How to make realistic blood
- Thread starter BlakeMan
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I use karo light corn syrup, red, and a little bit of blue and green food coloring, water, chocolate syrup and cornstarch for opacity.. it looks very realistic and tastes good too. 
Will, do get "skin-staining" with that recipe? As in, people end up with blood stains on their skin.
We once used tubes of acrylic paint paste (mostly red but mixed colors as you indicated above) -- diluted with water. It washed off very easily, being water based. I imagine that would not be practical for large splatters, but might be helpful for smaller skin wounds.
We once used tubes of acrylic paint paste (mostly red but mixed colors as you indicated above) -- diluted with water. It washed off very easily, being water based. I imagine that would not be practical for large splatters, but might be helpful for smaller skin wounds.
I use the Corn/Karo syrup and food coloring.. works pretty well but is sticky as all hell. Helpful tip... don't cover yourself in it and film near bees. We actually once had to dedicate someone as a "bee swatter " (with a plastic baseball bat) because the bees liked my fake-bloody taste.
The mixture can look a bit purple, but Will's extra ingredients might do the trick!
The mixture can look a bit purple, but Will's extra ingredients might do the trick!
I've found it comes out of clothing and off of skin without much trouble.
As Spat said, it can occasionally look a little purple, but the color actually comes across on camera as being a deep burgandy --- pretty accurate blood color.
The key is to push it more toward the purple/brown than red. The biggest problem is too many people make it too red, and then it looks like candy, and thus not realistic at all. Opacity is necessary too, because blood is not transparent.
As Spat said, it can occasionally look a little purple, but the color actually comes across on camera as being a deep burgandy --- pretty accurate blood color.
The key is to push it more toward the purple/brown than red. The biggest problem is too many people make it too red, and then it looks like candy, and thus not realistic at all. Opacity is necessary too, because blood is not transparent.
If you are possibly shooting in b&w, you can use chocolate syrup.
The cool thing about this is that the 'drips' look really good on camera, really good consistantcy. I don't know if they have a hershey's strawberry syrup, but if they do, maybe some red food coloring.
-- spinner
The cool thing about this is that the 'drips' look really good on camera, really good consistantcy. I don't know if they have a hershey's strawberry syrup, but if they do, maybe some red food coloring.
-- spinner
There is in fact a hershey's strawberry.. but I believe it's fairly translucent, and it's way too bright in color, almost pink.
The formula I use looks good in color and black & white.
The formula I use looks good in color and black & white.
I've used this recipe for years:
Clear corn syrup (Karo is one brand name)
Water
Red food color
Blue food color
Do several tests to find out the mixture you like best - it usually
takes only a drop or two of blue per quart. I use black coffee rather
than water or chocolate syrup to thin the blood and make it more
opaque.
Add a little photoflo (from Kodak) so it doesn't bead up as much. But
not if you're using it in an actors mouth! Add a little liquid dish washing
soap to make it stain less.
Clear corn syrup (Karo is one brand name)
Water
Red food color
Blue food color
Do several tests to find out the mixture you like best - it usually
takes only a drop or two of blue per quart. I use black coffee rather
than water or chocolate syrup to thin the blood and make it more
opaque.
Add a little photoflo (from Kodak) so it doesn't bead up as much. But
not if you're using it in an actors mouth! Add a little liquid dish washing
soap to make it stain less.
Will's recipe is the one we figured out the day before shooting death bed and it works fantastically. On Stream Cave, we used straight hershey's in B/W worked like a champ also, but you may want to dilute a bit as ours was really thick on that shoot.
For color though, remember that DV compression kills reds making them almost neon, so pulling the blood away from red works well. The test we did that night for death bed we did in camera as we were making it...like 6 or 7 test recipes before choosing the one that looked most like blood in camera.
For color though, remember that DV compression kills reds making them almost neon, so pulling the blood away from red works well. The test we did that night for death bed we did in camera as we were making it...like 6 or 7 test recipes before choosing the one that looked most like blood in camera.