Switch Theme:

making something look scary  [RSS] Share on facebook Share on Twitter Submit to Reddit
»
Author Message
Advert


Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:
  • No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
  • Times and dates in your local timezone.
  • Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
  • Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
  • Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.
If you are already a member then feel free to login now.




Made in us
Deranged Necron Destroyer





Northern Virginia, USA.

The zombies from resident evil. I couldn't find any pictures, but when you pop off a head, every now and then a creep jaw like thing with tentacles will pop out from the next and the damn thing will still chase you. (Esp. in 4)

Also, distorted limbs are a must. Like the creepy old demon from the unborn -

Also, no idea where this is from but its creepy as all hell

This Artist, Keith Thompson, also has some creepy images, browse the whole website

Lol, SO MANY EDITS

Also, the movie Virus. Its a really bad movie but the biobots are freaking creepy.
In one scene, they though they killed one and it was on a table for observation then some big waves hit and everyone fell to the ground. One fell next to the bots body and she looks at and its head rips apart and a skull with creepy mechanical teeth pop out.

This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2011/01/19 22:46:30



malfred wrote:Buy what you like.

Paint what you love.
 
   
Made in us
Fixture of Dakka






On a boat, Trying not to die.

I would say something along the lines of this:

A child with blank eyes, clutching a bloody teddy bear and smiling. Perhaps a knife near her.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2011/01/19 22:10:19


Every Normal Man Must Be Tempted At Times To Spit On His Hands, Hoist That Black Flag, And Begin Slitting Throats. 
   
Made in us
Crafty Bray Shaman





Buffalo heads on the wall.

 
   
Made in us
Raging Ravener





Wilmington, NC



Deformities, abnormalities, grotesque mutated proportions. These things scare me more than zombies and Dead Space necro things.
   
Made in us
Stormin' Stompa





Rogers, CT

I'm going to cast a vote for upside down heads.

Also, I found this kinda funny

   
Made in gb
Freelance Soldier




Bristol, UK

corpsesarefun wrote:What lovecraft fails at is creating perspective, he attempts the "fear is in your mind" angle but just goes into "it is so damn scary you cannot even understand how scary it is" which fails to provoke fear in me.


I think this is the kind of thing where we're seeing part of the problem in creating scary. What works on me, doesn't work on corpsesarefun, we find different things unnerving. I find spiders scary but have no problem with snakes. Yet if you did the best job in the world on creating a scary spider miniature it wouldn't scare me.

This is a fascinating thread, looking forward to seeing what people are coming up with.

Can I suggest skipping forward 10 years to the age where you don't really care about what people say on the internet. Studies show that it decreases your anger about life in general by 37%. - Flashman 
   
Made in gb
Revered Kroothawk





west london

I'm not sure if its scary, but it creeps the hell out of me. In Once Upon A Time In Mexico, Johnny Depp with with eyes missing. Perhaps its the fact that he still functions well with no eyes...
   
Made in gb
Regular Dakkanaut





North Wales

I find this guy quite creepy (from pan's labyrinth)


 
   
Made in us
Homicidal Veteran Blood Angel Assault Marine






NJ, USA

powerslave84 wrote:

Deformities, abnormalities, grotesque mutated proportions. These things scare me more than zombies and Dead Space necro things.



Definitely creeped me out the most. Real photos, old photos of distorted/ghostly things is what gets me the most.

An open mind is like a fortress with its gates unbarred and unguarded

Starter 40k Army Lists for Beginners!

One Chapter to rule them all: SW to BA Conversion  
   
Made in us
Fixture of Dakka





Moore, Ok.

How adout Justin Beiber?

I'm suprised you've not done it before, Zombie Guard! they'd be a piece of cake with your GS skill.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
bagley wrote:I find this guy quite creepy (from pan's labyrinth)



And +1 to this too!

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2011/01/20 04:09:59


"But i'm more than just a little curious, how you're planning to go about making your amends, to the dead?" -The Noose-APC

"Little angel go away
Come again some other day
The devil has my ear today
I'll never hear a word you say" Weak and Powerless - APC

 
   
Made in au
Stabbin' Skarboy





Melbourne

Look at Giger, Silent Hill, The Pale man, The Slender Man, Dead Space, and the bastards from Amnesia.
They are creepy because they were human but aren't now, or are nearly human but not quite, or aren't human now but will be soon.

MeanGreenStompa wrote:
penek wrote:wtf is wrong with GW ???

It's being run by people with short term vision and enough greed to extinguish a sun.

Perhaps they're the C'tan.
 
   
Made in us
Stabbin' Skarboy





Over the Cuckoos Nest

The main bad guy/girl in the 'The Grudge" was terrifying, even though it was basically just a dirty looking human. One of the secondary character that got killed, came back as a ghoul normally looking except her bottom jaw was ripped off. Very creepy looking.

To me that's way scarer that say the aliens from 'Aliens'.

