The Last Of Us {{ CLICKER }} {{Fast sculpt VIDEO}}

Check it out the new tutorial video is up now on my YouTube channel!! Make sure your subscribed to see new videos every Thursday and check out the blog below for more information about this look.



xRx

The Last Of Us - Clicker Prosthetic

This is a old post that should of been done a while ago but because of my health issues it sort of got put on the back burner. Better late then never!

So last Halloween I was hired to create the characters/monsters for a zombie run at a local Youth Group. This event was your typical zombie run, where groups solve puzzles to move on to the next area where they will be challenged again, the cool thing was the Youth Centre is massive...I mean multiple floors with indoor and roof top football pitches so the amount of characters needed was a lot.
One of the areas in the run was a maze, which the groups had to navigate through in the dark...it was one of my favourite rooms. I thought the best thing to have in a maze in the pitch dark, a Clicker. Those of you who play The Last Of Us will know exactly what a Clicker is. Those who are not familiar, its a zombie like person who has basically been taken over by a fungus (think that picture of an ant with a fungus bit growing out of it!) and it makes clicking noises, really creepy croaky clicking noises that tells you one is near. Having this in a maze in the dark was amazing!! It freaked everybody out, including me and I created it!

Here's the sculpt that I created, there will be a fast sculpting video of me creating this on my YouTube Channel on Thursday so make sure that you are subscribed to me on there.

 {{{ https://www.youtube.com/user/RuthMouldenMUA }}} 

And here is the fabulous Katie modelling the prosthetic piece applied on the night, thanks to my assistant Lisa as well!

Honestly, I love how it came out. I think she looks creepy and Katie did the clicking noises perfectly!

I love this image, I think it totally fits with the whole The Last Of Us style and Katie definitely made it even better in the maze!

Most of the prosthetic products used were purchased from PS Composites Ltd which included the Monster Clay used to sculpt the piece. I also used tools from Ken Banks and some cheap clay tools from Amazon.

It was coloured using all Skin Illustrator palettes and splattered with blood from Ben Nye (dark blood)

I will be trying to post a blog and video more regularly now, so am thinking Monday's are blog uploads and Thursdays are YouTube uploads, so make sure your following me on both as well as checking out my Facebook and Instagram @Ruth E Moulden MUA

See you next time,

xRx

District 9 "prawn" prosthetics ... the making of....

Hey hey,
Well it appears I have created another one of my crazy crazy live demonstration characters for Blackburn College's most recent Open Event showing off what the college has to offer.
I love doing these events because I see them more as a chance to prove to prospective students who want to study media makeup what we can do and offer them. And I like to wow the crowds, its a case of "go big or go home" ... I get a little worried sometimes that I may not be able to top the last character but hey life's no fun without a few challenges!

This open day event was no exception and I aimed to top the last one...(which I'll admit I have not blogged about but check out facebook for the photos!)

A while ago I was challenged to recreate "District 9" prawn Alien, as usual, I don't back down to challenges so off I went designing.
Unlike the other characters I've done I wanted to create more costume/limb parts as well as play with doing a large silicone piece which I've never done before. (I've created small ones but never as big as this)

My design for this character was a mixture of the character, Wikus transforming into the Alien from the film but I wanted to take it bit further and give it a bit of "The Fly" sort of transformation with a full head prosthetic plus bald cap.

So the first thing you think about when you think of District 9 transformation...the hand...

 

As you can see it took quiet a few steps to get it right, starting with a washing up glove!

Add plenty of tape to get the shape of the fingers...

 

 

Little bit of good old latex and cotton wool to mould the details in the fingers....

 

 

Colour with Mel Products USA in delightful swampy green brown colours and voilà you have a "prawn" hand.....

 

 

 

So the next stage is the arm pieces, which as I mentioned before this is first time I have ever done a large scale silicone piece which was epic for me because silicone is one of those materials which can work out...sometimes doesn't. I've done smaller pieces before which worked out well so I figured why not!

 

For the silicone I used EcoFlex from Smooth On which I got in a starter silicone kits at IMATS last year....it was a very good kit, taught me a lot!!

 

 

First port of call...the casting of the piece....

 

 

As you can see I did multiple pieces just in case something went wrong or pieces didn't come out clean. If I've said it once, I've said it a million times...always be prepared for little whoopy daisy moments!

 

 

As you can see above...lots of just incases....

 

Now my favourite part of any character make...the face, cause its allll about the face face face baby!

Theres just something about sitting down for hours sculpting weird and wonderful creations that really puts me in a good mood.

With this Alien piece, there were a lot of logistics that needed working out...such as the bug eyes, the nose breathing hole and antenna.

Trial and error my friends....as well as some creative imagination whilst designing is the key to over come any problem.

 

Isn't he a delightful fella...I named him Fred...
Now I originally opted for a full face when designing but then decided to stop at the bottom lip as I wanted to create weird tentacle things to dangle down and disguise the lip. (Which you'll see below)
The bug eyes are in fact....Easter Egg packaging...yes that good old chocolate treat, I did have to maniple the shape a little to try and get that almond eye shape going.  

 

And here's the bad boy casted out in gelatine... works well...I did have to scoop out sections to relieve some of the weight as gelatine can be pretty heavy at times. But I was very pleased with how it came out.

 

Next step is colouring in!

Another one of those tasks that just chills me out, and I love using my IWATA airbrush to painting it all up. Again using Mel Products USA...I love the products they are amazing and come in a wide variety of colours. Easy to use, can be used neat or mixed with their mixing medium for use in an airbrush/thinning. Totally recommend them!

 

 

The eyes were painted using glass paints...as you can see the middle part is left as when I came to apply the piece I decided to paint the models eyes black so when you looked through the eye it looked like a pupil.

