Flat moulds are very handy, and can be used to make even rather sophisticated makeups.

However, each time you cast out an appliance it is a performance, and of course things can go awry.

Here are five of the main mistakes often made when making pieces with flat moulds and how to address them!  Scroll down to check out the video Mitch and I made at Brick In The Yard to illustrate these easy to avoid issues!

#1. Not releasing the moulds properly.

Vaseline, cheap and cheerful and readily available. Ultra 4, a good Epoxy Parfilm isn’t cheap but t is excellent!

Silicone is renown for it’s release properties – it’s one of the reasons its a great material to make moulds out of.  However, it it can grip cap plastic well enough to ruin a piece during removal.

If cap plastic sticks a little to the mould, it can cause the silicone gel of the appliance to come away from the cap plastic, and this is known as delamination.  It can be repaired if it happens in a small patch, but it’s naturally better to avoid this completely by ensuring the mould is correctly released before the cap plastic is applied.

Silicone is a material which is thirsty for oils.  It is certainly waterproof (show close up of mould in water and beading up) but oils and some solvents can be absorbed into the surface of the silicone mould – solvents including those of the cap plastic.  It is possible to paint your cap plastic onto a bare mould and have it stick either completely or just slightly enough to damage the edges of the delicate appliance.

The way to help stop this from happening is to smother the mould in a thick layer of Vaseline and leave it for an hour or two.  Let the thirsty mould absorb and drink in as much of the oily Vaseline as it wants.  Then, you can wipe out the excess which is filling in all that precious detail, and either apply a thin layer of Vaseline (or any petroleum jelly -I’m not brand-fanatic!) rubbed well in, or spray it with a mould release such as an Epoxy Parfilm.

This is especially true of new moulds which have not yet had any release applied to them.

The point is, if the mould has been allowed to suck up all that oily Vaseline, it won’t suck the release you apply or the thinned cap plastic.  The result is the appliance should more easily come out from the mould, meaning less stress on that precious, fine cap plastic barrier.

#2. Not Applying The Cap Plastic Barrier Correctly.

Super Baldies, the magical barrier which works amazingly well for appliances.

Appliances obviously need a thin edge to successfully blend into the surrounding skin, but it is possible to apply it too thinly which can result in a barrier which has holes in it. 

This could mean it can tear when removing the piece from the mould, and make it difficult to apply if the flashing is no longer attached.

If airbrushing, make sure the cap plastic is thin enough to successfully go through the airbrush without clogging or cob-webbing, but also not so thin that there isn’t enough cap plastic actually being left behind on each pass.  The more thinned the cap plastic is, the more layers you will need to apply in order to achieve a desirable thickness.

It is important to spray your cap plastic right to the edge of the mould, so that you can pick up the edge and lift it with a pin to see the thickness remaining.

Remember the solvents will evaporate – it is the cap plastic which remains.

By lifting the edge with a pin on a few different places around the mould, you can monitor the actual thickness of the barrier.  If it isn’t thick enough, you can add more and by checking at the edge of the mould, you won’t damage the appliance itself.

If you get the barrier too thick and apply too many layers, then the final appliance will leave a noticeable thick edge on the skin and make it hard to blend. If you do have a barrier which is too thick, it’s better to pull out the barrier and start over, making sure to step back this time. You can add more layers if it’s too thin, but you can’t take them away again!

How thick is too thick?

It’s hard to define it because the thickness’s involved are too small to measure, but once you have a cap plastic barrier which has tiny pinholes visible when stretched out on the pin, it’s time to add another layer and that should do it.

I usually thin cap plastic with 5 parts solvent when airbrushing, and 3 parts when applying with a standard brush.

It is hard to say just how many layers you apply, as more solvent-heavy mix means you will need more passes to accumulate the plastic thickness. Remember, the solvents evaporate away –  only the small percentage of that mix which is cap plastic will remain!  It may appear like a heavy slick applied, but most of that will evaporate away!

Some people panic and whip the airbrush across the mould really quickly, leaving a light coat each time. Others are slower or use more pressure when spraying, and consequently leave more cap plastic as a result.  The trick is to do what you do, and regularly check the result at the edge of the mould to see what you have left. That way, you will get a feel for how many layers YOU need to apply, based on how you work.

Airbrushed barriers are thinner, more consistent and evaporate quicker but naturally require you to have access to an airbrush and compressor.  If you have a wide makeup brush (or even a chip-brush at a push) to use instead, this will be fine as an alternative.

It won’t be as neat, but it will work!

#3. Not Scraping The Mould Properly.

Once the cap plastic is applied, you pour in your silicone gel and you need to scrape the moulds quickly and cleanly to make sure edges are thin.  Make sure you use a scraper  which is wider than the mould so you can do the manoeuvre in one, swift movement.  You can use plastic or steel scrapers – it really doesn’t matter which.

Scraping at a good angle will help ensure the silicone is scraped properly. Too low an angle means that the blade of the scraper flexes too much. If the scraper is held at 45° or more, then you are likely to get a cleaner edge.

It may take a few attempts, but if you press firmly when you wipe the scraper, you should completely wipe clean the silicone from the cutting edge.

If you place a light source such as a desk lamp on the opposite side from your viewpoint, you can see the light reflecting off the shiny surface of the silicone.  This will make it much easier to see if the cutting edge of the appliance is totally clear of silicone.  You will know it is clean when you can see the edge of the mould as a bone-dry ridge, surrounded either side by shiny silicone. If it isn’t bone dry, then you need to scrape it again or use cotton tipped swabs to wipe it.

The bone-dry cutting edge of the appliance is a sign that the appliance should have good edges.

Using cotton swabs will take a little longer than scraping it correctly, so if you have many moulds to run at once, it really helps to get your scraping technique down!

Wiping the edges of twenty moulds at once with cotton swabs may mean the silicone starts setting up before you get to the last mould and that stress isn’t fun.

If you do have lots of moulds to run or the weather is warm where you are, consider running fewer moulds at a time so you have enough time to adequately scrape them. You can also chill the components or use a retarder to slow the cure!

