Brand Campaign Ideas
Our job on Dark Avenger 3 didn’t stop with just the Orc SFX makeups! We were also involved in the Character Creation and Makeup Development for some of the main characters; Shaman, Hector and Kenneth. These Three main characters aided in telling the story of the game and were a vital part for the commercial.
One of the characters was The Shaman, an old man with two scars up his cheeks and the dusty dark eyes and forehead, inspired by the Mad Max character Slit The War Boy who was originally created by the talented Sean Genders and directed by George Miller. The other two characters included Hector and Kenneth. Kenneth was our hero warrior character and one of the main characters in the game, with a slit under each eye. Hector had just one small eyebrow scar. The Shaman character was only filmed deep inside Waipu Cave, giving ‘Hector’ a hand carved tattoo down his shoulder arm and the side of his head.
Character Creation: Scars and Makeup for The Shaman
Pre-production for The Shaman’s Character Makeup included two cheek scars to be sculpted in WED clay and molded in Ultracal 30. We ran this appliance in liquid latex with paper thin edges (again to save time) and the rest was done on application day.
The scars were sculpted out of WED clay. We cut rigid plastic to the size and shape needed to make the staples holding the scar together. In just a few short hours we put up some walls around the sculpt also using WED clay and then just filled them up with a splash coat consistency of Ultra Cal tapping the scar plate to get it all into every nook and cranny, whilst popping any air bubbles. We then left the Ultracal 30 to set. Once the mold was cool, we de-molded and cleaned up with a chip brush and alcohol.
TIP: Alcohol cleans the molds well and is a good alternative to using water. Water sometimes reduces the strength of the mold while getting it wet. A wet mold would need to be fully dried out prior to running an appliance and we didn’t have time for this.
TIP: Vaseline any part of a sculpt that isn’t clay to ensure easy removal.
We ran these scars liquid latex, stippling on a really thin layer to get nice thin edges. The second layer was a thicker layer to fill any high points, but not taking the latex to the edges. Once dry baby powder the latex on both side so it doesn’t stick to itself and we are ready to roll!
Character Creation: Makeup for Hector and Kennith
The scar plates we made for The Shaman proved to have multiple purposes. We were able to make little scars by picking parts of the scar plate and making latex runs of these small areas which when removed were the perfect size to fit on the eyebrow of Hectors scar. The scar was originally supposed to continue below the eye, but on filming day it was decided by the director to pull back the length of the scar to only above the eyebrow.
For Kenneth on the other hand, we used Third Degree to make his two under eye scars. Third Degree is a two part silicone, where once the two parts are mixed together you have 5 minutes curing time to sculpt on set. Let the third degree set and apply the scar using a silicone adhesive or pros-aid. For continuity we took a photo of the scars so that we could replicate them again on filming day 3 for the still shots of the advertising.
