Sliced Leg SFX Silicone Prosthetic

Hey guys,

Today's blog is all about my sliced leg effect, you can call it the warm up to Halloween as I've got a few ideas that I want to create as well as one big idea for a live Demonstration at +Blackburn College  for their open day event in October (those of you who follow me on Facebook or Instagram will know what that character is.)

As some of you know I have been experimenting with silicone prosthetic, its something that really interests me as its can be incredibly life like in both touch, movement and visually. It's pretty expensive but worth it if you want the realism.

I began the prosthetic by creating a mould, I just used some monster clay (favourite clay to use but is quite hard, melts well though) and then create the mould. Below you can see the mould is the blue piece which is created by a silicone based product called Mold Star 16 by Smooth On. There are different types of Mold Star, 16 is a fast setting one with a 6 minute pot life and 30 minute cure time which means that if your quick at working its perfect but if not perhaps try Mold Star 15 which has the pot life 50 minutes and a cure time of  about 3-4 hours. +Smooth-On  products can be purchased via their website http://www.smooth-on.com or if your from the UK you might be better buying it from +Bentley Advanced Materials via http://www.benam.co.uk , they also have a handy tutorial video on there about using the product!

 

After creating the mould, I moved on to creating the prosthetic by encapsulating the silicone using bald cap plastic. Meaning I coated the mould in bald cap plastic (after applying a release agent) and then once this was dried I poured in the silicone. This silicone is again a Smooth On product which can be purchased at +Bentley Advanced Materials called Ecoflex Platinum Silicone which is extremely soft and flexible. To create the felsh colour I added Silc-Pig which is a pigment specific for silicone as well as red flocking which gives a multi-dimensional colouring by colouring the "background"

 

Once the prosthetic piece was done its ready to be applied, for this application I used my new adhesive; Telesis 7 Silicone Adhesive which is a fantastic product the only down side is that its expensive. Its taken me a while to save up for it but it really do glue well.

 

Now the fun part...not that anything before this wasn't fun but this is the really fun messy bit...colouring and blood!

So as I love my skin illustrators so much I used them...I used mainly my FX palette and 5 blood palette both are perfect for casualty effects and gory effects. I love how you can create such a nice wash of colour that doesn't over power the effect. As you can see below, the prosthetic coloured without any blood.

 

 

Once you have the colour right you can go ahead and add the bloods. Whenever I'm teaching sfx I always check my students work before they add the blood because blood can hide a multitude of sins and dodgy edges. (Word of warning to my new Level 3 Media Makeup students starting in September.)

 

My favourite bloods to use are those by Bloody Marvellous, who do a selection of sfx products including liquid bloods and wound fillers.

With this effect I used both liquid and thick bloods in dark.

 

 

 As you can see below, the colour is fantastic for dark venous blood. The top swatch is the liquid blood which you can see is a little more watery in consistency with a slightly more transparency and runs very easily. The next sample is the thick blood which is a lot more dense in colour as well as being more stable and doesn't run quiet as easily as the liquid.

 

The next product that I used, also from Bloody Marvellous, is the wound fillers. The first one is scratch blood and then congealed blood. I love these wound fillers so much as they are really realistic and easy to apply...except the scratch blood which is a little more jelly like making positioning a little more work but totally worth the extra work.

 

 

As you can see from the swatches, that scratch blood, which is the orangey colour is very sticky and gel like in consistency. The congealed blood is far more solid and adds fantastic depth in colour and texture.

 

 

Altogether you get a fantastic realistic effect. The colours and texture work really well to create that lovely gory ripped skin effect.

 

 

 

 

Am happy with the piece and can't wait to try more effects using a similar techniques.

 

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Bye for now lovelies!

District 9 "Prawn" Alien Special Effects Makeup Video

District 9 "Prawn" Alien ... the application

In this blog am going to focus on the application process of my District 9 character that was created for a live demonstrate at +Blackburn College  's live open day event. Check out the previous blog for how I create the pieces!

I'll admit there was a little issues at the time of applying this character mainly due to the fact at the same time I was filming the application... bring on forgetting to press record as well as filming unnecessary parts of our break time! But it was done, we managed it!! On my team for this event was the fabulous Elly Booth modelling as well as Liv Makinson, Ben Slack and Chelsea Fox assisting with a little bit of Mel Nelson helping out.

Ok so here's what I had in front of me... transforming this beauty into this Alien!

 
Using these prosthetics and pieces....see the previous blog for more about how I made all of this...

 

So here are my crazy team of assistant makeup artist, Mel Nelson, Liv Makinson and Ben Slack. First step in this transformation was the application of the bald cap. Now my favourite cap to use is +Kryolan Professional Make-up  's vinyl cap...easy to blend the edges, easy to work with.