Obviously make sure you pour and scrape on a flat and level work surface, and allow some space between each mould.  If you are using he same scraper for multiple moulds then be sure to keep some paper towel handy to help clean the scraper and deal with any spills or drips that can easily happen when you are working fast.

#4. Not Allowing The Cap Plastic Enough Time To Evaporate Before Removing Appliance.

Patience, Jedi! Allowing time for the cap plastic to mature and firm up is an important consideration.

This is a big one, and can make a huge difference to the quality of your appliances.  Essentially, it takes a while for cap plastic to reach it’s full strength, and rushing the demould can stretch out the cap plastic too much.

The solvents used in cap plastic, either alcohol or acetone, do appear to evaporate quite quickly. However, small amounts can remain for some time and this can mean the cap plastic remains weak until it has completely flashed off.  It’s a good idea to leave the cap plastic to dry up for an hour or more before filling with silicone if possible, and leaving the mould for a few hours or preferably overnight before actually removing the piece from the mould.

If you do leave it long enough to mature like this, you will find you can get pieces out of a well released mould with much thinner edges than you thought, making it possible to have pieces which blend into the skin much better.

#5. Storing Appliances Badly Before Use.

A appliance stored badly can fold and flap about, damaging it permanently.

The best way to keep appliances safe until they are ready to use is to pin them to foam core board through the flashing.  This way they are kept flat and secure, allowing them to be transported more easily.

By trimming the foam core to a size which fits neatly into a box, you stack layers of pieces in this way, protecting the lower layer from the one above it with layers of tissue paper or paper towel.

If appliances flap around and get folded over or crushed, they can take on creases and become damaged permanently. By pinning them onto a board carefully, you can be sure that the piece is kept flat and won’t move around during transit.

Pin that bad boy down, and it will stay nice and flat no matter how bumpy the ride!

I like those beaded pins you can get, although T-Pins (the kind used for holding wigs to wig blocks) are also pretty good. They don’t need to be especially long pins either – 25mm/1 inch would be plenty long enough.

When pinning them, make sure the pins go in at an acute angle rather than 90°.  That way, they appliance won’t slide off the board, and the pins will stay in the foam core better rather than poking through the other side. If that happens, you can damage the piece underneath, or even yourself. Ouch!

If foam core isn’t easy for you to get hold of, then sections cut from a cardboard box will do the job okay.  Essentially, it just needs to be flat and thick enough to retain the pins. The ‘Really Useful Box’ company make various sizes of plastic storage boxes.  These kinds of boxes are ideal for stacking layers of foam core laden with appliances for ready access later.

Check out the BITY YouTube channel for a ton of cool videos. Those guys keep it fresh!

Drop me an email or comment below. I’d love to hear from you! My direct email is stuartbray@yahoo.com

-Stuart

The first time I’d seen real innards moulded and used for an effect was in Alexander the Great (2004).

(Scroll down – this one has a podcast)

We needed to make some bull guts for a scene in which a seer would use the innards of a slayed beast to predict the outcome of a battle (as you do in the absence of solid intelligence of your enemy, drones and remote missile launch capabilities).

(Stuarts note: I had made a lot of guts for Saving Private Ryan and Shaun of the Dead, but these were not moulded from real guts!).

It was mentioned that they wanted to use real guts for the scene, as it was thought fake ones would look fake (Ahem! Challenge accepted!) Of course health and safety issues rang up, among just the eeeew! of it all. So we decided instead to make some. A brave soul went and fetched some freshly removed innards from an abattoir and before moulding, I decided to take some pics.

They were enormous – much bigger than I realised. We had lungs, a liver, a heart and a kidney. I was going to sculpt the intestines as I figured their lengthy, floppy and gelatinous nature would not be easy to mould. I used the real guts as reference to inform how these would look – there are always gloopy bits of non-descript tissue hanging off stuff and I had enough pictures of intestines to keep me going.

I have also done similar things using something called ‘fat-back’- from butchers which is basically a 12″ square of pig skin with half an inch of fat still attached (pork rinds, anyone?). It was handy to smash it, stab it, hit it with hammers, burn it and just generally abuse it to recreate the surface trauma that skin can receive.

It could then be moulded so we could study what the surface actually looked like. Also the idea occurred to me if you can, for example, burn the skin surface with a blowtorch and then mould the result, you would be able to observe the three dimensional surface only without the distraction of colour!

Often when you look at pictures of real wounds, they are smothered with bruising and blood which can make it difficult to discern what is shape and what is colour. Doing this, there can be no doubt as to what the surface topography was without the distraction of colour or blood, dirt and other elements.

It’s interesting to me, as you realise how much you embellishment you can add when sculpting wounds. It’s really easy to go over the top in the name of dramatic effect when in fact, the surface indications of real damage is often understated.

I don’t have images of these experiments, so Todd and I thought we should do something similar for your delectation. Moulding real things instead of sculpting is nothing new – but we figured as the final post of the ‘sculpting’ trilogy it would be fun to focus on harvesting real textures to create some gore.

I did a post last year on creating textures and moulding them to make cool new surfaces and textures based on the talk I did at IMATS London last year – see it here: http://www.learnmakeupeffects.com/london-imats-2013/

Only this time, we figured it would be interesting to focus on the effects of firearms.

Gunshot trauma varies with the myriad of variables possible, from type of gun, type of round, range, whether the round passed through wall, glass or ricochets before hitting the body….there are so many possible outcomes.

If you need to create the effects of a gunshot wound then reading up on the weapon and circumstance will help. For the most part however, there are many similarities. Obviously the skin is broken by the round passing through it, and penetrative trauma of some degree occurs.

The round may or may not exit the body, there may or may not be stippling of powder residue, the edges of the wound can be burnt, the skin may split….etc.

Well, by shooting up a load of large pieces of meat with skin intact, we study the effects up close and see how it looks from all angles, including the back to examine the effects first-hand without any human injury involved.

If you’ve already listened to our Podcast on this subject, now you can see the images that I… we… hope will help it all make more sense.

