|
|
The Wailing Child
About Truespace Archives
These pages are a copy of the official truespace forums prior to their removal somewhere around 2011.
They are retained here for archive purposes only.
The Wailing Child // Roundtable
Post by Paul Boland // Sep 27, 2007, 7:50am
|
Paul Boland
Total Posts: 383
|
http://www.iol.ie/~pkb/The Wailing Child.jpg
A few weeks ago, I went to bed and had one hell of a scary nightmare! My sister, Julie, went house hunting and I went with her and she found this large manor type home on a country road, a small cottage sitting across from it. The grounds of this house were surrounded by a wall with metal spike railings mounted on them. The house itself had a unique look to it, built of different coloured brown bricks. It's front rooms, where the windows were, projected outwards from the house. Large trees sat to the left of the house and a street lamp was fixed outside it, up against one of the walls pillars.
We went inside and the house had a very errie atmosphere to it. The rooms were bare, the walls were dirty, the floorboards creaked under foot. The stairs leading upwards seemed to be consumed by darkness at the top and while I knew there was a basement, I dared not take a look.
Julie and I split up and I went into a room on my own. Despite the fact that there was no light source in this room, the room was oddly illuminated by an errie brownish-yellow glow. Suddenly ghosts emerged from the floor and approached me. I turned and ran back into the hall to find Julie running towards me, scared stiff! We both ran from the house.
It was lashing rain outside and we ran from the grounds and across the road and into the cottage. None of the lights in the cottage worked and we fumbled our way through the dark until we came into a small room at the front of the building. There, we went over to the window and looked out at the manor across the road from us. The sight that we saw filled me with true terror!
The rain was still pelting down and the only light source outside was the street lamp. The windows of the manor were now lit by that odd brownish-yellow light but the light source seemed to be eminating from the floor of the rooms behind the curtained windows, sending a radial glow upwards. However, the most horrific sight of this image was not the manor. Standing directly under the street lamp was a small child, a girl. She was wearing a red coat which came down to just above her knees. She had shoulder length brown hair. She stood directly under the lamp and was looking directly at us! Her face was twisted with hate and anger and her two arms were out stretched, slowly waving up and down in front of her, she pointing directly at us! From her mouth she cried a horrific wailing sound!
The rain pelting down, the wind, the manor, that street lamp, and the child, I was chilled to my very soul by the image and grabbing Julie, we ran from the cottage, got in Julie's car and drove away from there as fast as we could.
We got to the airport and I was much more at ease as we boarded a plane for home (which is a joke because I hate to fly! LOL!!!). Anyway, the plane moved down the runway, the front lifted up and the we left the ground. As the plane climbed into the sky, I looked down the aisle. There, standing at the front of the plane, was the child! She was dripping wet from the rain and her arms out stretched, pointing directly at me. Her face was twisted with anger as before and she started wailing...
I woke up! Damn, was that a bad nightmare, it had really freaked me out. But little did I know it wasn't the end of it! Yes, I was awake, this wasn't one of those you wake up but you're still dreaming situations, I was awake, but this nightmare wasn't over yet...
I told Julie about the nightmare and then putting it behind me, thought nothing more of it... But it had other plans... The Wailing Child, as I had come to call her, wouldn't leave my mind. In particular, that scene of her standing outside the manor looking and pointing towards us, wailing... That scene seemed to come to mind a lot. I just couldn't shake it! It wasn't plaguing my thoughts 24/7, but every now and then, it would pop in and it always gave me the creeps! A few weeks passed and this image just wouldn't go away so I decided to acknowledge it and to do that, I would build the image in TrueSpace 7.5, I would give this image actual form.
Building this image was just as freaky as the dream. As the various elements of the image were made and the scene took shape, I found myself transfixed by it. I would stop my work and just look at the scene as it was coming together. The surrounding wall and fencing was the first to cause this to happen. Then I added the trees and again it happened. When I added the manor the image really seemed to take on an atmosphere of its own and was very freaky to look at. However, it was when The Wailing Child was added to the image that it really got too creepy for me!
Other parts of this images construction also came across as freaky! The surrounding wall, in that scene in the dream, the bricks had a decaying colour to them. I was sure I would need to take a brick texture and edit it to achieve that look. However, when looking through my textures for the right type of brick, I found one that wasn't just the right looking brick, it also had a greenish decaying colour to it! Then, when building the manor, I needed differently coloured brown bricks. Again, I assumed I would need to edit a brick texture to get this, but no... I found a brick texture in my collection made of different coloured brown bricks!!! FREAKY!!!
The image above is about 95% accurate to what I saw in my nightmare. The angle is the same, the rain, the way the darkness consumes the trees, the radial lighting in the curtained windows, the street lamp, the surrounding wall and railings, and most importantly, The Wailing Child! I've never been compelled to give a dream or nightmare image actual visual form, but The Wailing Child has haunted me since I had that nightmare and I can honestly say, the image above really does give me the creeps!!! |
Post by jamesmc // Sep 27, 2007, 8:09am
|
jamesmc
Total Posts: 2566
|
Whoa!
Freaky! What a story and great work on the image!
That was a reader's digest moment and that's a good thing!
Very nice Paul! |
Post by MadMouse // Sep 27, 2007, 8:17am
|
MadMouse
Total Posts: 1069
|
Well one things for certain... I wont sleep tonight :D
What I'd say about the image is this... I feel there's too much light in the scene. There would be more harsh shadows from the street lamp and a subtle yellow/orange glow from the house lights. It depends whether you wanted to be true to your dream or more accurate to the real world. Either way its one spooky story and one spooky image.
