Are you a highly creative person with a passion for film and television? A career in special effects may be the perfect outlet for your vivid imagination. With the right skills in your repertoire, you can work in special effects makeup labs on films, television sets, or theatrical productions. First, though, you need to acquire those skills.
A creature design certification course or special effects SFX makeup program from an established makeup school will teach you everything you need to know to succeed in the entertainment industry. Choose from one of CMU’s internationally sought-after courses, taught by award-winning instructors in intimate classrooms. Unleash your creativity today at CMU College!
The World of Creature Design
Creature design is an advanced and particularly creative subset of SFX makeup. As you likely guessed, it involves conceptualizing, designing, sculpting, and bringing life to original characters. In order to do so, artists must have a strong understanding of anatomy, physiology, and texture.
After all, even fantastical creatures have a basis in reality. Understanding the anatomy and movements of living beings is thus crucial for creating realistic and believable creatures.
You also need to be highly skilled in a range of intricate techniques, including sculpting, moulding, casting, painting, hair layering, and flocking. You should be able to take a creature from a 2D concept to a three-dimensional model.
Lastly, don’t forget to bring your imagination. Creature design artists should be highly creative and adept at creating new worlds and their inhabitants. Your technical prowess and creativity go hand in hand. This makes creature design a fulfilling career path for those who love tackling dynamic, technical challenges while letting their imagination run wild.
Creature Design and SFX Makeup
Special effects makeup is an exciting and varied field that spans film, television, and theatre. It includes everything from aging makeup to simulating injuries, adding burn marks or applying bald caps, creating realistic tattoos, and designing realistic otherworldly creatures.
SFX artists have a suite of practical skills and techniques at their disposal, allowing them to take on a wide array of projects and challenges. In addition, SFX makeup artists know how to operate on a film or television set. They understand the various stages of production, how to run a makeup department from inside a trailer, and how to maintain crucial continuity on a project.
Creature designers use SFX makeup techniques to bring their creature concepts to life. These techniques include prosthetics, sculpting, and advanced makeup application, which are vital in special effects makeup labs.
SFX makeup artists can choose to specialize in creature design or focus their talents on the entire spectrum of special effects makeup.
The Fundamentals of Creature Design
Designing
Before one of your creatures can walk around the set and make its appearance on the big (or little) screen, it starts as an idea in your imagination. Great creature designers can take that original idea and turn it into an actionable concept.
Practical creature design draws from real life anatomy, musculature, and fine detailing. Artists apply their fundamental knowledge of the human (or animal) form to sculpt creatures that feel just as realistic as they do fantastical.
That’s why creature design students at CMU begin by learning figurative sculpting and life drawing. Being able to design creatures begins with understanding real living beings.
You also need the tools to create professional 2D and 3D designs. In creature design, Adobe Photoshop and ZBrush are the most common. Creature and character conceptualization and design can happen in Photoshop. Then, ZBrush allows you to take your concept designs to the next level.
ZBrush is the leading digital sculpting tool for creating 3D character and creature designs. At CMU College, we teach you how to execute your vision through 3D sculpting, 3D painting, 3D anatomy studies, and 3D concept creation. You learn how to generate creatures with proper anatomical structures and how to prepare a sculpture for 3D printing.
Sculpting
Sculpting is another foundational skill required to work in creature design. This is how you take a 2D concept and turn it into a 3D creature. It includes manufacturing parts to be used in real-life prosthetic makeup designs, so you can transform actors into living, moving models of your creatures.
At CMU, you will study each stage of the creature design process from design to execution. We teach you how to:
- Sculpt a maquette (a small-scale model of your creature so you can visualize and test ideas).
- Build an armature (the skeleton or framework, which then supports the soft materials of your 3D models).
- Create block forms (establish the basic shapes and proportions before adding fine details).
- Mould and cast your creature (the durable copy of your sculpture that will be used in the production).
- Produce final touches, such as painting, hair layering, flocking, and adding texture.
Prosthetics
Prosthetics are a vital component of special effects makeup and creature design. It spans minor alterations, like adding wrinkles or scars, to more extreme changes, such as transforming human actors into believable creatures.
To create high-quality prosthetics, artists must master sculpting, moulding, casting, and detailing techniques. Moreover, you need to be adept at proper appliance application and blending techniques.
With prosthetics, an actor’s appearance can be transformed dramatically and realistically. You can bring creatures and characters to life on the screen, whether in film, television, or online media.
Creature Design Certificate Course
CMU’s Creature Design Certificate Course teaches you how to design, sculpt, and execute original character concepts. Our training includes special effects sculpting, including moulding, casting, painting, and flocking. We also cover the fundamentals of creature design, including planning, researching, and designing original creatures.
It’s ideal for highly creative artists with a desire to work within special effects makeup labs for film, television, or theatrical productions.
- Creature Design Certificate Course
- 6 weeks total
- Apply here!
Special Effects SFX Makeup Program
CMU offers an intensive 4-month program: Digital FX Makeup Effects Artist Program & SFX Makeup Course. This program lays the foundation for you to pursue a career in digital effects makeup artistry. The special effects SFX makeup program covers digital and practical creature design using Photoshop and ZBrush digital sculpting.
Alternatively, our Film, Television & Special Effects Makeup Course is included in several of our other programs (such as the Complete Makeup Artist Program, Comprehensive Makeup Artist Program, and Global Makeup Artist Program).
This course covers a wide range of application techniques needed to work in the entertainment industry. You learn both theory and practical skills for executing out-of-kit special effects.
- Digital FX Makeup Effects Artist Program & SFX Makeup Course
- 17 weeks total
- Apply here!
Start Your Career in Special Effects at CMU
CMU College of Makeup Art & Design provides unparalleled training for ambitious makeup artists looking to build a career in the special effects industry. Our award-winning instructors champion student creativity, unleashing your potential and supporting your artistic freedom along the way.
We offer state-of-the-art facilities, a special makeup effects laboratory, an on-site photography studio, and an encouraging creative environment. With a diploma or certificate from CMU, you are hitting the jumpstart on your special effects makeup career.
To learn more about our Creature Design Certificate Course and Program, call CMU at 416-968-6739 or contact us here.