Also, check out the video of some of the shots, you get an idea of just how much power is emitted and just how quickly:

Let me start off by saying, “I F#*KING LOVE SCIENCE!”  And I’ll tell you why after a brief preamble.  Stuart and I have been talking recently (we talk quite a lot, actually, when we’re not both up to our eyeballs in one thing or another) about textures.  Not skin textures, which we do actually talk about, but tissue textures.  Veins, muscle, tendons, bone, fascia, fat… you know, cool stuff.

Not a lot of people know that my career path started out originally down a surgical medicine track, so I still have somewhat of a vested interest in the sciency side of makeup effects, and tissue is a big subject to cover.  If you’re going to be creating tissue and tissue damage, etc. as part of a makeup, you want to get it right, right?

There are four groups of tissue in the human body:

1. Epithelial
2. Nervous
3. Connective, and
4. Muscle

There are two kinds of epithelial tissue (epithelial tissue protects your body from moisture loss, bacteria, or bacterial infection, and internal injury):

1. One kind covers or lines almost all of your internal and external body surfaces, such as the outermost layer of your skin and other organs, and the internal surface lining of your digestive tract, and your lymph system.
2. The other kind secretes hormones or other stuff like stomach acid, sweat, saliva, and milk.

Nervous tissue forms your nervous system (duh), which orchestrates all movements and activities of your body.  Parts you may be familiar with are your brain, your spinal cord, and the nerves that branch off of those two important parts.  Nervous tissue is made up of two kinds of nerve cells:

1. Neurons, which are the basic structural component of your nervous system, and
2. Neuroglia, also called glial cells, which provide support, such as insulating or anchoring neurons to blood vessels.

Connective tissue is the glue that provides structure and support to your body, and there are two kinds of connective tissue:

1. Fibrous connective tissue is found tendons, ligaments, cartilage and bone, and is the more rigid of the two types.
2. Loose connective tissue also holds structures together, but is more flexible, and holds the outer layer of your skin to the underlying muscle tissue.  This stuff is also in fat, lymph glands and your red bone marrow. Yum!

The fourth group of tissue is muscle.  It differs from the other tissue types in that it contracts; muscle tissue is available in three styles: Cardiac, Smooth, and Skeletal.  Those muscle tissues are made up of fibers that contain many myofibrils, which are the actual parts of the fibers that do the contracting.

• Cardiac muscle is obviously found in the heart.
• Smooth muscle lines the walls of blood vessels and certain organs, such as your digestive (stomach, intestines) and your urogenital (naughty bits) tracts.
• Skeletal muscle is attached to bones (by fibrous connective tissue) and allows movements of your body by bending at joints (which are cushioned and protected by fibrous connective tissue!)

All that being said, what Stu and I want to do is show you this stuff for real so you will have good reference material to work from, as well as to show you ways to create your tissue sculpts by actually using REAL TISSUE!

I am now considered to be a very strange fellow at several butcher shops around the city where I live.  Go with your strengths, I say…

Note : I think this looks like Alien Labia. Just sayin’…..

The first stage of the Real Tissue Project was to hit up my local grocer for some meat I would never willingly put in my mouth.  Such as beef heart….

…a big ‘ol hunk of beef bone with some muscle, veins and fat attached (for making soup)…

…and a heaping portion of beef honeycomb tripe.

(*Bloikk*)

If you don’t know what tripe is, it is made from one of the three chambers of a cow’s stomach: the rumen (blanket/flat/smooth tripe), the reticulum (honeycomb and pocket tripe), and the omasum (book/bible/leaf tripe).  If you do know what tripe is and actually eat it, you need help (JK).

Stu and I decided that it wouldn’t be enough to just show you good, high resolution photos of these various tissues.  No.  We need to mold it so we can do clay pours and incorporate the actual textures into a wound sculpture.

Now the obvious comment would be, “Why not use the images as reference and just sculpt the tissue?”  The obvious answer is, “Well, you can.”  But Stu and I figured there’s nothing wrong with having authenticity on our side, and what’s more authentic than clay tissue molded from real tissue?  Answer:  Using the real tissue.

Here are some of the fake guts that Stuart was talking about at the top of the blog.  Real ones would have gotten pretty ripe as the day went on…

However, for our purposes, clay pours using Monster Clay into silicone molds made from real tissue is what I did, and I’m pretty pleased with the results:

However, there are a couple of other methods that can yield pretty good results too.  One is pouring hot melt vinyl into cold water (this vinyl is clear so not really as visible) – I confess my results were less than remarkable as you can see here…

but I did have good results with soft polyfoam; this is Smooth-On Flex Foam 6 that I tinted to look like innerds.  As the foam began to expand, I took a craft stick and just began swirling it around and when the foam began to set up, it began to take on a very random tissue-y look that I think will make an outstanding mold to work with.

So anyway, our task became acquiring portions of meat that we could abuse that would react similarly to human tissue damage that would/could occur in combat… without spending a lot of money.  All in the name of science.    The first lesson learned was that this was not going to be cheap if we wanted to do it right, and what’s the point if you’re not going to do it right?

In the name of science… and makeup effects… we got our hands on two slabs of pork belly (bacon) with the skin still attached (about 18” x 24” x 3”), and a slab of fatback (fatback is a cut of meat that consists of the layer of adipose tissue or subcutaneous fat under the skin of the back) and a slab of ribs about the same size.  We all cried a little knowing we weren’t going to be able to cook any of it later…

This project was going to be conducted under strict rules of engagement, seeing as we were going to be firing live rounds into the meat from varying distances and with different caliber weapons by combat veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.

We would be firing .38 hollow point and full metal jacket, 5.56mm, .223, 9mm, and a 12 gauge shotgun (with 00 buckshot and a rifled slug), and a 20 gauge.

The second lesson learned was THIS WAS FUN!

First up was a Vietnam era Colt AR15 firing a .223 full metal jacket round. Yowza!

We fired rounds from a 9mm Glock with similar results, but a slightly larger entrance hole; what we wanted to see was a skin-contact point-blank shot from a .38 hollow point to show how the skin tends to split like a blunt force trauma avulsion.  It did. Erk.