I know other people have already mentioned it, but some of the Silent Hill games have great examples of near-human baddies:


This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2011/01/20 06:24:46


ChrisWWII wrote:
My reaction to this thread is still 'Why, Flying Spaghetti Monster, why?"

asimo77 wrote
Then we're all going down in a blaze of glory and ork milk

Sir Pseudonymous wrote
A pasty, barrel shaped, acid-drooling, balding mutant wearing the jumpsuit version of an Abrams.
 
   
Made in ca
Longtime Dakkanaut





Sometimes malevelont intelligence can add to the scaryness as well. When I saw Return of the Jedi in a theatre (probably too young - what was my mother thinking?), I didn't have nightmares about the Emporer just because he was a scary looking dude, and his face was half hidden half the time, and he shot lightning bolts from his hands. No, it was the laughter, the glee, and most of all the look in his eyes as he gives Skywalker shock therapy that says he knows exactly what he's doing when he's coming to get you (endlessly through shopping malls in your sleep )


Fun and Fluff for the Win! 
   
Made in us
The Last Chancer Who Survived





Norristown, PA

I think it was a mistake for me to look at these pics right before I'm going to bed :(

 
   
Made in us
Bounding Assault Marine





Rubidoux, CA

One of the simplest ways to make something scarry is to take away its eyes, and I don't me hollow them out or simplly cover them up,I mean remove them entirely, make it like they were never even there.
I do this with my 'Nids whenever possible.

No good will come of this, No good at all
WAAAGH! FOR THE EMPEROR!
Midnight Dragons: 2000pts Wins 3 Loses 1 Draws 0
The Fox Knights: 4218pts Wins 1 Loses 2 Draws 0
King Krumpz Boyz: 2965pts Wins 1 Loses 1 Draws 1
Tigrus Vespa Hive: Spawning Wins 3 Loses 5 Draws 0
500-pts 
   
Made in de
Shroomin Brain Boy





Berlin Germany

having read the whole thread through before yesterdays going to sleep i can asure you that i have sleeped well and thus we haven´t reached a point of scaryness yet...

vik

   
Made in gb
Avatar of the Bloody-Handed God






Inside your mind, corrupting the pathways

Children are scary... especially creepy little daemon girls...




   
Made in us
Dwarf Runelord Banging an Anvil





Way on back in the deep caves

A Black Ram wrote:Buffalo heads on the wall.


Dont make me call up Brutus.


Just put Barbie doll heads on your tanks and that should do it.

Trust in Iron and Stone  
   
Made in us
Despised Traitorous Cultist









When converting my Abaddon I tried to make him scarier by going for a more vampire look. I pretty much tried to make him look like Raziel. He looks awesome now.
   
Made in jp
Hacking Shang Jí






It's very hard to convey genuine horror in miniature form. Your principles are all sound descriptions of what frightens people, but when you're talking 30mm scales it's very hard to get that across. There are so many mutations and distortions and monsters out there that to be honest I'm a bit numb to them. That, and a lot of movie/video game monsters are scarier because elements to them other than their visual design: the way they move, the way they sound, the inability to ever get a clear look at them (so the viewer's imagination fills in the details better than the designer ever could). You can't really achieve that in miniature form.

I think subtlety is really more effective. Honestly I can only think of one miniature that I would even remotely call scary- the Wet Nurse mini- no, not the boobie-covered part of it. The nude women surrounding it. Those women I thought conveyed genuine horror, especially the kneeling figure. When we first see her from behind we see a shapely nude female figure and it conjures to mind all of the titillating fantasy slave women we've all come to expect from the genre, then when we finally get to see her from the front we are immediately drawn to her slack jaw and dead expression.

To me that conveys everything the overall wetnurse model is all about. Something about her has been drained and used, and she is empty now. Like all of the women around her, she is helpless. But while some men can enjoy exploring power and domination with submissive women (see for example, slave Leia) this wetnurse victim is so hopeless as to be repulsive, and to me instead conjurs to mind a greater overall slavery that humans must be experiencing in that world.

And that's all ideas I've pulled out of my from looking at the model. But that's how horror works. To quote the Charismatic Stallion: "all a good horror game needs to do is hand you a piece of sandpaper and shout encouragement as you vigorously massage your own undercarriage". That's how I feel about horror in general. Confrontations with the unknown are always scarier to me than some guy with tusks coming out his eyes for some reason.

"White Lions: They're Better Than Cancer!" is not exactly a compelling marketing slogan. - AlexHolker 
   
Made in gb
Avatar of the Bloody-Handed God






Inside your mind, corrupting the pathways

I would agree with JOHIRA - less is usually more in horror. Most of the best horror movies don't show monsters and things; it is all in the atmosphere and with subtle wrongness (probably why I find evil children so scary is that they are often portrayed as relatively normal looking with a hint of wrongness about them).

It is that subtle difference, and the mind's inner workings getting knocked off course by it that makes something truly scary.

   
Made in au
Combat Jumping Garuda




Down Under

None of these things you have posted so far don't even creep me out.

