

Ick!

All that was left was to composite one image into another. Subtly, the image of the Arkham witch became visible...

Awesome work! Check out Gregg on DeviantART.

The Photography in the Witch House - Effects, Part One: Curves, Slants, and Violet Tints

Gregg, our latest addition to the Concept Art team, has shown me the images from last time with some more tinting and awesome effects. They aren't done yet, but here is what he has so far.

A long shot of the room, this time with some freakin' awesome effects - angles, sigils, symbols, and violet light. Note the stunning glowing text, too.

The blackness of the window, with violet light glowing around it. Gregg says he will subtly add the shapes of Brown Jenkin and Keziah waiting in the darkness.

You know, these are really cool and I'm glad to have them to promote the film with. Yes!

The Mark Foster Mission, Promotional Photography and a Parody Poster

Part I

 ( ~ THE MARK FOSTER MISSION ~ )
- - -
A Social Media Experiment

I recently posted the poster art by Mark Foster on a fairly well known social media page, and the response was...mixed. Many people adored it! Many people hated it. Some could not decide. The main judgement was that the typography was ridiculous and that the background needed more blurring. We'll be fixing all that AND superimposing planets, stars, and, naturally, abyssal structures into the background. Let us add the fact that the house may be re-done, it depends.

Part II

( ~ PROMOTIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY ~ )

- - -

A New Concept Artist

To the concept artist team, we welcome UK photographer and musician Gregg Stockdale! He shot some awesome photographs inside a derelict WWII airbase and added some creepy filters. Soon, he'll be photoshopping his way to Non-Euclidean madness by distorting the image and replacing the window with another image. Says Gregg of the images - 

...this is a rough layout for an idea I had earlier. I'm using the window image as a metaphor for the whole "portal" idea in the story, its like Gilman is looking through a window to another dimension in his dreams. Admittedly it is a subtle, almost tenuous idea, but I think it looks quite cool.

And it does. Here are the photographs, without the final effects set in.

He also offered up some of his music - tracks from a stunning ambient album entitled "Hag of the Tattered Vestments." While we could sadly not use this music in Witch House, we will be using it in another horror film - a short anthology picture entitled Fungi from Yuggoth which will feature adaptations of five Lovecraft stories - 

• The Beast, from The Beast in the Cave
• Dagon
• Nyarlathotep
• The Rats, from The Rats in the Walls
• The Whisperer, from The Whisperer in Darkness

After Fungi, we'll be taking on a very big and very secret Lovecraft film. We will also be making a few shorts based on folklore, and we will use his music there as well.

Thank you, Gregg! We appreciate it, and the photography looks awesome!

Part III.

( ~ A PARODY POSTER ~ )

---

A Geoff Davies Production

On a final sidenote, Geoff Davies, a Lovecraft fan, posted a parody poster in response to the Mark Foster Mission. I especially like the tagline - I find it hilarious.

You've got to love him.