This went on for a while with the various calibers and pieces of pork.  Here’s what a 12 gauge shotgun with 00 buckshot and a rifled slug will do from about 15 feet.

I missed a little…

Here’s the same 12 gauge with standard buckshot from the same distance.

That is a large hole.  This is a 20 gauge sawed-off from 15 feet.  Don’t ask me where it came from…

It makes a lot of noise, too.  It was raining bacon.  Literally.  Mmm… bacon…

Next up, getting the forensic evidence back to the shop for molding.  We took care to try and preserve the original shapes of the wounds, but we were transporting from a considerable distance, and even though we had a huge cooler filled with dry ice, there was going to be some disturbance of the evidence.  I think we managed to save most of the original integrity of our mayhem.

We had a lot of gaping holes to choose from, and wound up molding quite a few entrances and exits.

I’m pretty sure this is a .223 entrance hole.

Yup.

These are a couple shotgun entrance wounds; a 12 gauge (bottom) and a 20 gauge (top).

This is the point-blank .38 entrance.

Thanks to my stellar record keeping, I have no idea what these guys are… but they’re nasty, and very cool!  Pretty certain this is one of the shotguns.

I believe this one below is the 20 gauge.

I hope you get the idea.

We now have way more molds and photos than Stu and I can possibly show you here, but we hope you can see the value of actually having molds of a real gunshot wound that can then be cast and modified to suit your particular prosthetic needs.  In these wounds are all four types of tissue – Epithelial, Nervous, Connective, and Muscle.  And now you have a much better grasp (we hope) on what various firearms can do to it.

PLEASE do not attempt this on your own without proper training and/or supervision!  Perhaps Stu and I can incorporate these molds into our offerings to you if you are interested.  Until next time!

—

We’re Stuart and Todd, a couple of FX guys.

We love to hear your comments and suggestions – if you like what we did then please share. Retweet the Meat, so to speak.

Email us direct on stuartandtodd@gmail.com

The last post looked at the claws, horns and nose from a BBC TV comedy show.

This post will look at the last couple of gags from BBC TV’s It’s Kevin, with Kevin Eldon.– the oversized moose antlers from a sketch ‘The Incredible Moose Human‘ – a superhero who grows moose antlers when enraged by injustice.

There was a set of horns/antlers made and then production wanted to increase them even more.  Eventually they were about 4 feet wide (48″ or 1.2 m wide) and he was to wear them whilst walking through a china and glassware store, shelves precisely level with the antler for maximum effect when how strode down the aisles.

We started with a cast of Kevin’s head, which was supplied by Waldo so no need for a new lifecast to be done.  I fitted out a plaster copy with some copper tube, wrestled from my old plumbing kit.  A wee bit of bending and soldering, and I was able to hook up a basic ‘U’ shape handlebar that would make up the majority of the armature.

We can’t have it bend halfway through the sculpt or mould!  A strong armature is essential.  The head form is sitting on that steel armature used previously for the claw!

Some may think trusting this lofty responsibility to the fickle mistress that is copper is in itself a gamble.  Granted, that was a risk, but I trusted myself to the magnificence of tubular support.  Next up, we built a rough shape of the main extending ‘fingers’ of the moose antlers using a scaled-up outline based on the design from production.

This was fleshed out with chicken wire and then coated with plaster bandage to create a lightweight shell.  We went crazy with shellac, making it shiny and water resistant so the thin layer of clay we would skim on top would not dry out too quickly.

Nice, shiny and yellow. Both the antler armature and some M&M’s have these qualities.

I could have used plastiline instead of clay, but its so much quicker to use clay for something like this.  Plus, I knew we had a fair amount of moulding to do after so I though anything that would speed up this part would be good.  Which is kind of a shame, as this sculpting is often considered the fun part (unless you are a third mould-maker like me) and therefore not the part you’d want to cut corners on.

However, the mould is not something that can be done badly or hurried – it has to function and behave itself so the lions-share of time is usually never the sculpting part! It’s all the other stuff.They needed sculpting them ‘in situ’ on the head, as the fibreglass scull cap was the centre of the whole thing.  It had to be symmetrical visually, strong enough to stay attached and balanced once worn so as not to favour leaning to one side.

Once the sculpt was approved then we made steps to mould it.  First instance was to keep it from drying during the moulding part, so we sprayed the whole thing with a clear car spray lacquer.

To mould was fairly simple – we painted on several coats of silicone all over.  The plan was to make it a two part mould by covering the whole thing in silicone (about 1/2″ (12mm) all over).  I decided to make the silicone stay in the fibreglass halves, as I didn’t want the huge silicone moulds flopping about like wet sheets.

To do this, we gave the whole mould a final coat of silicone, then pressed dish-towels into the surface, so the fibres on the back bonded to the mould whilst the upper surface was exposed and would bond to the gelcoat we would add later.

This mould was sliced around the halfway line all the way around the outside edge of the mould.  This allowed the silicone to open up once the jacket of fibreglass was added, and also the cut provided a handy slot in which to slide plastic shim.  This allowed up to glass both halves at once – a lot of work as it was quite a large surface area but a few hours of toil later and we ourselves a mould of some virtue!

Once opened and cleaned out I had a buddy of mine help out with the fibreglassing.  While we got on with other bits, Edmund Woodward (an incredibly skilled sculptor and mouldmaker) made the one and only set of antlers from the silicone mould.

We went for as thin a gelcoat as possible, and backed it up with a single layer of fibreglass mat.  The gelcoat is this delightful ‘camel sunset’, ‘Melted Caramac’ or ‘Werthers Unoriginal’.  Take your pick – I just know it was a good base colour for the intended paint job whether you like it or not.

Once the fibreglass set was out, cleaned up and seams sanded smooth, I slap some paint on it.  I use a mix or Tria inks with acetone as a thinner (they stay well on fibreglass) and acrylic inks thinned with 99% alcohol.

The tips are darkened, and there was some spattering with thin washes to give it a natural breakup.  Using pics of real antlers as reference, I mist, spatter and flick colours until we are there.

