The World in Plain English: Zombification!

Ben zombified in Photoshop. Photo: Ryan Pearson

By Ryan Pearson

So, this is a little off topic for my blog, but I wanted to put it up anyway.

My lovely girlfriend and I recently had a combined birthday/halloween party and almost all of our friends turned up in some awesome costumes... but some didn't. I'd set up a make-shift 'photo booth' with multiple strobes. The backdrop was made as creepy as possible with a skeleton in a 'coffin' (which was actually a coffin shaped guitar case), and spider webs and skulls laying around.

We got some really awesome pics of everyone, but being that I am prone to procrastination during time I should be studying, I decided to take a picture of Ben (someone who didn't turn up in costume), and turn him into a zombie in Photoshop. This was my first attempt at doing this, and I think it turned out pretty well.

This was him pre-zombification.

Ben - pre-zombification. Photo: Ryan Pearson

To do this I had to add multiple layers of textures (to both clothing and skin), add in blood, change his eye colour, add in veins, swap his beer for a severed arm, change his skin tone, add in a zombie mouth, and a few other bits and pieces.

I also did a less complex Photoshop job on a picture of me in my costume. All I did for this one was make my eyes 'glow', and add in text and the spine and blood (I was actually holding the skull).

Me in my halloween costume.

I had fun doing it and it distracted me from statistics study for a little bit longer. I'd better get back to it now though. Here are some of the pics of people in costumes from the night (with minimal/zero Photoshop).