 

For this application the aim was to achieve the look of Elly in mid-transformation which meant that the head needed to look Alien but still have bits of hair poking through.

 

We coloured the cap using Mel Products USA , as you all know by now its my favourite way of colouring any prosthetics as it covers the piece 100% with excellent blending abilities. A must for any SFX artist.

 

 

The next stage is to apply the silicone prosthetic pieces, I used ProsAide to apply them but am looking at acquiring some Telesis 7 +United Makeup Artist Expo  which am going to this April as it is one of the best adhesives on market (or so I  have been told) But I'll use what I have for now which is my good old trusty ProsAide. 

 

 
The silicone pieces had to be patch worked together to give that impression that the skin was tearing apart and the alien skin pushing through...sounds disguising but that was my vision as it fitted with the +Weta Workshop 's aliens from the District 9 movie.
 

 

I'll admit I was so happy with how this turned out as this was the first time I have ever made a silicone piece this big! (Again check out previous blog for information on the products used to create this.)

Above is the final arm pieces all together with the hand piece attached...kinda looks like pounded meat...niiiice!

 

 

Next step is painting...

I did it all by hand with my assistants being wicked as always, I could of applied this via the airbrush but I had a mixture of level 2 and 3 media makeup students assisting me and the level 2 haven't covered airbrushing application yet so to make it fair, I kept it all manual.

 

 

Using Skin Illustrate from +PPI Premiere Products  , FX palette. This palette is the best SFX palette ever! I love it for creating gory, injuries because its so realistic!

 

 

Once the base colour is covered its starting to all come together!

 

 

Next coat, again using Skin Illustrator to add further depth, always remember that like a painting, SFX makeup takes several steps in building depth and colour for the effect to look realistic.

 

 

Tools used to paint the piece were from +Bdellium Tools  's SFX range; design by the amazingly talented SFX artist Thomas Surprenant. As stated in previous blogs this is must for any SFX artist out there, they really managed to create a brush for all jobs!

 

 

Add the blood; for this piece I used +bloodymarvellous scab blood as well as their thick dark blood which really pulled the gory together. If anybody is looking for a good blood check out this brand, they have a vast array of realistic blood, pus and blister products!

 

One of the lessons I always like to teach my students when doing gory injuries or wounds is don't go crazy on the blood application. If you splatter blood all over the shop, it will look like your hiding something. Its always better to 'position' the blood realistically to enhance the effect.

 

 

The join on the bald cap to the face prosthetic piece was achieved using silicone gel, moulded around the edges to give the illusion of the skin splitting. This design chose was specifically made to pay a little homage to the film "The Fly" which is one of those ultimate monster movies, as a SFX artist I love!!

 

So the finally...the finished character...

 

I would have to say that the final look is pretty damn good if I do say so myself. Obviously there are areas that I would do differently if I redid the look but am happy! 

 

Am loving how the arm turned out, I think it probably would of turned outa little better if I wrapped the bandages around the hand further up as well as round the arm but live and learn!

 

 

The head turned out better then I thought it would, the join worked out ok but am sure I would be able to figure out an even better way of blending. Its times like these that I wish I was able to use foam latex....still saving up....

 

 

The arm pieces came out wicked though, so happy with how my skills have improved in this area.

 

 

And here is a crazy picture of me and my team...trust me, thanks to Ben there was a million photo's taken that day...many many baaaaad photo's of dodgy angles buuuut check out more via my facebook page @ Ruth.E.Moulden.MUA

 

You can also check out the application video on my YouTube channel @Ruth E Moulden MUA

(http://goo.gl/xTVLHq)

 

That's all for now, don't forget that +United Makeup Artist Expo is happening very soon...April 11-12th to be exact! ... Can't wait!! My next blog will probably be covering that event...so stay tuned people!

 

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:

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YouTube @RuthMouldenMUA

 

xRx

 

 

 

My first Silicone prosthetics and silicone mould making!! Yay!

Silicone has been one of those prosthetics materials that I have been dying to try out, as you all know from previous posts I am saving up for a sfx prosthetics course but I'm determined to continue to experiment and challenge myself further in preparation.

The reason why am so interested in silicon is because its a material which closely mimics skin, if the prosthetic is created properly. Out of all the prosthetic materials (that I know of) its is the most realistic for skin's translucency and therefore is used often to create skin effects, casualty effects, ageing etc.


When I went to IMATS this year I was focused on purchasing the products, equipment for creating silicone prosthetic pieces; not massive full face piece just small casualty style pieces, start small and work up. I was delighted when I found Form X's booth, they had put together a kit for creating silicone pieces which contained everything for sculpting (minus the tools), creating the moulds and creating the pieces.