   
Made in gb
Avatar of the Bloody-Handed God






Inside your mind, corrupting the pathways

cbosw5 wrote:None of these things you have posted so far don't even creep me out.


So, why don't you show us how big your internet willy is by posting something you find scary and cause us all to loose our minds in terror?

   
Made in de
Shroomin Brain Boy





Berlin Germany



thats scary!!!

   
Made in gb
Pete Haines




Nottingham

It's very tricky to make models look scary. Allow me to explain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_Valley



A person's response to a human or human like object is shown in the graph above. People respond positively to other people, or to abstractions of people like cartoons or stuffed animals. The Uncanny Valley itself however refers to the huge dip in response just before actual humans; a corpse, zombie or human-like monster (like have been posted all over this topic) cause a very negative response, despite superficially being very close to human.

The issue then, is that to make things scary, you need to make it fall in the uncanny valley. The problem is that a model of a human is unlikely to achieve a response equal to a human anyway, instead coming closer to the stuffed toy on the diagram, so reducing its humanness will just move it further to the left of the diagram, but not into the uncanny valley.

I reckon the best bet is to spend time getting a very human-like model first. Then work on subtly de-humanising it. It's no use de-humanising something which isn't close enough to human anyway.
   
Made in gb
Using Inks and Washes





Edinburgh

Stuffed toys, you say?

Found on the dakka gallery, by a guy named skrulnik. Amazing painting!

cbosw5 wrote:None of these things you have posted so far don't even creep me out.

Who are you trying to impress? At least post something you DO find scary to help out the OP...
   
Made in gb
Guarding Guardian







Of course, the chattering adds to the scariness, and you wouldn't be able to get that on a mini... Still... *shudder*

hurf durf

2000pts. 50% painted
1500pts. Disregarded and used for practice P&M pieces.
 
   
Made in au
Combat Jumping Garuda




Down Under

SilverMK2 wrote:
cbosw5 wrote:
None of these things you have posted so far don't even creep me out.


So, why don't you show us how big your internet willy is by posting something you find scary and cause us all to loose our minds in terror?


Slight problem there i can't really think of anything that scares me.

Scarper wrote:
cbosw5 wrote:
None of these things you have posted so far don't even creep me out.


Who are you trying to impress? At least post something you DO find scary to help out the OP...



I am not trying to impress anyone. I have actually been looking for something that does scare me.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I haven't been able to find a image that scares me but i did find one that reckon is creepy.
Here is the link. http://thepirata.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/scary_dolls07.jpg
Sorry i don't know how to upload pics.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2011/01/20 11:33:30


   
Made in at
Thrall Wizard of Tzeentch





Well, I wrote a long essay for my bachelor of film arts on the subject of monsters. Do you speak by any chance German?

To keep things short:

Monsters need to be anthropomorphous, you have to be able to relate to it. A shapeless blob of slime or a huge rock isn't half as terrifying as some twisted version of a person or animal. People I've asked fear very different things and the monsters they find the most terrifying depended on when they were born. Some found King Kong be a source of nightmares, others the xenomorph - and Pennywise the clown was named most often. Personally, I believe that the most horror comes from something that is sickly looking and has a lot of asymmetries but still remains a vaguely human shape. Kinda like the Fly (in the 86 remake by Kronenberg) - that thing was nowhere near a fly but rather a sickly looking mutant.

As for the shapes.... Humane looking ones are best. Add in the typical source of fears like old-fashioned fangs and claws (these are fears we have from our time as little monkeys ) and you got something.. something classic. But we all know the old concepts like Vampires already. So you need to distort it even more to make it terrifying. Personally, I'd make something that has a sickly huge head and reminded you of a fetus. It's one of those lines that wasn't crossed yet truly. Look at necropmorphs, the monsters from Silent Hill, The Thing (John Carpenter), Hans-Ruedi Giger (!!!!!! Xenomorph), the Fly, stuff like that for inspiration. And for the twitching and inspiration behind Silent Hill watch Jacob's Ladder.

The Xenomorph was hugely successful because it was a kick-ass design, it looked good. But what made it a perfect design was the fact that it reminded you of things. In this case sexual subtones. The xenomorph was a predator and violator and the first and best alien film had a lot of rape subtones going on (like the X kinda raping Cartwright). The facehugger had a vagina for a mouth, the alien designs a long penis shape. Freud would've been proud.

Anyways, the part that is most terrifying about monster movies is the part where you haven't seen the creature. Once you know what's going on, it's only half as creepy. Look at Dead Space. The first part is pretty scary, after that it's not very scary anymore at all. That's why people should stop explaining every little detail from horror stories.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2011/01/20 13:33:19


 
   
Made in us
Frightening Flamer of Tzeentch







It's not about looks that are scary, it's the atmosphere. Locations or things that make you think " need to get away from this thing" or "this thing is going to kill me" that are truly scary IMO (silent hill does an amazing job of doing this)
   
 
Forum Index » Painting & Modeling
Go to: