# Zombie Makeup



## VexFX (Sep 27, 2011)

This weekend we were doing special effects makeup on a zombie film, and I figured I would share some samples here!
Lot of airbrush work, silicone, blood, and time went into these.

Larger versions (and a whole gallery of makeup application, reference, and set photos) are on our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/VexFX

Enjoy!


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## Wildcat (Nov 3, 2007)

Very cool. Great attention to detail.


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## Pumpkin5 (Aug 8, 2010)

:jol: That is wicked! I love the all over body veining...very, very cool...(nice bod by the way)


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## VexFX (Sep 27, 2011)

Thanks! These veins were added in post. The on-set makeup did have veins, but they were larger and had more contrast. They looked cheesy in photos because they were intended to stand out under the set lighting and filming conditions (heavy fog, low light, etc.) Had this been for a photo shoot or other lighting conditions we would have airbrushed veins like in this photo rather than hand painting on thicker veins like we had to on set. There will be some post-production effects on this character in the final film as well.

And yes, this actor works out regularly and eats healthy. I wish I could say I did the same. He's a great physical actor and a big comic book fan, so he knows all the best poses. He also did motion capture work for Iron Man. 

He's my go-to actor for monster/creature work.


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## Zurgh (Dec 21, 2009)

Very sweet work! How long does that level of makeup take to apply?


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## VexFX (Sep 27, 2011)

This application took approximately 4 hours with 2 makeup artists working on him.

The following times are rough estimates, as we did not have an assistant recording a log of the various stages for this shoot.


Cleaning and prepping the actor's skin (5 min)
Prepping the actor's hair for the bald cap (5-10 min)
Fitting, applying and blending the vinyl bald cap (1 hour)
Coating the bald cap in red PAX paint (10-15 min)
Sculpting the 7 silicone wounds on the actor's body (30-40 min)
Painting the bald cap with skin tones (5-10 min)
Full body airbrushing. Multiple coats/colors (30 min)
Wound base coats with alcohol activated pallets (10-20 min)
Full body speckling with multiple colors (5-10 min)
Wound gel blood application (5-10 min)
Wound drying blood splatter/stipple, fill, and drips (5-10 min)
Hand painting veins (5-10 min)
Powdering and sealing makeup with liquid sealant (10 min)
Staining teeth with alcohol activated pigment (5 min)

Many of these times are so long due to drying/curing times of materials like Pros Aide, PAX paint, and 2 part platinum silicone. Stopping to check reference photos for every step also took a lot of time, as we need to match this makeup against multiple applications over a period of weeks.

Some of these steps also occurred simultaneously, as we had multiple makeup artists. Though we had to split up at one point and prep the hero character at the same time.

We were filming a lot of stunt and fight scenes for both days of this shoot. This means the actor had to re-visit the makeup department throughout the day for touchups, repairs, new wounds as the script calls for them, etc.

I'm proud to say that despite the fact that this actor was performing stunts that called for leaping from heights, body slams into walls and debris, and intense fight scenes, that we never lost a wound and the bald cap never ripped.


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## Darkmaster (May 9, 2009)

Nice work!


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## VexFX (Sep 27, 2011)

I did a brief writeup on this makeup application (including photos taken at different stages) for our blog: http://www.vexfx.com/blog/2012/06/zombies/

Let me know if you have any questions about the process!


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## spankyr1 (Aug 10, 2011)

amazing work! Piece of walking art.


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## Lord Homicide (May 11, 2012)

I'm glad there are people like you Vex because I wouldn't have the patience to try to do that or be able to sit still long enough to get made up.


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