One thing with moose antlers is they are kind hairy, with a fuzzy coating of fine hair.  To get this, we flocked the whole thing using brown and beige nylon flock and a flocking gun.  I needed to get a glue which would hold the flock in place throughout it’s many shots, manhandling and touching.

Flocked antlers, fine , short nylon hairs about 1-2 mm long .

Once the makeup department had fitted the wig to match Kevin character, we had a set of antlers ready to go. Check them out.

Maybe you remember my blog posts on making a couple of tongues a while back. 

Well, the reason I decided to make that post featuring tongues was the result of previously making the one pictured below.  In the show, Kevin s character was a 1980’s doctor who displays a range of over the top reactions to an attractive nurse, ranging from steam coming out of his ears, Sid James-esque groans and a wolf-like unrolling tongue.

The tongue length was essentially limited to what could comfortably fit within the mouth when rolled up.  Imagine a belt coiled up – there really isn’t too much length which can be easily accommodated within the mouth without gagging, unless one has – erm – trained oneself to overcome such discomforts.

So, we decided on a size and I set about sculpting the tongue.  The first step was to make a secure armature to support the thin sculpture, and I used some steel strip which could be bent to supply a pleasing curve.  I was quite keen to avoid a simple ‘flat’ tongue as I thought that would look cheap and unrealistic.

The tongue does look rather unusual viewed from underneath. The protruding lobes at the top end were originally there to help retain the tongue in the mouth by sliding between the real performers tongue and his cheek. In the end, I instead glued them together to form a loop through which the tongue could fit.

(I know what it looks like. Trust me, I see it too.)

The protruding lobes at the top end were originally there to help retain the tongue in the mouth by sliding between the real performers tongue and his cheek.  In the end, I instead glued them together to form a loop through which the tongue could fit. By pressing the real tongue against his lower teeth, the fake tongue is held securely in place during the gag with no visible means of retention or glues being used.

There is not much in the way of oral adhesives – a denture fixative maybe but this still would not have held the wobbling appendage with it’s extra weight.  Plus, denture fixative is pretty grim stuff to have to fetch out of your mouth.

Once the sculpt was finished, it needed moulding. I wanted to make a simple plaster mould, which would happily yield the few casts we needed without breaking the bank.  A clay wall was carefully applied around the halfway line of the tongue sculpt, with indented keys pressed into it at regular intervals.

The top of the tongue mould was made in one piece, whereas the underside needed to be in two pieces, to better allow the tongue ‘lobes’ which protrude from the underside at the back, to come out of the mould.

You can hopefully see from the pics above how the two pieces that made up the lower half go together.  The resulting seams were minimal and easily trimmed clean with scissors and needed no filling or repair.

See, good mould-making is the sensible option for a happier world.

After some tests with an unpainted cast, it was obvious that the lobes idea wasn’t cutting the mustard.  The tongue would often fall out, not being retained properly.  Tricky business, as I haven’t had to make on of these before.  Still, logically you have few options when attaching something in the mouth simply and safely.

I decided to stick the bottom edge of the two hanging lobes togther to make a tube, into which the real tongue could slide.  The tongue was painted with platsil gel tinted with pigments, and given a clear coat of platsil gel 10 as a final shine.

The final tongue from the sketch. Really looks quite unpleasant, really.

A few takes and the shot is done!  Huzzah!

Kevin did a great job with it, and it was a pretty punishing schedule.  The man does work hard, that’s for sure.

Would you do me a favour and drop me a comment below?  I really enjoy hearing what you have to say – plus I don’t really know if anybody is reading this unless you say so.

Until next time!

Stuart

Scaly reptilian skin is a fertile area to draw inspiration from, and can be used in a lot of ways.

This blog post takes a look at the basic kinds and how you can create them.

Continue reading →

This video covers the first in a series of texturing for prosthetic sculpts, and in this one we’ll take a look at creating natural skin textures.

I have tried to cram in as many of the commonly needed skin textures in this sculpt which are pores, wrinkles and folds and raised goosebumps.

These textures could of course be amplified or reduced by using a heavier or lighter touch depending on the effect you need.

It’s worth pointing out that texturing needs to happen after the form is there. You can’t texture your way to a good form, if the shapes aren’t right then change them until they work.

Think of textures like a wallpaper. You need put it up onto good, flat walls.  If the walls aren’t flat, straight and level then neither will your expensive lovely wallpaper.

As such I want to start of by quickly showing you how I block out the form onto the core. I am sculpting onto a urethane resin cast of part of a face (FC52 from Mouldlife in this case).

The lifecast was cleaned up, smoothed out and modified to get rid rid of as many undercuts as possible, such as the join between the lips, nostrils and the eyelids, which often have little overhangs due to the weight of the materials on the face during lifecasting. If you want to know more about how to make cores, check out my video on making them here.

You have to start with the right shapes before you begin adding texture. It’s like trying to wallpaper a wall which is still being built otherwise.

I start by adding small blobs of plastiline.  I like rolling each one into a kind of sausage shape, and pressing this in place, plattening as I go.  This gradually builds up into the rough shapes I want, and then I blend the blobs together with sculpting tools, usually a flat wooden tool and a twisted metal loop.

This makes those individual blobs blend out into a new shape, and you see it as a single, complete shape.  The texture of the tool marks can be smoothed with a finer tool like a guitar string loop, however as you will see as the texture starts to go in, it really doesn’t need to be perfectly smooth before texturing begins. If you want to know how to make your own loop tools, check out my old tutorial on that here.

It’s worth just pointing out that texturing can look just plain wrong when you start, as your smooth blank surface starts having little dents or scoops put into it and it just can look like you are ruining a nice smooth surface. I know that feeling!

I call this the ‘blank canvas syndrome’, where it just looks like isolated dents in an otherwise perfect surface.  Have faith and keep at it, because soon, there will be lots of little dents, and the more area you cover, the more they will look like they are supposed to be there!

Anyway, check out video to see how different kinds of pores, wrinkles, folds and goosebumps can be created on the surface with just a few simple bits of kit. 

We also cover a method of creating ‘texture stamps’, where you harvest existing textures from objects (stone, leather, fruit skins etc.) which can also be used on appliance sculpts.