Good job
steve |
Post by butterpaw // Sep 27, 2007, 9:59am
|
butterpaw
Total Posts: 831
|
oooh .. it really is creepy O_O
*shudder |
Post by Steinie // Sep 27, 2007, 1:30pm
|
Steinie
Total Posts: 3667
|
I've had hundreds of these things show up at my door! Just give them candy and they go away, but always on October 31st.;) |
Post by Paul Boland // Sep 28, 2007, 8:09am
|
Paul Boland
Total Posts: 383
|
Thanks for the feedback, very much appreciate it :).
Point taken on the light. Lighting is still one area of TrueSpace I'm not 100% on. I'll do a bit of messing around and see if I can get a better result. But overall, I'm very pleased with how this artwork turned out. It really is a true representation of the image in my nightmare.
Shudder!!!
I've had hundreds of these things show up at my door! Just give them candy and they go away, but always on October 31st.;)
LOL!!! Good one, Steinie!! |
Post by Nez // Oct 1, 2007, 12:15am
|
Nez
Total Posts: 1102
|
Very cool - need a special 'creeped out' smiley here....
Always quite interesting to hear about dreams/nightmares - I don't think I'd ever be able to model something from mine as they are too 'fluid' - nothing seems to stay put, if you get what I mean - I'll go into a house, but the inside won't match the outside, and within a few moments I'll be somewhere else anyway, with someone else, or may not even be myself...!
The thing with the textures is quite interesting - makes me wonder if you saw them that way in the nightmare beacuse your brain remembered them for your texture collection... I tend to think of dreams as a byproduct of your brain's accumulation of information, both conscious and subconscious - i.e. the see stuff all around you, in films, on tv, whilst you're out for a walk, etc and the brain spends time 'filing' it and sorting it etc, with some odd outcomes sometimes! But I guess that's speculation anyway.
Cool that you tried to recreate it though - and good job. |
Post by Paul Boland // Oct 1, 2007, 7:51am
|
Paul Boland
Total Posts: 383
|
Thanks, Nez. I have crazy dreams like yours too where nothing makes sense, LOL!, but this one was more earthed... Scary-as-hell earthed! LOL!
The textures is freaky indeed. I have quite a large texture library and don't recall using these textures before, but yes, my mind could have nabbed them during a run through them to find other textures for past projects.
When I get a bit of spare time, I'm going ot see if I can refind the image a bit. Thanks, though, appreciate the feedback. |
Post by classic12 // Oct 2, 2007, 12:23am
|
classic12
Total Posts: 243
|
creepy i have night mares like that sometimes and when i wake up i usually (rude word for feecees) myself when i have to go to the toilet on the landing when its pitch black lol |
Post by 3dpdk // Oct 2, 2007, 7:53am
|
3dpdk
Total Posts: 212
|
Excellent dream image; freaky dream and very involved in that your dream evolved from the cottage to being on a plane. In most dreams a transition from one setting to another usually is your mind attempting to put the previous thought to rest and moving on to the next, but the fact that you carried the vision of the child with you into the next "scene" (so-to-speak) and it continues to haunt you when awake is chilling to say the least.
Are you ignoring something in real life (not necessarily a person), neglecting to call someone, need to mend a fence or patch a roof? ... an oil change in your favorite auto is way past due??? (oh wait, that's mine ... nevermind!)
Well sometimes a cigar is just a cigar ... this one just happens to be an emotional one that's difficult to shake.
I wouldn't change too much in the image. It's your dream and how are we (the viewers) to know what you saw, but the shadow of the lamp post on the cottage takes some of the visual focus off the girl. Its so large and dark it has a presence of it's own. I doubt in your dream once you noticed the girl that you were even aware of things like shadows. Perhaps if you were to darken the cottage wall as MM suggests the street lamp's shadow will lose some of the attention.
The negative effect of the black sky and light background trees is very effective for that eerie feeling. One critique here and probably only noticeable to someone familiar with 3D is the "billboard" edge of these trees. If you changed the render properties for the billboard trees to non shadow casting I think the two planes will blend better and eliminate another focus detractor.
But to "fix" anything means you have to revisit this image. I'm not sure I'd want to do that if it was so disturbing to me. Then again, maybe by working with the image you'll figure out what the girl represents!
Paul |
Post by Paul Boland // Oct 2, 2007, 8:28am
|
Paul Boland
Total Posts: 383
|
Wow, 3dpdk, when I posted the image I wasn't expecting to get my dreams analised! LOL! Really, I don't know what the girl could represent and feel that perhaps this was nothing more then just a nightmare. I do indeed find the image quite freaky! Even now, looking at it, it gives me the creeps! But I have to say, since completing the image, it hasn't haunted my mind as much.
I do intend to try and fix up the image lighting and give more presense to the rain (some one else pointed out that the path is dry), but I have other stuff I need to address at the moment. Thanks, though, for the advice and tips.
Well, I hope The Wailing Child is happy now... She's got fame! My image got an honorable mention in this months Caligari gallery :). Thanks, Caligari, appreciate it!! |
Post by Nez // Oct 2, 2007, 10:12pm
|
Nez
Total Posts: 1102
|
Well done indeed!
Out of curiosity, do you know when the submission 'deadline' is for the monthly galleries? |
Post by Steinie // Oct 3, 2007, 12:36am
|
Steinie
Total Posts: 3667
|
Last day of the month. After that it is placed in the next month's contest. |
Post by TomG // Oct 3, 2007, 2:52am
|
TomG
Total Posts: 3397
|
Specifically the deadline is 12 midnight PST on the last day of the month :)
HTH!
Tom |
|
