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I'm thinking it's the latter, Father Bowdern.  That she was displaying early signs of possession. (After all, the demon was causing her to urinate and defecate herself constantly in the novel….that was one of the extremities that they didn't seem to want to cover too much in the movie version….probably would've been just a bit much. :) )
My God, you're absolutely right….lol.
In that instance, I was more going by her reaction in the movie, and not by what the novel said….ugh…..so much for accuracy. :)Â
That's right because in the novel, the Dennings personality tells Karras that Regan killed him, saying something about “diddling her mother”, and things like that.
Oy…..I'm sorry!  Gaaahhhhhh!!!!!Â
Hi, Sofia, 🙂
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  Yeah, I'm sorry about the lack of Shirley MacLaine's likeness in the video….the photos I had to work with just weren't working out in the face-grafting process when I was creating the avatar…so I had to run with Ellen Burstyn's image. Truly sorry. I know you were looking forward to seeing your idealized Chris and Rags, but I did want to maintain a picture quality for my piece as well….and with what I had to work with, I don't think it would've been a very satisfying experience.
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I accept negative criticism as well as positive, as long as it is constructive. If it's just a trollish “what a piece of shit” kind of remark, well…that's just because the poster would not know how to eloquently express their dissatisfaction.
But fraroc did enjoy the video…the particular pose and contortion just wasn't to his taste.  He preferred the movie version, and I certainly cannot begrudge him that.
As I said, my friend, there's nothing wrong with negative comments, as long as they are backed up with constructive criticisms. Sometimes when we build things with our heart and soul, our objective minds can become blinded to what we are creating…so it's always welcome to have outside input, for good or ill, as long as it is either appreciative (good) or constructive (ill) .
In many cases, I agree, fraroc. (And I am glad you enjoyed the video. Thank you. :) )
In some ways, I kinda feel like Regan's head doing a 180 or a full 360 was sort of to make up for the lack of the “bowing back” in the spiderwalk scene (before that scene was “exorcised”
in the original '73 release).   It would take quite a contortionist to pull off the bowing back.  IIRC, I don't think Mr. Blatty was crazy about the notion of Regan's head being able to do a full rotation, but, again, I see it as a kind of compensation for the lack of the bowing back.  (The demon forcing Rags' body to do the physically impossible, and still survive, or maintain physicality.)If you watch the original uncut scene of Regan's movie spiderwalk carefully, (the version that never made it to the theaters, even in TVYNS), you'll notice that when Rags switches from her back crawl to her forward crawl, her head counter-rotates to match her new body position….adding that freaky “head spin” effect.  It's subtle, but it's there.
In my version, even though I don't think it is mentioned in the novel, I decided to make Regan's eyes fully white (eyes lolled into the backs of her sockets) to try and add to a creepiness factor that I kinda felt was missing in my version, because it is such limited CG capabilities. Admittedly, her spiderwalk, to me, looks a little comical…again, attributed to the limitations of the program….so that's why I added in the “white eyes”. 🙂
LOL! Another anecdote….I actually had to limit the camera angles when it came to Regan actually doing the spiderwalk.  In overarching her back (as in the novel), all of a sudden (because of the bone-structure nature of the avatar) Regan looked like she was…..well….there's no other way to put it….there was an inexplicable bulge in her crotch that made me more than a bit uncomfortable.
In the end, I think the camera angles paid off (especially when her descent is viewed from the side of the stairs, obscured by the rail and banister, and we only see the top of her arch). I think it added to the build up.  We wonder “what the hell is that?”, and then the big reveal at the bottom of the stairs. 🙂
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A little “behind the scenes” insight and retrospective.
Oh, I took no insult or offense on fraroc's views at all, good Father.   Indeed, I appreciated his appraisal as much as anyone else's. Â
I thank everyone for their input. It is truly appreciated. 🙂
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All is well. 🙂
Well, I never really set out to “one up” the movie, which I thought did a great job with what they had for the spiderwalk scene. All I wanted to do was show an interpretation more like the novel.  I know I have a lot of limitations to work with.
