I have no idea why, but for a week or so I was obsessed with Dark shadows.
There’s a comic book company that specializes in producing licensed comics based on older tv or animation/toy productions, and I also thought about pitching it as a possible comic book.
For many episodes the Collins family patriarch Joshua Collins was transformed into a black cat,
by Angelique the witch. I gave up on it, but I wanted to have Ben or Barnabus in the entryway
luring the cat with the saucer of milk. I was happy with how the cat turned out, because he was
very poorly and quickly modeled, but it somehow looks like a cat!
I think I literally spent 10 minutes modeling the cat.
To create the Barnabus painting I severely referenced this photo of Johnny Depp,
trying my best to make it look as if Gustav Klimpt painted the famous
Dark Shadows Barnabus painting
(which is why I think the above rendered image was rejected by the CGSociety ‘3D stills’ gallery)
I tried to show the passage of time as the paintings image also slowly aged, reflecting the lost innocence
after the death of his beloved Josette, and also the effect of his subsequent vampirism after
forsaking all goodness. Actually, I think Angelique turned him into a vampire…
Dark Shadows was set in the Victorian period as well as the 1960’s,
so i thought it would be cool to have him age a little bit, like Nosferatu.
There’s some more on my website, but high speed internet is maybe needed,
because I haven’t had the chance to optimize it yet. It opens even on my phone though,
so it’s not totally crazy, probably 25 megabytes worth of stuff opening all at once
It’s a great show! Some people say it’s a soap opera, but I can’t really see it…
I only notice the gothic horror and subjugation aspects, as well as
remembering from when i watched it as a kid, which was a great thing to to watch on antennae tv.
If I remember right, I had a choice between Perry Mason or Dark Shadows.
I like the Victorian episodes the best. I think the show actually helped my writing,
because having to be produced daily the writing was very utilitarian.
