TITLE: The Whisperer in the Darkness
NAME: Sean Hamilton
COUNTRY: USA
EMAIL: scarmig@ohmss.com
WEBPAGE: http://members.home.com/scarmig
TOPIC: Horror
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: migocyli.jpg
ZIPFILE: migocyli.zip
RENDERER USED: 
    POV RAy 3.1

TOOLS USED: 
    Moray, POV, Paint Shop Pro

RENDER TIME: 
    16 hours

HARDWARE USED: 
    PII 333

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 

"...he spoke very gently of how human beings might accomplish - and several
times had accomplished - the seemingly impossible flight across the
interstellar void.  It seemed that complete human bodies did not indeed make
the trip, but that the prodigious surgical, biological, chemical, and
mechanical skill of the Outer Ones had found a way to convey human brains
without their concomitant physical structure.
"There was a harmless way to extract a brain, and a way to keep the organic
residue alive during it's absence.  The bare, compact cerebral matter was then
immersed in an occasionally replenished fluid with an ether-tight cylinder of a
metal mined in Yuggoth, certain electrodes reaching through and connecting at
will..."
"As my mind reeled amidst this chaos, I became conscious of a mixed grating and
whirring from all three machines ... - a grating and whirring which soon
subsided into a virtual noiselessness."

H.P. Lovecraft
The Whisperer in the Darkness




Conceptualization of HP Lovecraft's short story.

DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 

I began this image at the beginning of the Horror contest, a year ago.  It was
an idea I kicked around for a long time before deciding to attempt it.  I love
the story and if anyone else has read it then you know that my representation
is not at all accurate.  The brain-cylinder's described in the story are solid
metal, with sockets for pluggin machines into.  Although an effective literary
device, a metal cylinder with plugs is hardly anything but boring when rendered
without the story around it.  So the gist of the story is encapsulated along
with the victem's brain in the picture.  Another license I took was the
inclusion of the eyes with the brain.  A simple brain floating in a jar is
really rather mundane.  They say the eyes are the gateways to the soul, and I
wanted the viewer to hopefully feel the soul of this individual peering out
from behind preserved, disembodied eyes.  I originally downloaded models of
eyes, and although they were realistic, they did not portray the emotion I
wanted.  The brain itself is a modified model downloaded from 3dcafe.  The
eyes' irises, pupils, and blood vessels are exaggerated, in hopes of drawing
the viewer into them.  The fluid and lighting around the brain is murky, with
slimy debris stuck to the inside of the cylinder.  The electrode connectors can
be seen grasping the brain.  Barely visible is a tray connected by wires
supporting the frontal lobes.  There is another at the rear, and a conical
socket connecting where the spinal cord to should be at the base of the brain. 
The eyes are supported by metal arms dropping down from the top of the
cylinder, plugged into the back of the eye at the point where the nerve would
exit.
Then entire cylinder is connected through various hoses to the space ship
carrying it.  The sun can be seen refracted in the portal behind the cylinder. 
There are other hoses connecting to the top and bottom of the cylinder
providing the means of replenishing the 'preserving fluid'.  There is a mesh
unioned to the top of the fluid object to create the effect of liquid with a
surface in motion, thus the deformed reflection/refraction when looking into
the top of the cylinder.
The text is the barely audible words of the victem as he realizes what has
happened.  They too are taken from the story.  The text is not post processed,
it is rendered into the scene, noticeable by the lighting affects from the
spotlight shining into the eyes.
Focal blur was used to draw attention to the eyes, and give a feeling of depth,
particularly in reference to the portal, which is some distance behind the
cannister.  The galaxy is an image mapped sky sphere created using the Universe
Creator tool.

The zip file only contains the Moray .mdl file.  It includes everything except
the galaxy, brain object, and text object.


I hope you appreciate and good luck!

Sean Hamilton