The Orphanage created the exterior shots for a sequence in which the Sickos are chopped up by the rotating blades of a helicopter. This challenging sequence featured CG body parts, blood and many full-CG Sickos. 

Zombie Bashing
The Sickos, the cause of all this mayhem, were primarily realized via special make-up effects created by KNB EFX Group. On specific shots, Rodriguez requested that some more life was added to some of the Sickos. "Within Shake, individual shapes were tracked to individual pustules and boils on the skin, and then, with 2D distortion, we made them appear to grow and bubble," Olivia says. "Subtle color correction helped sell the effect and make it appear like either fluid was building up behind the skin or the skin was stretching. We had to be careful with where we applied these effects because if the distortion happened across obvious shadows or highlights in the plate, then it became immediately apparent it was a 2D gag."

Several Sickos enhancements were handled by vfx supervisor Ryan Tudhope and his team at The Orphanage. "Robert's goal was to add interest and movement to the rashes and blisters but in a way that looked like it could have been achieved on set," Tudhope notes. "Some shots were successful with simple 2D compositing approaches, while others benefited from full-CG blister patches that were modeled, animated using blend shapes, and then painstakingly tracked to the deforming surfaces of the actors' faces. In every case, however, the original practical make-up was used as the underlying texture, reference or actual basis for the effect."

The Orphanage was also responsible for a scene in which the hero vehicle flips over and crashes.

The Sickos play a key part in the most outrageous moment of Planet Terror, a sequence where a helicopter chops them up with its rotating blades. All exterior shots featuring the helicopter were assigned to The Orphanage. "There was a practical helicopter on set, which consisted of the wheels and front body section, minus the tail and rotors," Tudhope says. "We gathered detailed reference on set and modeled a matching CG helicopter in Maya. Daniela Calafatello designed a rig that allowed our animators to manipulate various aspects of the geometry in physically accurate ways. The rotor blades, for instance, had both global and individual controls to adjust how much the blades sagged when the helicopter was sitting on the ground, and inversely, bend upwards when the helicopter was suspended in the air.

"We approached the shot in which the Sickos are being chopped up with a variety of techniques. Anytime we can throw more than one technique into a shot at once, it's a great thing because it keeps the audience guessing. For example, once animation was complete, we picked frames where the blades were making contact with the live-action Sickos, and Heather Han painted out the top half of their body for the remainder of the shot. We then added CG body parts, blood, etc., to liven up the event. We combined this with 6-8 full CG Sickos who would take the brunt of the fierce blades. The CG Sickos were modeled by Michal Kriukow to be pre-cut under their clothing, and then simulated by Michael Hall. Michael also added soft-body and cloth simulations of smaller body parts and chunks. Alex Wang handled the look and lighting, and really made the sequence come together."