Zombies and headless corpses!!!

Chainsaws_R_Fun · Post by **Chainsaws_R_Fun** » Tue Oct 26, 2004 6:50 pm

If you have read my Zombie Death script, you will know that at one point, a character is attacked by a headless zombie. In Evil Dead 2 they use a dummy of some sort, and film it from the waist up. I actually need to have my corpse fumbling around, and finally falling out of a window. Will someone tell me how to do this? Also, any tips on making believable zombies would be appreciated. Thanks.

dno · Post by **dno** » Tue Oct 26, 2004 8:44 pm

Have a read through this. It may help.

With a little bit of clever editing, you could cut between a real person and this dummy (based on the actor) and make it do anything your heart desires.

http://www.vilethings.com/_other_me___t ... double.htm

west1200 · Post by **west1200** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 6:22 am

well if you know how to use green screen couldnt you use one of those green masks? or mabe some green paint

Firestorm · Post by **Firestorm** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 5:54 am

Well, the three ways I would try doing it would be

1) Have the actor pull his head into the shirt

Probably the most effective if you can get it to look right
2) Film the guy on a bluescreen, key out the background and attempt to mask out his head
3) Paint his head green, put the camera on a tripod and don't move it, and then key out his head with the other background behind it.

Maybe a combination of the three--whatever looks best for a particular shot. Maybe the Sleepy Hollow DVD has something about how they did it. There was even one scene where the guy pretends to be the headless horseman but had his head under a cloak.

Gyro · Post by **Gyro** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 6:32 am

Pick up the Director's Cut of the new Dawn of the Dead, watch all the special features and you should be more set then you'll ever be.

I3lade203 · Post by **I3lade203** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 12:00 pm

Get a a compoister program such as affter effects. You can mask the actors head right out of the video, if you did not know. You film the actor as a zombie, head IN the shot, and then the background with nothing else in it. Now in affter effects, you place both footage into the compisiton, create an animated mask around the actors head, and you can know mask the head out, and have it overlay onto the other footage, having no head , just a body. It's not going to be a perfect cut though, it may look a little werid without the costume looking great, ( Eg lots of blood ) and without the lighting set.

NaziSentry · Post by **NaziSentry** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 1:49 pm

Make sure to have the camera on a tripos for it to work with the masking.

Parallax · Post by **Parallax** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 10:32 pm

not nessesary, i should make a tutorial for you guys how to extract clean moving backplates for your shots, once you know how to do that then your mind wont be locked down like the camera is. Simplest way would be to get a green pillow case and make a mask out of it for the actor to wear then use latex appliances around the neck to simulate the severed neck... also you will need tracking markers near the base of the neck so that if the character bends forward and hes wearing the green mask it will look like his neck is hollow... a substitute neck ( the area covered by the actual neck) needs to be painted in or animated

tallman_house_pictures · Sat Oct 30, 2004 3:35 am

find a hobo, take a chainsaw.........

Parallax · Post by **Parallax** » Sun Oct 31, 2004 10:58 pm

find an unpopular hobo then the chainsaw, if the hobo has friends their gonna notice he's missing and either dob you in or maybe all they will do is steal all his stuff.