Sigh. Post zombification is harder than we thought. It’s a bitch tracking a face, especially a moving face. Problem is that we filmed the actor without using any high-contrast reference points (i.e. green dots, ping-pong balls, or lasers) on his face. Without these reference points, After Effects has a tough time tracking an actor’s movements. That’s why the zombie effect jumps all over the place. It’s also why we had to cheat and apply camera shake and motion blur to the footage (to fudge the lines and mask the jitter).
Despite shooting a very simple test (just a dude walking toward the camera), we basically had to resort to trickery to get what we want. That’s fine for now, but what happens when we shoot the real thing and our zombie turns his head, looks up at the sky, or does the moondance?
Next time, we do it right. Reference points. Lots of ‘em. Fire up the lasers boys…