ChromeSkull: Laid to Rest 2
This Horror/Slasher film was written and directed by the owner of Almost Human, Robert Hall. It is the sequel to the 2009 film Laid to Rest. Laid to Rest movies are very popular among gore/horror fans. This was the first film that I ever worked on. At first, I did simple VFX work such as wire removals and rotoscoping, but soon after I started, I was trusted to work on many hero shots and high-level tasks. Robert Hall and Almost Human team usually work on makeup/special effects for films and TV shows, but Robert Hall has also directed many films and TV shows. Because of his special effects career and crew, he utilizes realistic special effects well, and we combine their work with VFX seamlessly and make the best use of VFX to improve the effects further. With a lot of experiences and knowledge, Rober Hall knows so much about how to make effects look realistic and find spots to improve. He really liked my work and taught me how to improve shots better and make effects look seamless. Because of his practical effects career, he doesn’t rely too much on CGI. He uses realistic special effects during shoots, and he makes the best use of CGI to improve the effects further or fix the mistake that they couldn’t cover during the shoot, so he balances both SFX and VFX well to make the best effects unlike some of the recent horror movies which rely too much on bad CGI. For big hero/ money shots, the SFX artists made dummy heads, and the film crew and we shot the Green Screen elements and composited them with the actors’ footage. Under Rob's guidance, I established my ideas of how realistic the SFX (shooting practical elements) can be and what limitations it has as well as how VFX can help to improve the SFX. Now that I use both big CGI effects and Special Effects, I can effectively and efficiently choose what effects will work best depending on the situations. Nowadays, many Artists tend to rely solely on CGI, which could lead to inefficient workflow and bad quality VFX. I am grateful that at the beginning of my career, I was able to experience the power of the Industry’s top-quality Special Effects and understand the old school way of making effects. Therefore, I can stay neutral between CGI and Special Effects and utilize them both depending on the case
Neck Slice Shot
1st Picture (Plate) 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Pictures (Final Renders) In this long length shot that has about 15 seconds, Officer Knight on the right is trying to restrain Chromeskull (the killer on the left) with handcuffs, but when Officer Knight holds Chromeskull’s arms, the killer turns around, gets the knife and cuts his throat. As you can see, his wound makeup was already added to his neck before the moment of cutting. I did planar-tracking for the neck and hid the wound by making patches. The shot was very long, and the shaky camera and actors turn around a lot, so it was extremely difficult to track. However, I was able to achieve it by planar-tracking in Mocha. Once the killer cut his throat, I revealed the wound makeup and added the squirting blood.
Chromeskull Face Reveal Shot
1st Picture (Plate and Hook Footage) 2nd and 3rd Pictures (Final Renders)
In this shot, Officer Fraser has his wrist penetrated by a hook and cannot move. Chromeskull cuts his neck, and a lot of blood squirts out from his neck. Although this extremely long shot is over 30 seconds long and actors keep moving around randomly, I was able to track well by using Planar-tracking in Mocha. I tracked the hand and added the hook element with the wound. In this shot, his throat gets cut and practical blood squirts out from the tube rig hidden under his shirt. However, the rig was showing up on his chest, so I made a clean patch for the t-shirt to cover it, tracked the chest and removed the tube
Hook, Neck Slice Shot
6th Picture
I tracked the face, added the nose and fixed makeup effects.
Head Slice Shot
4th Picture (Dummy Head Footage) 5th and 6th Pictures (Final Renders) Plus in the next page 1st Picture (Final Render) 2nd Picture (Actor’s Footage and Dummy Head’s Footage)
In this shot, Chromeskull stabs through the detective’s head from the back of the head all the way to his mouth with knives that come out of the mouth. He wiggles the knives up as he cuts through his head in half, and blood comes out of the head. I added blood, tracked face and composited with the dummy head getting chopped in half.
3rd Picture (Plate) 4th Picture (Final Render)
The director wanted the face to look more like she has been dead for a long time. I color corrected the elements for skin, eyes, blood, etc to achieve the looks
Death Color Correction Shot
Blood Dripping Shot
5th Picture (Final Render and Green Screen Footage of Blood)
I shot green screen elements for blood falling in the air and falling on the floor. I tracked the actress and the stair. I combined 2 green screen elements and composited them seamlessly with the actress’ footage.
Blood Squirt Shot
6th Picture (Final Render)
I shot green screen footage of blood squirting in the air. I composited it at the right timing and direction so that it would look like he slashed her and blood squirts out.