I just wanted to share this super bad ass video called “The Zombie” I got to work on for Bacardi’s Halloween season marketing…….This might have been one of the most fun things that I’ve ever gotten to work on! I got to do more special effect sorts of makeups, which was super refreshing, and Voohres Photography (they’ve created and shot a number of the “O”s for Oprah magazine - yes, those are real “O”s!) are also a blast to work with. Working as a team, Adam and Robin Voohres, do most of the effects that you see in this video in house - meaning minor use of After Effects or Photoshop. They build giant contraptions in their studio that we all get to interact with. It’s pretty amazing. They also really respect the artists on their team, which I so appreciate.
For my part of this, I realistically painted the zombie hands, created, painted, and applied zombie fingernails (super fun!), and there was also actually a pretty crazy pre-made prosthetic that didn’t make the cut (phew - I’m sharing a picture, but it turned out looking crazy. Pieces that are not custom made are never my go-to’s).
For the zombie hands, first I used some Tinsley spfx transfers that I have never used before and a few silicone appliances that I had leftover from Toxic Elephant Studios. The Tinsley transfers were great once on, but were really cumbersome to figure out and make it work. They adhere like fake temporary tattoos……but they aren’t sent to you set up. I wasted about half of them trying to get the adhesion paper in the right spot - ended up a little pissed. With that said, they ended up looking really killer once I was finished. I would buy them again.
After I applied all the none bloodied cuts and wounds to the hands, I airbrushed and painted them with mainly Skin Illustrator alcohol palettes and their liquid colors. This took me forever, due to the detail. For commercial, you don’t want things to go too gory, so you have to find that fine balance between blood all over the place (I mean, they “live” to eat people) and more, what I feel like, is a cartoon version of a zombie. This also really needed to be stylized to fit into the world of the awesome sets that the Voohres team built.
After all the painting was totally done and set, I applied my dope zombie fingernails. I literally bought a giant pack of press-ons from Sally’s beauty supply, and sanded the shine down, cut them to look crooked, and used a rasp to create divots and bumps in the overall texture of them. Once they were the right shape and texture, I painted them with the Skin Illustrator Necromania and FX palettes.
Lastly, I applied the facial prosthetic………I’m not going to go too much into that since it’s not in the short, nor did it really look that great on. I should have prepainted it with PAX paints, but I ran out of time, because the fingernails took such a long time to get together.
I’ve also attached some behind the scenes photos of the shoot! Close ups of the fingernails, and a picture of the zombie face…….any who, enjoy! And follow my work and travels on Instagram at @taracooperartist.