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Thank you for your honesty though. 🙂
Thanks, hammer. I'm glad you liked it. 🙂
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LOL! I loved Space:1999 as a kid. Sadly, I didn't have any of that footage readily available.Â
A lot of what I did in the video really had to do with camera angles, and making sure I didn't overly deform Regan during her spiderwalk. So I probably got her about as close as I could, without doing anything further drastic to her avatar. I wanted to get her tongue to flick the ankle, but it would've looked stupid with what I had to do to the poor girl already. 🙂
I wanted to carry the scene out further, but I have to admit, I think that was actually a good place to just stop the video. It felt more suspenseful.  Also, unfortunately, I cannot get that particular door to open up into the other room….it's just a fixture of the environment. I was forced to work with that limitation.  The only reason I was able to make the upstairs door connect to Rags' room was because I could eliminate the original door that was there, and replace it with an active door.  I probably could've done the same to the downstairs door, but I think it would've affected the study/den in an adverse way.
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(I love these behind the scenes discussions. :)Â )
Thank you, Sofia. I'm glad you liked the video.
I should be able to send you the spiderwalk file, since I did actually save that file. :) On my next day off, which should be in a couple days, I'll recreate the levitate file too. The tongue flicker is quite a bit more difficult.  I don't know if you can notice, but her tongue is supposed to be flickering as she's spiderwalking toward Sharon.  That was quite difficult, because I had to constantly change the value's on the tongue's movements as it moved through three dimensional space.  But the spiderwalk file, I'm sure I can send you no problem. 🙂
I'm glad you found the effects sufficiently creepy.   I hope I did Mr. Blatty's novel justice.
When I played the video for my roommates, they were pretty creeped out by it too.  I guess it worked.Â
Yeaaaaaaaaa! 🙂
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Next time I do a video with the demon voice, I'll try a couple of techniques.
Altering the pitch slightly to make the voice sound a little more feminine…..or….
Making a second track, and altering the pitch, so it sounds like two voices at the same time.  But keeping it just subtle enough that it leaves you wondering. 🙂
Thank you, Fr. Bowdern. 🙂
Since it didn't exactly say in the novel what they were watching on television, I thought I'd do that. :) Most kind, sir.
Sofia said:
Can I download Morph Vox Pro for free? 🙂
So, you sing at at the Famous Door on Bourbon Street!! Wow, you're a famous singer! I feel honored to know ya.
 You spent that entire day singing! aaaaaaaaaah! I'll bet you woke up with a hoarse throat 😀
LOL! Well, the Famous Door does have a long list of celebrity visitors….but I certainly am not famous. :)  It's just a job I do. (But thank you for the kind sentiments. :) )
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Yeah, the next day when I woke up, I sounded as if I was possessed by a frog. 🙂
LOL! Well, I couldn't quite get a good image likeness happening of her either. Admittedly, right now, my characters are still physically based on the film actors, but, the effect is still quite good. 🙂
Progress report on my second excerpt:Â (The Spiderwalk Scene)
So far it's turning out pretty good. The voice changing software's done a decent job in allowing me to do a voice for Chris. (I'm still using the Burstyn likeness…as I've not been able to make a satisfactory Shirley MacLaine likeness…)  I've done two segments for the scene, and added in some dialogue that was not in the novel, since the novel only narrates certain things that were said.
I still have yet to execute the spiderwalk itself…that I will likely get tomorrow.
But, it proceeds apace. 🙂
The program I'm using is called “Morph Vox Pro”. It's supposed to be able to alter your voice according to whichever built aliases you have recorded in your program.  There are four or five women in the program of varying ages, looking like from 20-60 years of age. All it really does is alter your pitch and timbre of voice.  You would figure that another program I have, MAGIX “Music Maker 16 Premium” would be able to do the same thing, and it likely can, but I don't think it can do the aliases.  So, I'll just have to monkey around with Morph Vox until I can get what I'm looking for.
The first tries I had with it were ok, but my raspiness was really getting the better of me….which would've normally been fine for Chris MacNeil's distraught state, but my raspiness was just a bit much, and I wasn't happy with the alteration quality after multiple listens. I think I can do better. 🙂
Yeah, I sing at the Famous Door on Bourbon Street (whenever I get called in…working my way back toward a steadier gig…it's a long story…LOL).  The past couple of weeks, on a Saturday, I've ended up doing double sets.  The later set I would get called in to do with only a couple of hours notice…but I did them. :) )
It's not like I'm singing all 13-16 sets at once.  They usually have us run two or three sets at a time, with half hour breaks in between each grouping.  So, I sang from 12PM to about 12:45AM that night.  Woke up the next day feeling every bit of it…LOL!