The kit contained; Mould Star parts A and B for creating the mould, Ecoflex parts A and B for creating the silicone, clay, form cap, silicone pigment tint, red flock and a ickle tub of vaseline. Everything needed  for creating a silicone prosthetic.
 

 

The first step in this endeavour is to create what ever it is you want to turn in to a prosthetic. As usual I came up with a million and one different ideas...just to test it out!

I though casualty effects would be the best effect to create to test out the realism of the product as well as help me improve my realism with these sort of effects, it also allows me to play with my Skin Illustrator palettes.

 

So here are the two sculpts for the moulds, I made a cut (above) and torn skin (below) effect. Pretty basic but remember this is the first time I've ever done this so I wanted to build up my skills first.

 

The next step is to prepare the Mould Star which will be used to create the moulds. Its important to measure equal parts of A and B in order to ensure that the moulds set properly. This can be done on weighing scales (make sure you reset the weight when you put your container on the scales) or use measuring cups, which is what I did.

 

 

Make sure that you create a barrier around your sculptures, this needs to be pretty secure to make sure the Mould Star doesn't run out. I used card board and strong tape which I attached to my tile board.

What you need to remember at this stage is that to avoid air bubbles you need to pour the mixture from a height, obviously take care not to pour it all over the place!!

 

I'd say it took about 45 minutes for the mould to harden fully and was pretty easy to release from the sculpture without any problems.

 

The mould is very sturdy and flexible, it also appears to have done a good job capturing the detailing in the sculptures without any problems. Even the tiny areas are detailed.

These next few steps were pretty tricky to get right, and it took a few go's to find the right methods and measurements.

 

The products need to again be measured in equal parts using the same methods as outlined above. More Ecoflex can be purchased from Smooth On or Bentley Advance Materials however other prosthetic suppliers do have their own similar branded products e.g. PS Composite Ltd. If your experimenting for the first time you will definitely need to top up on products, the brands mentions are ace plus they don't mind you asking questions if your unsure!
 

Once you've got the 2 parts equally mixed added a little red flocking and skin tone pigment. These two components create the translucent skin tones, the multi tonal effects. The problem with this step is its all trial and error, there is not an exact measurement to follow. I took a few tries to get this right and it changes with each batch you make. So my advice is ... don't get frustrated if you don't add the right amount and it comes out too dark or too light!! Start small until your used to the measurements and mixtures.

 

 
To prepare the moulds you need to make sure you have properly ensured that the prosthetic piece can be easily released from the mould. Add Vaseline to the mould followed by spraying several layers of "FormCap" plastic (used to create bald caps) mixed with acetone to thin the mixture using an airbrush gun or paint the layers manually. This step is very very important to do right, if you don't you will never be able to release piece from the mould ending up with rips all over the shop!

 

To make it easy for yourself in both application and releasing attach a thin card board frame around the prosthetic, this will give the piece a little structure and help you when it comes to applying/blending the thin edges.

 

 

As you can see, I made quiet a few attempts at getting the silicone piece just right!

I either made the piece too thick or didn't put enough product for releasing or the pigment was all wrong!! Eventually I did it though, I finally got a batch right!

 

The application process is quiet simple, you just need to take your time and be care with the blending process. In this application I used a piece that was slightly too thick in areas around the edge, the thinner the edge the easy the blending is.

I used Pros-Aide as my adhesive just cause its my go to in most instances, once you have positioned and glued the piece (frame and all) in place you can begin to blend the edge. Use some isopropyl alcohol on a cotton bud to melt the edges away, in the process melt the frame off the piece as well. Once you've done this you can seal the edges with Pros Aide, dry and powder with translucent powder.

Now, ready for painting, I used my fabulous Skin Illustrator palette from PS Composites. The FX palette has some good colours but the basic one will also do.

 

 

You first aim when painting the piece is to get the skin layers just right, especially the colours of the fat and tissue layers of the dermis. Its important to make sure you understand the real colours, which means a bit of medical research is necessary when doing SFX, if your squeamish its not a good area go into!

 

Once the colours are just right, you can continue with the blood. I got some bloods and wound fillers from Bloody Marvellous who were at IMATS this year. 

 

 

As you can see the bloods are very realistic with good texture. I love those product and I can't wait to use the other bloods in future projects!

 

I even had a bit of fun after with stiches just to test out just how realistic silicone is to skin. The stiches went through so easily and the movement that was created was very close how skin would react. There is a video clip up on my instragram, if you want to have a look and am sure at some point I will be putting up the full video on youtube.

 

I have to say silicone is an incredible material to use, the way it feels and moves works very well for recreating sfx. Although it is difficult to use at first, practice defiantly makes perfect. I would like to continue practicing with these products and perhaps make a larger piece for the face.

 

Thanks for reading and don't forget to check out my other social sites;

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Bye for now,

 

Ruth x