Special Effects for Cosplay Makeup, Paint and Electronics

What we’ll be doing Make up effects Paint effects Electronic effects LED soldering demo Please ask questions throughout the talk, there won’t be Q&A at the end due to the demo.

Why do you need special effects? A character has a cool shiny thing you want The character has a scar/bruise/tattoo/is a zombie You want to look more like the character For the lols.

Make Up Effects – Contact Lenses Make sure you get your eyes checked before wearing contact lenses Go for optician brands if you can. Ones with more than one colour look more real than block ones Keep them clean and if you feel irritated take them out If you’re getting photos done warn the photographer to watch for lens drift. This is Lense Drift It’s annoying.

Make up Effects- Male and Female Darker skin Thicker eyebrows Defined cheekbones Paler lips Bigger noses Female Paler skin Thinner eyebrows Rounder faces and cheeks Coloured lips More defined eyes Longer lashes

Make up Effects- Aging Most old characters have signature wrinkles so you can copy them Start out small and build up lines. Subtle is better than really bold lines Highlight in between the wrinkles

Make up Effects- Facial Hair Look for lace facial hair. Try not to be too weirded out if it’s real human hair. Apply using spirit gum or prosaide Remember if there’s stuff glued to your face you can’t move it as much Enjoy your new beard!

Make up Effects- Tattoos For small details biro pens work really well Snazaroo works well and is harmless to most skin You can mix snazaroo with prosaide if you need it to be stronger Fix with hair spray and talc/face powder. This makes it look like it’s under the skin.

Make up Effects- Scars Easiest way- paint latex on and peel back the edge and use makeup to add the colours desired Medium way- paint prosaide and latex over tissue paper to build up scar and then add colours Hard way- mould the scar in plastacine, cast in plaster and mould in either latex or gelatine and then glue it on

Easy Medium Hard

Make up Effects- Wounds They’re like scars, but you add blood.

Make up Effects- Bruises Bruises are more yellow on the bone, and move towards purple where fat and muscle are. Look at pictures of the type of bruise you’re after and copy it in makeup People don’t expect you to be bruised for most costumes. Be prepared to tell people that you’re not actually hurt.

Make up Effects- Body Paint Snazaroo is the best option available Get a friend to help you apply it. Full bodies take a lot of time so either get up early or cheat by wearing a zentai suit. Apply in thin layers at a time for even coverage

Make up Effects- Goblins

Make up Effects- Goblins This was made by taking a head cast of Timber and then painting latex over the head. It was then removed and a zipper put in the back On the day it was glued to his face and then blended with latex and snazaroo The hands were made by gluing cling film to his hands with prosaide and then painting them with latex and acrylic paint

Make up Effects- Getting it off Get a proper makeup remover Use a lot of it Wash with soap Repeat until all gone

Paint Effects- Blood and Gore Use dark red and brown for blood and build up in layers Think about where the blood would hit on the costume Use can use spray paint, acrylics and even snazaroo

Paint Effects- Smoke and Stains (AKA steampunk) Think about where ash would hit the character or where they would get dirty Tea staining makes your costume smell. Use brown watered down acrylic Black spray paint is very good for dust effects

Paint Effects- Ice and Crystal Everything is blue. Blue blue blue blue. Dry brush white/pale blue acrylic over everything Glue ice crystals (aka salt) to things

Things that do other stuff Electronics! There are two areas of electronics used in cosplay- Things that light up Things that do other stuff

Things that light up Christmas lights- simple to add onto a costume! Fibre optics- you can buy premade portable ones similar to christmas lights Wired LED’s- for when you need specific colours and circuts EL wire- a light up wire. Can be bought pre soldered or soldered yourself UV paints- require a black light, but look cool

LED Magic!

Other things Motors. Easy to solder but hard to keep things on the shaft. Smoke makers- generators, misters, smoke in a can. All are kind of a pain and only cool in person as most smoke doesn’t show up in photos And it’s not electronics, but puppetry is a very good tool to use.

EL Wire UV Paints

Final Tips Buy specific parts from Maplins, anything in bulk that you’re familiar with (switches, LED’s) are far cheaper from ebay. Buy EL wire from the UK if you can. Customs love it and you’ll get charged

LED Demo Now we’re doing a demo on how to solder a basic LED circuit. If you’re not interested in this part feel free to leave.