Remember, if you have any questions about makeup FX and want to see a blog post dedicated to your question, email us at stuartandtodd@gmail.com.

Thanks for watching
Stuart & Todd

Welcome to the first of these tag-team posts with Todd and myself.

We will be kicking off with a great question from Stuart Webb about adhesives & removers. 

We have a free podcast and a PDF download for you on this too – scroll down to the bottom of this post for the links!

He asks “What I would like to know is what you both use to remove various prosthetic glues. I used Pros aide to glue some bondo transfers I had made & tried Telesis Super Solv to try & get them off. It took AGES! Would I have been better off using something else?”

There are a number of adhesives and removers designed applying prosthetics to skin, and it can seem confusing when you start looking.

They have different names, ingredients and come in varying quantities making the possible combinations of what to buy overwhelming.

So lets start settling the mind by establishing a basic point – there are essentially two types of glue used with prosthetics.  These are:

Water based acrylic emulsion adhesives: These are great for sticking latex, foam latex, gelatine and silicone appliances which have a cap plastic barrier.   They tend to be less expensive so are great for when you are starting out – although they are still great professional adhesives.

Solvent based silicone adhesives: These cost more, but stick pretty much anything.

• Good Points for Water based acrylic emulsion adhesives:
• Sticky and flexible; relatively inexpensive
• Bad Points for Water based acrylic emulsion adhesives:
  Sweat; can’t use with silicone

• Good Points for Solvent based silicone adhesives:
  REALLY strong
• Bad Points for Solvent based silicone adhesives:
  Very pricey.  That’s about it for bad points…

Telesis 5. The newer formulas have bigger numbers.

Pros Aide – the classic!

The very lovely Beta Bond.

Mouldlife’s Aqua Fix is pretty darn good!

Application Technique
To apply the adhesive, some people like brushes, other like cotton swabs(Q-Tips, Cotton Buds etc.), other like to use sponges.  A lot of it is personal preference, although for large areas sponges work great.

Cotton swabs work well for small pieces as they can easily be disposed of, and remove the need for brush cleaning and solvents.  For larger pieces, I use a large paintbrush in the main, and switch to cotton swabs for the edges.

Twirling the swab around allows you to lift and glue the edge in the same smooth motion!

Swabs are great for edges, as they can be used in a rolling action, allowing edges to be lifted up by the rotation of the swab.  Also, you can use swabs with solvent to dissolve the edges of the cap plastic barrier.

Often a little alcohol on a swab allows you to temporarily reactivate the glue so you can reposition a folded edge.  The alcohol evaporates, and the edge remains in position, held by the glue which returns to it’s dried state.

Some people prefer to apply glue to the skin only, others to the appliance, some do both.  Just don’t ever drop an appliance which is covered in glue!  When starting out, I suggest you apply to the skin only, just make sure you don’t add too much -this stuff aint cheap, so you don’t need a thick layer at all!

If you slap a piece of rubber over wet glue, the air can’t get to it so it can’t dry properly and it won’t stick.  This is something a lot of newbies get wrong because it seems so counter intuitive.

Let the glue dry before applying?  Sounds like madness!

Pros Aide is white when wet and clear when dry.
It remains shiny and sticky.

These glues do not stick when they are still wet.  Pros Aide, for example, is very tacky and shiny when dry, and this one of it’s great features.

Telesis 5 feels dry to the touch but ‘grippy’ once the solvents have evaporated.

However if you press a clean appliance onto it, it sticks.  The firmer you press, the better it sticks, and after the piece has been worn for a while, the bond increases slightly as the body heat warms the glue.

Other reasons to allow the glue to dry first include:

• Bubbles of white Pros Aide can be seen through translucent appliances like silicone.
• Wet Pros Aide has water in it, so applying gelatine over Pros Aide that is still white means water is in contact with gelatine – another no-no!
• If you put silicone over wet silicone adhesives, the liquid solvent can’t evaporate and is held against the skin, not drying.

Let it dry off, and you will get better adhesion.

Contact
For areas which get a lot of stretch, wear, movement and maybe moisture such as the mouth, silicone glues are more durable.  If the character is shouting a lot, drinking or getting blood everywhere, then anticipating the extra hold required is a wise move. For areas like these, often glue is applied to both skin and appliance and allowed to dry before applying.  This method is known as a contact, and can be done with both silicone and water based acrylic glues such as Pros Aide.

This can be a tricky manoeuvre because once the surfaces touch, they stick very well straight away.  It will need careful unsticking with a solvent such as 99& alcohol should you accidentally place the piece incorrectly.  If you were to apply Telesis 5 or Snappy G to two surfaces and leave them for a week, they would still stick amazingly well once pressed together.

To paraphrase Lance the drug dealer in Pulp Fiction, “That stuff costs more, but when you use it, you will know where that money went!

Pros Aide & Pro Bondo Transfer Appliances
There are a lot more flat moulds and transfer pieces being used nowadays which use a thickened Pros Aide mixture for the actual appliance material instead of silicone or latex.

Todds application of a bondo transfer.
They stick mighty well!

This material works incredibly well for small appliances, and sticks especially well because it is made of the very material which is used as a glue. If you have ever used it, you may have seen just how tenacious it is, bonding very well to clean skin.

Glue removers which work well with Pros Aide will work best on ‘bondo’ transfers.

Surfaces & Why They Matter As Much As The Glue Itself
It is worth pointing out that the surface to which the adhesives are applied counts as much as the glues themselves.  Pros Aide sticks great to normal skin, but skin ideally needs to be clean, and free of oil, makeup or dirt etc. so they glue can do it’s job properly.

Also check and clean appliances to ensure there is no  residue of release agents, powder or talc used in the casting and demoulding process.

Silicone appliances which have a cap plastic barrier can usually be applied using both types of glue, as the material in contact with the cap plastic surface rather than the silicone gel behind it.