(Plus visibility was a little foggy with the paints all over and I really needed the model to be able to see!)

 

As you can see the dangly bits over the mouth work as a clear way to hide the "real" lips but still allow the model movement of the mouth/talk/eat...breath...

Plus they moved with the movements of the model which I thought looked really cool.

As you can see below I had to try it out! ....

 

 

So there you have the making of...

 

I will be uploading the application process in a later blog but I think I've held you attention for long enough. All the photo's from the event will be uploaded to my Facebook page, so feel free to have a little gander over there.

 

There is also an application video up on my YouTube, if your feeling intrigued as to how it all turned out.

 

Tomorrow am doing another event at Blackburn College with my wonderful media makeup students for Comic Relief which involves full body painting! This will be blogged at some point and if I can get a camera, I'll be filming parts again.

 

Don't forget to like, follow me on my other sites:

Facebook page @Ruth.E.Moulden.MUA

  Instagram @ruthemouldenmua

YouTube @RuthMouldenMUA

 

xRx

 

 

 

Halloween Prosthetic Maddenss Prt 1 ZOMBIES!!!

Heyo my lovelies,

Its been a while since I've written out a blog for you guys but like always I have been a busy bee. For the first time this Halloween little moi designed all the characters and created all the prosthetics for a zombie run event held at Blackburn Youth Zone. I will admit this was a dream come true for me, its something I always wanted to do and its a new challenge for me.

Am going to do a series of blogs to cover this event as it was so massive and I want you lovely people to not be overloaded with words! So its split up into 3 different blogs...Zombies, Creatures and Creeps and the live event with final results.

The event which was held at Blackburn Youth Zone was a zombie run, in which groups of 12-18 year old started at the top of the building on the roof top and had to escape by completing various challenges to get out at the bottom and into a Halloween disco.

Promo video

 So my brief was to create 5 different zombies, 2 chasers (with the aim to be absolutely terrifying!), 2 grave diggers (which changed to mad scientists), a morgue victim with ribcage, clown, exorcist girl, 2 "butcher smilers" aaaaaaaaaand back up pieces for extra characters and staff members.

Designing has always been a lot of fun for me, I just zone out the rest of the world and design my characters looking at multiple ways of creating them. Its important to do this so you have your back up plan, just in case!
My zombies needed to be completely different from each other but look like they belong in the same environment.

Sculpting the pieces, as everyone knows is another of my favourite things to do, and I feel like my skills are progressing well, which is always a bonus! I've been trying to push myself with the textures of the pieces more which is what helps the piece come alive.

As usual am using wet clay as well as plastiline modelling clay, I would like to just use the plastiline for all projects but I don't have enough. Its one of those things that makes sculpting a whooole lot easier! Am also using Ken Banks tools for sculpting, these tools are amazing to use. Very easy to create smooth areas as well as textures quickly.

 

I decided to totally challenging myself with some of these characters being multiple prosthetics applications on one face. Which in the back of my head I worried whether it would work or not but what's life without a few challenges.

 

This prosthetic was my favourite to make!

I really wanted to try and create those muscle textures in the clay as well as bone. Took a lot of references pieces to get it to a point that I loved.

 

Jaw breaker, this one took ages to get right in my head. I wanted to make the zombie look like their jaw was unhinged and dislocated.

 

What's a zombie horde without a zombie whose all infected and lumpy. Lots of popped blisters and boils...yummy!

 

Of course we need to zombie brow...or two

 

My big daddy zombie, no face all rotten with bones and muscles on show and a funky boney nose!!

 

 I will admit, whilst sculpting and designing these zombies many many maaaaaany B horror movies were playing, Walking Dead and a lot of things with dead in the title. Its good reference...and makes for a fun day...night....week for all!

Sculpting took foooooorever with these zombies but once they were done, moulding began....

 

I decided for this prosthetic to use my fake dentist teeth to give the effect a realist look, they also clicked together when the mouth moved...added creepy element!

 

My beautiful infected, yucky zombie looking all green and full of oozy infection.

So happy with how this prosthetic turned out, really wanted to give that transition from bone to muscle as smoothly and realistically as possible and I think I achieved it. The false eye really set the piece off.

 

The trickiest prosthetic piece I did in this project, it was really difficult to sort the positioning out to make it look like a dislocated jaw with the torn skin around.

I was worried with this one, up until the actually application.

 

My absolute favourite zombie design, I really enjoyed painting this one up and the use of Bdellium SFX brushes really helped me add texture and blend the colours well. Unlike the other prosthetics I decided to sculpt the teeth rather then add the fake one's because I was worried about the movement of the actor being effected.

 

All the prosthetics were casted in gelatine that was purchased from PS Composites Ltd, this company are fantastic, they go above and beyond to make sure you get what you need. I find their products extremely good quality as well as great for the price.

 

Painted using Mel Products USA PAX paints and skin illustrator palettes predominately the FX palette. Love using these products as they work so well on the prosthetics, blend beautifully and cleanly with a natural look. Again its another product that is priced right for the job and well worth buying a kit or two from them.

 

Each piece was definitely made with love ... blood, sweat and tears but I think I have got better then my last work which is all I aim to do...get better and better and better.

 

Next weeks blog will focus on the other characters...the "Creeps and Creatures" and how they were sculpted and casted, followed by a blog focusing on the event and my Halloween creations that I did on myself!

 

I am planning to get more regular with my blogging, once a week...maybe more if your good!

 

 This weeks teaching is the introduction of Airbrushing techniques with my lovely level 3 and continuing Body Art assessments with my Level 2.

 

Get a sneak peak of the photos head over to my Instagram or Facebook page...like me, follow me, stalk me what ever to stay up to date and current with my work.

 

xRx

Creature From the Black Lagoon; making of the prosthetic piece