Need help With A Vomit Scene

[cdc792000]

I'm not sure if this can be done with aftereffects or not. I have a scene where the subject has to vomit. Now, this is not just a small scene but a major one. If anyone ever saw the film "The Witches of Eastwick", Veronica Cartwright has a scene where she pukes cherry pits. Part of the shot was done with a hose pumping out the cherry pits. The scene was shot as a profile. Then for the close up they used a prosthetic puppet/head cast of her.

The scene I am doing has the actor suffering side effects of a virus. I don't want a profile shot. I want the scene to be a medium shot then a close up. If I have to I will use a head cast but am hoping I can achieve this with after effects. The scene is only gonna be about 3-5 seconds max. I want two shots of this scene. Anyone know if this is possible?

[Barry_Green]

No-budget, no-hassle way: just load their mouth up with some cream of mushroom soup...

[cdc792000]

Thanks, however it needs to more or less spray out of their mouth for a couple seconds. Can't get that with just mushroom soup. Not certain, but thinking about mixing some blood into the puke (now I am being REAL gross!)

[tcindie]

3 to 5 seconds is an eternity visually.. I don't think it's going to look right with after effects, but you'd need a super realistic copy to use a fake head... making the cast isn't the hard part -- matching the coloring and hair and all the rest is the challenge. A quality piece would probably run you several thousand dollars.

Are you sure you won't compromise your vision and do a profile shot? :)

[tcindie]

On second thought.. I suppose you could use the hose method, and line it up with where the actor's mouth would be, then matte the hose out, and composite the two live action shots together.


In the end though, the profile method is definitely going to be the easiest.

[cdc792000]

I thought a trick couls be done similar to the guy blowing his brains out. Just add the liguid,color,etc.but I see now thats not possible.I know someone who can do a head cast and actually make a realistic head. I was just hoping I could take care of it with aftereffects.Thanks for the help!

[Capt Quirk]

You should have been here the day after Thanksgiving. I had a nasty bug, and you could have gotten all the footage and angles you wanted.

[J.R. Hudson]

How about building a green screen panel with a hole the size of a mouth in it. Dump the pea soup stuff through a chute and towards the camera (plexiglass in front of it) and then composite that ?

[tcindie]

I thought a trick couls be done similar to the guy blowing his brains out. Just add the liguid,color,etc.but I see now thats not possible.I know someone who can do a head cast and actually make a realistic head. I was just hoping I could take care of it with aftereffects.Thanks for the help!


Somehow I think you're underestimating the amount of work involved in creating a believably realistic head that's going to be in plain view on camera for an extended time.. and yes, three seconds is a very long time for a fake head. Look at some of the old Terminator footage, the animatronic head was on screen for less than three seconds and it's glaringly obvious.

These kind of prosthetics and props are generally in the several thousand dollar price range because of the amount of detail and work involved in making them as lifelike as possible.