This cowl appliance has a Plat Sil Gel 10 skin, not a cap plastic skin! This means I had to use Telesis to stick it rather than Pros Aide.
Using an A andB skin meant the appliance was reusable, so this huge chunk of silicone didn’t need to be remade for every application.
It instead had fresh, small appliances on the face which overlapped the edges on this one.

You can also choose to use a silicone adhesive instead with cap plastic coated appliances if you wish – it sticks very well.  However if you are using an appliance which doesn’t have a cap plastic barrier (something like a large overhead cowl appliance for example – see picture) then you HAVE to use a silicone adhesive.

If you think about it, silicone appliances are made out of….silicone.  Remember moulds get made out of silicone because of it’s amazing release qualities where not much sticks to it.  That is a bit of a problem when appliances are concerned, so using a silicone based adhesive designed for the purpose fixes that.

These silicone/solvent glues tend to cost more, as the hoops that manufacturers have to jump through to get a skin-safe material out to market mean a lot of extra work.

Sweat
Heat and moisture build up behind an appliance can reduce the effectiveness of a glue.  Pros Aide can kind of melt away if there is enough sweat, and I have mopped up many bubbles of milky perspiration from bubbles forming under appliances.

This was less of an issue with foam latex as foam can absorb and ‘wick’ out perspiration to some degree, whereas silicone is not absorbant in the slightest.  You can also use a glue primer on the skin such as Top Guard which is sprayed or brushed on to provide a perspiration resistant surface which also sticks better to the adhesive.

Try to minimise perspiration by keeping the performer as cool as possible and hydrated.  Usually this isn’t something you have a whole lot of control over, as heavy costumes, lights and physically active performances are all contributing to the heat build up.

Also a trick I learned was to dilute some Telesis 5 with 99% alcohol to make a primer which improves the strength of the glue.

Repairing Lifted Edges
Appliances which become loose or unstuck can be repaired quicker with silicone/solvent glues.  If you can, clean the exposed area under the appliance with an astringent like Seabreeze to get the sweat and oils off, dry it and reapply silicone adhesive.

Often edges in a certain area will continually pop up no matter what you do.  In this case you should be able to restick the edge down without more glue being added.  There comes a point when simply adding more and more glue will not help the situation, and it could turn into a gummy mess.  Silicone glues usually can be restuck just with pressure.

Hair
If applying over hair, it may need flattening down first.  Arm hair for example is usually thin enough to stay down with the glue used to apply the appliance, but eyebrows may need gluing down flat first.

If gluing into and over hair on the head which often happens when forehead pieces creep over the hairline, it may need sticking down with something like Gafquat first so the volume of hair is pressed and held down as flat to the skin as possible before applying the glue and the piece over the top of it.

This also helps removal, as the layer of glue is actually on the Gafquat rather than the hair itself, and Gafquat can be washed out with water. http://fx.wikia.com/wiki/Gafquat

Problems With Glues & Removers
It is important to check that the adhesives you intend to use are suitable for the person wearing them.  So long as you use products intended for skin use from an approved manufacturer (you may not use paint stripper or turpentine from a hardware store!), there is unlikely to be any serious problems, but it makes sense to check.

Most performers will be aware if they react badly to something and may tell you, but ideally you would do a patch test at least a day or two before the application is required.  By placing a small amount of the glues and removers on the skin for a short time and seeing if any reaction develops over the next 24 hours, you can be more certain of success.

Don’t do the patch tests on the face, as if there is any reaction you don’t want it to be something that will make them feel self conscious.  Usually the back of the neck and inside arm is a good place to test.

Skin reactions and allergies are not the same thing.  The skin can react to a material, or more likely it often appears red after the continued rubbing and wiping action.  Mild skin reddening after removal is quite common and usually fades after a short time.  Irritation which is persisting is different, and you should discontinue use of the materials if his is the case.

Allergies involve the immune system, and are much more serious.  I have not had  anyone truly allergic to the materials used when wearing prosthetic makeups, only irritated with some adhesives requiring us to change products.

Allergies need treatment, so be sure to supply all packaging and ingredients to medical personnel.  It makes sense to have MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets) available for any materials in direct contact with the performers skin for the same reasons.  Most suppliers and manufacturers will have them available online.

Patch testing small amounts in advance can help flag these issues up before you start slapping it all over, giving you time to modify your approach and keep everyone happier.

Dry Skin
It is not uncommon for people with dry to skin to find that the glues tend to stick better to them than most which can make removal more time consuming and uncomfortable. Depending on how dry, it may be helpful for them to moisturise before application.

Also, thinning the adhesives down so the bond strength is appropriately reduced is helpful.  In the case of water based acrylic adhesives, a 10-50% solution of water will do it.

Silicone adhesives should have their own suitable thinners or solvent available from the glue supplier.  By adding a thinner to the glue, you again reduce the strength of the bond to suit.  You may need to do some tests to determine how much dilution is required, but by testing small amounts you will save a lot of time later, especially if large appliances are being used.

Oily Skin
Skin usually secrets natural oils to protect it, so cleaning the skin with a toner or mild astringent will help the glues do their job.  Silicone adhesives may be a better option in this case, and even using a primer like Top Guard for more severe case.

Removal

When it is time to remove the appliance, you need to get the remover on the glue.  It sounds like an obvious thing, but I have seen people futilely brushing remover on the outside of the appliance, hoping it would just soak through and magically fall off.  Mrs Doubtfire has a lot to answer for – it doesn’t just fall off.  If it did, it may do that halfway through a take, so these glues are designed to keep that sucker on there!

Super Solv in a Gel form

In the UK, Sherman Labs ‘Pro Clean’ is big.

Todds personal favourite & remover of choice.

This is often an issue in makeup schools where appliances may only be worn for a short time before being removed.  The glues are at full strength, having not been perspired into by a sweaty stunt performer for eighteen hours.

First, make sure you have covered costume or clothing with towels, cape or paper roll of some type.  This is usually then end of a long day, so removal is happening when you may be at your most tired and ready to get to bed.  Make sure the sloppiness and spills are protected against before you start.

If your edges are still blended in well, you may need to encourage them up by wiping remover over them using a cotton-wool pad.  These work well at gripping the edges, allowing you to then work into the piece with a dedicated brush.

