PicMe

In this short film project, we are responsible for all the head inflate and deflate effects in the film.

Date : 2023
Client : Mischief VFX, Inc.
Project Detail : Creating inflating and deflating head.

Inflating-Head Shots

The idea is to have the head blowing out, getting bigger and bigger every time she gets likes/good comments.
To achieve this, we utilize the good old classic reshape technique. But we want the inflation effects to look-feel like blowing a balloon that grows from the basic shape to push upward and bigger towards the end part. We also would like the nose to blow up more and its growing progress is in a different step than the head. Similar to how we blow an animal balloon such as an elephant balloon. Furthermore, we also want to keep the look and shape of the actress’ eyes the same, they will grow bigger but not deform/or distorted.

In some shots, where she turns her head sideway, we have to reshape the nose separately and track it back to the face, to avoid her nose becoming crooked.

Before-After Inflating-Head Shots

Deflating-Head Shots

For deflating-head shots, the director would like to have the actress’s head look like a stress ball getting a hand squeeze. In the story, the deflating head is getting squeezed further and further in every bad comment pop-up on her phone. To achieve that idea, we still use the reshape technique to deflate down the head, and on top of that, we add distortion effects that can create the hand squeeze illusion.