Prosthetic makeup

Prosthetic makeup draws a straight lineage from the stagecraft of theater and can be observed at the birth of science fiction cinema with Le Voyage dans La Lune, a 1902 French adventure short film directed by pioneer of special effects Georges Méliès.

Before sculpted prosthetic appliances became standard, special effects makeup artists would have to build up forms on the actor's face before shooting began, which often took several hours and would have to be done from scratch at the start of each day.

A rubber snout was made for Lon Chaney Jr. to wear in The Wolfman, though application of the hair for the titular character could take up to 16 hours.

[3][4] It wasn't until John Chambers's work on Planet of the Apes in 1968 that prosthetics transitioned from full face appliances to smaller, overlapping pieces which afforded the actors more expression and movement.

This mold is used to cast a copy of that part of the actor, in a hard resin or plaster type material to eventually use as a base for sculpting the prosthetic.

Often the life-cast will be given an additional border in clay or plaster in order to have an area free of detail and undercuts to add these keys.

The prosthetic is cured within the two-part mold, and then carefully removed and prepared for painting and or application to the actor.

Since the debut of newer technologies, many have feared that CGI (Computer-Generated Imagery) will put practical SFX makeup out of business.

Tom Woodruff Jr. and Alec Gillis, two experienced SFX artists from Amalgamated Dynamics near L.A., share what they see as the middle ground on the subject.

Craniofacial prosthetics are used in medical fields for cosmetic purposes to disguise deformations of the face, either those caused by trauma or birth defects as an alternative to reconstructive surgery.