Will Smith's Terrifying Zombie Transformation
Will Smith's Terrifying Zombie Transformation
Posted 01/24/2009 at 9:00am
| by Florence Ion
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In our March 2009 issue, we dressed our illustrious Editor-in-Chief up as a one of the ravenous antagonists from our Game of the Year, Valve’s Left 4 Dead.
The transformation from living human to decaying dead took almost two hours, though in the end it made for an amusing, but slightly horrifying, photo shoot. Read on to find out how we managed to turn this famed zombie slayer into one of his victims, or follow along to attempt your own zombie transformation.
It took a variety of ingredients to emulate the undead’s rotting flesh, including Mold Builder Liquid Latex, Vaseline, a roll of toilet paper, fake blood, and glycerin-based make-up pallets from Kryolan.
Secret ingredients: make-up remover, various make-up pallets, Mold Builder latex, and Vaseline.
Before using the liquid latex, our makeup artist, Nick Katich, tested a bit of it on a fresh area of skin to make sure it wouldn’t cause an allergic reaction. Then, he prepared Will's face for zombification by greasing up the eyebrows and hairline with a wax stick and Vaseline, so that the latex could eventually tear off with a bit of ease.
To achieve the scaly texture of undead skin, Nick applied a thin, even layer of Mold Builder to the face and arms, and then strategically applied torn up pieces of tissue paper to the top of the latex. After fifteen minutes of waiting for the latex to dry, Will's skin was covered with a bluish-white base coat, on both the arms and face, to make him look as if he had just risen from his grave.
Will's arm, covered in toilet paper.
Splotching paint on top of dried up tissue.
Next, the latex/paint combo was torn with fingers to imitate flesh-tear, and then separated it with a spatula, using the flat edge so as to not accidentally remove all the tissue. Then, we had to make the rotting flesh look believable. After applying red makeup base on the inside of the tissue paper and the top of the exposed skin, Nick dumped fake blood over those areas, making sure it looked like Will was covered in boils and cuts.
Looks like the revenge of the Black Plague!
The transformation was finalized by dusting gray powder with a blush brush all over Will’s face so as to remove shininess and make him look truly lifeless.
Voila! A zombie editor!
At the end of the photo shoot, Will had a hard time taking off the latex from his arms, so remember to shave before attempting this gory feat.
Would you trust your children with this man?
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jenny07
November 08, 2010 at 2:31am
I really enjoyed the article. It proved to be Very helpful to me and I am sure to all the commenters here! It's always nice when you can not only be informed, but also entertained! I'm sure you had fun writing this article.
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cedricdigeery
September 10, 2010 at 2:00am
Just couuld'n resist posting up.I must say Great makeup....
twilight45
July 22, 2010 at 11:15pm
Nice article and good way of introducing your website.
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icebird
January 26, 2009 at 7:06am
I get this funny, nagging feeling that you guys really liked Left 4 Dead. Anyhow, you should have grabbed your family and gone to Wal-Mart for a family photo in this getup. Hilarity!
WindowsXP
January 24, 2009 at 9:31pm
Love the new look. This should be the front cover of March's magazine.
Azruelli
January 24, 2009 at 1:51pm
Admittedly, I see a few interesting, though not nessescarily connected links with this.
Left 4 Dead features zombies with super speed, which reminds me of the cancer zombies from I Am Legend. Hell, the L4D zombies were even caused by a rare stringet of the rabies virus if memory serves.
Will Smith is the lead actor in I Am Legend, and Will Smith is the Zombie from L4D.
Lol @ pissing the time away at my grandmothers with DS and coming up with this junk.
Next year, you should don a false face and be a ghoul from Fallout 3.
jcollins
January 24, 2009 at 12:51pm
This is nifty, but I want to see the makeup work that was made to make Butters look like Zoey. That is Butters right? :)
ghot
January 24, 2009 at 3:51am
....write more articles or something......Halloween in March ?? Too many ads not enough grit in the mag...I.....almost didnt renew subscription :(
We need a good antimalware review, more ask the doctor and less ask the doctor about media cr*p :)
Great makeup though....but it don't help my comp run faster ;) I realize that in this slow economy there is less to review etc....I got it...how bout an article or a link to a proggie that brings Vista and Windows7's hardened kernal to us die hard XPer's :D Maybe a port for a Dx10 and/or 11 for XP :) OOO...better yet a proggie that lets me run Vista only apps etc on XP :D
July-ish I'll be upgrading to a AM2+ mobo and a Phenom II x4, and I'm gonna want an ASUS mobo that takes a GTX 280 ^^ ....so I'll need a serious Phenom II x4 overclocking article too...black edition of course!
Also, how bout a list of phone numbers.....(direct to tech support supervisors) for various manufacturers! Other good articles would be on subjects like how to tweak TCP/IP stacks for the much faster connections we're all getting. We also definitely need another RPG that takes 200-300 hours to complete, is free to play and doesnt require paying (in game) for premiums like experience gain and better drops etc. Maybe if you don a space suit and hover outside the sapce station in your zombie attire.....Lord whats his face...Garriot,,,will be scarred enough to return and code such a game.
Anyways..great get up and be careful....ya know what they say...video games (aka Left for dead) cause real world violence......I hate to hear some 27 hour a day gamer kid head shot you while you were making a public appearance in ur zombie suit !
As for the website...add a user profile thingy so we can post sytem specs...like a click on our avatars links to our specs....
Keith E. Whisman
January 24, 2009 at 6:02am
So your trying to say that they should do an article on a Peggle Stratagy guide. Well I fully agree.
strykyr
January 24, 2009 at 2:54am
LOL Look at that table muscle!!! Get some exercise or something!!! Lose a chin!!
Keith E. Whisman
January 23, 2009 at 10:43pm
Oh god it's alive kill it kill it!!!!! It's comming kill it!!!!!!
chaos.13037
January 23, 2009 at 8:27pm
Way to put your face on the line for the mag Will!
Awesome work on the makeup guys!
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