Work remover into the skin, getting under the piece and lifting the appliance off as you go.  Try to not ‘pull’ the piece off  – you may get a performer who like to tear it off heroically at the end of the day.  Well, the glue is still there, so no real time has been saved.

Saline ampoules for easy eye rinsing.

Take care near the eyes – I think it is a good idea to keep tissues and eyewash on standby should some remover accidentally get into the eye.

I think the quicker the better so if you can get help during removal then do so. For big appliances get as many involved as can comfortably fit around them if you can.

Also, if your performer is happy to the have them hold a cup of remover for you near the appliance. They probably want out more than you do, and it saves you from moving back and forth constantly to dip your brushes.  Plus it  reduces the chance of knocking the cup over too.

You will almost certainly destroy those beautifully thin edges of the appliance during removal.
This is just a consequence of thin edges being stuck to skin, and can’t be avoided. I mean look at this…once a feather thin edge appliance and now after removal it looks like bacon.

Foam latex may absorb remover, so be sure to apply it onto where the skin is attached to the appliance, as the foam may soak it up instead.

Foam has a tendency to swell and distort with removers too, so often it helps to tear off large unattached sections especially if they flop about and get in the way.

With cap plastic encapsulated appliances, it is not uncommon to find that the cap plastic peels away from the silicone.

Essentially, the plastic may just be bonding better to the skin that the silicone. Because cap plastic is so thin and clear, it may not be obvious so ensure the remover gets under the appliance and onto the skin where the remover can work on the glue to unstick it.

Hot Towels
After the bulk of the piece is off, hot face cloths work wonders to loosen remaining glue and feels fantastic after a day under makeup.  Hot water can be used to soak the face cloth first, and then be twisted to dry.

However, heating a damp cloth in the microwave works wonders too.  Just be sure to check the towel isn’t so hot that it can cause burns – wave it around and allow it to cool to a sensible temperature.  If it is too hot on your hands, their face is probably going to feel the same!

To Finish
A good skin cleanser and moisturiser work well as a final flourish to help skin recover from a days prosthetic makeup wear. Most prosthetic glue removers have some kind of oil content, and this greasy film can be removed afterwards using a cleanser or from simply washing the skin as normal.

If the makeup has to be applied many times in a row, you need to take care to reduce irritation as much as possible.  This may mean taking rest days, thinning the glue down and using good moisturising and face creams.  Most appliance makeups are wanted once or twice, but regularly appearing characters may well need to have rest days from prosthetics as part of their routine.

We also did a free podcast and notes on this blog post.  Click on the links to download and save these, and please do comment below so we can get feedback and do this better.

Download Notes

Remember, if you have a question you want to see made up into a post then be sure to get in touch: stuartbray@yahoo.com is my email or ask below in the comment box!

How Can We Help You?

In this blog so far I have posted things in order to try and address areas are useful when doing my job.

Thing is, makeup effects and prosthetics covers a huge range of stuff, so there are going to be things you would want to see covered which I might not think of.

What I want therefore is for YOU to get in touch and tell me what you want to see covered.

I want hear your story, what you have done so far and what has gotten you stuck or confused.  Maybe there is a weird, technical issue you have or maybe you don’t know exactly what the right question is!

If YOU have that issue, chances are there are travellers on the same road who would love to know the answer too.

And I’m not doing this alone!

To help me, I am enlisting the help of a friend to help give a different perspective on the same issue.

I’ll be working with none other than Todd Debreceni, makeup effects artist and author of Special Makeup Effects For Stage And Screen: Making and Applying Prosthetics.

To that end, here is what I propose to do. 

• Get in touch through email and tell me what you want to see covered, what you think is missing.
• We will go through the responses, and each month choose two that I hope will cover the most bases.
• I will then get back in touch, and we can chat about it and see how best to help out.  I am even happy to call you up on Skype or the phone so we can speak one to one and get something rolling on it.
• Then Todd and I will work on it and create two posts a month here which address these issues with pictures, illustrations, video and podcasts.

So drop me line, and we’ll get stuck into it and see what we can come up with.

We want to post regular and relevant to you, and we can do this better with your questions!

-Stuart (and Todd)

email me: stuartbray@yahoo.com

Having made a fake tongue for a show last year, I figured it would make a fun tutorial.

So here it is.

Creating a split tongue that is worn is different in that you can’t really glue it like you would a nose or a chin – at best maybe using a denture fixative but I tried that once with some creature teeth, and it really isn’t pleasant to use.

For these tutorials, I made two different tongues – one is a diseased, fungal-infection thing and the other a split/lacerated tongue.  Starting by making a basic, natural looking tongue, it is then pretty straightforward to modify it and create all manner of mouth-related maladies.

I broke it down into two videos, plus did a quicker shortened overview video for those of you in a hurry.  If you want to know more then check out video 1 and video 2 (to be uploaded Wed 20th Nov).

The two longer videos also have a downloadable workbook with pics and info for you to follow along later if you want to have a go yourself. 

Click on the pictures below to get your copy.

Click here to download Part 1 workbook

Click here to download Part 2 workbook

Please do let me know what you think by dropping a comment below!

The shortened video:

======================================

Full video part 1:

Video Part 1 workbook download here

======================================

Full video part 2:

Video Part 2 workbook download here

======================================

If you have been following the blog, you will know there has been quite a long time between posts.  This has largely been due to working on the new season of Game Of Thrones, and whilst I do love to be working on big, exciting jobs, it does mean the blog (and you) were sadly left neglected.

So, to remedy this I will be announcing some exciting developments which is going to turn that around – and I will want you to be involved!

Plus there is a time-limited offer on the Awesome Latex eCourse – just use the coupon code torntongue to save money – valid until Monday Nov 25th!

—

Stuart

Incidentally, if you never signed up for the free 7-part mini ecourse then you can get it here.  It is a no-hassle and one-click unsubscribe if you want out too – no spam from me!  It is from my older site originally, but don’t worry – the stuff still gets to you!

Get your free 7 part

prosthetic mini-ecourse!

Your first name:

Your email: