Researching the use of Special Effects in Films

The make-up used on Maleficent in the film I feel is very bold. Prosthetics was used to create Maleficents prominent cheek bones and she wears a subtle nose piece, pointy ears and sharp molars.
In the film Maleficents face looks very pale and this was created by using MAC Select Cover Concealer with a wet sponge in a colour paler than Angelina’s natural skin tone without any blush.
To get the red lips MAC’s Pro Longwear Lipgloss in Anthurium was used.
Labradorite stone was used to get the colours for the creepy eye look for Maleficent and the contact lenses in which she wears are hand painted which matched Angelina’s natural eye colour but they just made them look more magical.
Maleficent’s nails were painted a bone colour red on the inside of the nail and on the outside of the nail was just clear, however they looked slightly different in certain scenes of the film.

With the costumes in which Maleficent wears they all have very exaggerated shoulders and collars. Cow leather was used as well as sting ray and ostrich leather.
For Maleficent to have those amazing horns, a bald cap was put over her head to cover her hair and the horns were attached with magnets so it would be easy to take them on and off. The horns gave Maleficent an extra foot of height and the shoes which were created for her gave her an extra five inches in height!

The next film I watched and decided to do some more research on was Horns

https://uk.movies.yahoo.com/post/122263901761/new-horns-trailer-daniel-radcliffe-is-devilishly

The primary task for KNB EFX was to create the various sets of horns worn by Daniel Radcliffe during his gradual transformation from Ig Perrish into a fully-fledged demon.

“We did four different stages of horns that we attached to Daniel, as well as a fantasy drug-dream prosthetic make-up,” recalled KNB EFX on-set make-up effects supervisor Mike McCarty. “We did a burn suit and accompanying makeup, the final demon look with its huge set of horns, a few blood gags, an exploding head and some mechanical snakes. We had Daniel in and out of prosthetics at least 35 times over the course of the shoot.”

The makeup and prosthetics team benefited from the company’s long association with director Alexandre Aja. “KNB EFX has done all of Alex Aja’s projects since The Hills have Eyes (2006),” McCarty remarked. “I’ve personally been on set for most of them: Mirrors,Piranha 3D, Maniac, Horns, and his current project, The 9th Life of Louis Drax. As Alex likes to say, we’re part of the family.”

Despite their fantastic aspect, the look of Ig’s horns was developed using real-world reference material. “We looked at a lot of horns in nature, and went back and forth with what our conceptual designer John Wheaton came up with,” McCarty explained. “We got notes from Alex, and ultimately ended up using various stages of ram horns as reference.”

After the initial sculpting stage, the horns themselves were cast using dental acrylic.

“Dave Grasso and Jaremy Aiello handled most of the sculpting duties in the shop,” commented McCarty. “Then Jason James ran the horns out of acrylic and attached them to a wire rig we made on Daniel’s head cast. The horns were set at the perfect angle so we could just plop them into place, and they would naturally rest there.

“Then we hid the wire rig under Daniel’s hair. We had a few hair clips attached to the rig as well, so when he shook his head, they wouldn’t move. Once we had them secured, we hid the edge with a small prosthetic to blend them and make it look like they were coming out of his skin. Mike Fields and myself shared the application duties, and so did it twice as fast as it would have taken one artist.”

For a scene in which Ig gouges his horns into a plaster wall, a more resilient solution was required. The solution was to produce a robust, wig-covered helmet, on to which the horns were screwed.

To effect Ig’s climactic transformation into demon form, Radcliffe wore a full-body foam latex suit. “The suit created the burned look, and then we had a cowl, some face pieces and some hand pieces, which we blended into the suit,” explained McCarty. “The huge horns were super-lightweight. We just clipped them into place on a helmet under the cowl. We painted bright neon orange paint into the cracks in the suit. VFX were able to key on this and add fiery lava to make it look like he was burning from within.

“The whole final demon makeup took us only two hours; it was applied by Mike Fields, Maiko Gomyo and myself. If you can do something that extensive and still keep makeup chair times down, it’s better for the actor – especially when they have a such a physical day ahead of them. And Daniel Radcliffe was a joy to work with.”

As well as Radcliffe, McCarty and his team also had the opportunity to transform Joe Hill, during a visit by the author to the set. “Joe wanted to try the horns out, so we glued a small set on him,” McCarty recalled. “That was kind of cool. He was really glad KNB EFX was involved, and he loved everything we were doing. That was a nice justification for the hard work we had put in.”