Stargate Studios: Walking (the) Dead

Stargate Studios is handling the visual effects for The Walking Dead, AMC's new TV series based on Robert Kirkman's zombie apocalypse comic and directed by Frank Darabont. We take a look at some of Stargate's zombie enhancement and virtual set work for the pilot episode. To realise the hundreds of zombies that terrorise a few remaining survivors of the apocalypse, the production relied on make-up designs and practical appliances created by KNB EFX Group under make-up effects veteran Gregory Nicotero. "Greg's make-up effects work is absolutely remarkable," says Stargate Studios visual effects supervisor Sam Nicholson. "But if you're going to do a scene with 300 zombies, you can only go so far, particularly on a budget. The purpose of our visual effects is really to blend seamlessly into Greg Nictotero's work. The hero zombies in the foreground are typically Greg's and the extras and the swarms of zombies in the background are generally extended by us."

Stargate's CG zombie extras were derived directly from the on-screen zombies, both in terms of the actors and make-up effects. "We mo-capped our hero zombie actor, who was the fellow with the longish hair who wakes up in the bus first," explains Nicholson. He was the best zombie actor, so we mo-capped him doing various moves. Then we scanned probably every single zombie that Greg made. So now we had all the eyes and pieces and everything to basically make a zombie kit, which we could also enhance in an impossible way with missing jaws or noses."

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