7/14/2023 0 Comments Spectral motion fx![]() Steve is one of the most respected make-up FX/creature designers in the movie business, and he keeps surprising the industry with his innovative works. They are also currently working on X-Men 3 and more specifically, the characters of Beast, Mystique and Juggernaut in that movie.As a veteran special makeup FX artist and creature designer, Steve has worked with Academy Award winners Stan Winston, Rick Baker and the legendary Dick Smith.Īt Stan Winston Studios, Steve was the lead concept designer, sculptor and painter behind one of Hollywood’s most memorable creatures, “The Predator.” From there, they say the rest is history. He then went on to say that Spectral Motion is currently working on a top secret project and unfortunately he wasn’t able to comment on it. Everything he did was self-contained.”Īfter being allowed to see how the magic is created and getting what seemed like a solid crash course in “Makeup Basics 101,” I had to ask Elizalde when he knows, or when his team knows that they have achieved the perfect look or effect for a given movie? “When the audience sees it.” He replied simply. once we did it a few more times and hit our stride it took about two hours each time.” He went on to say that the suit is “applied in several pieces” especially on the face “because we need to see all the facial moves on the screen.” Michael Chiklis also had dentures applied for the Thing’s teeth that “he practiced using by reading his kids bedtime stories.” Amazingly, “All the movement on screen was Michael. Elizalde then explained to me that the first test with the Thing suit took about four and a half hours to apply to “Michael’s body. Doom suit which was “similar to the Thing suit” and designed by Jose Fernandez. he doesn’t even give it a name,” Elizalde insists. The actual material that Blancaflor designs is actually a secret that he “never divulges. He really used it” in how he expressed the emotional states of the Thing, “especially in his walk.” According to Elizalde, Chiklis described the temperature inside the suit as “middle of summer, Sahara hot.” Using a “heating system similar to what race car drivers wear” underneath the suit Chiklis wore a “capillary system that pumps cool water around the body.” This water is constantly replenishing itself but the only problem was that Chiklis wasn’t able to be plugged into the machine that activated the system when he was “on camera.”Įlizalde went on to say that the Thing suit was designed out of “a latex based material” by Roland Blancaflor. Elizalde explained that “the suit held up really well and we only had 5 suits for Michael Chiklis and then another 4 suits for the stunt people.” He even went on to say that because of the physical aspects of wearing the Thing suit, this “informed Michael’s portrayal of the character. The fourth stage involves “molding” these impressions, then they are taken to the Foam Department (stage #5) and the sixth and final stage sees them being handed over to the Paint Department.ĭue to the fact that the Thing is anything but immobile, I had to ask if these intricately designed suits were damaged during the rigors of the filmmaking process. “This lets us know what we can and can’t do on a human being.” For instance, with the Thing they started with an actual model of Michael Chiklis as a normal personal “and then we build out.” Once this idea has been agreed upon for how the actor will look once he has been “made up,” the third stage sees Elizalde and his team creating a series of “lifecasts.” They essentially take “impressions” of the actor’s entire body and from there “positives are generated” by which the sculptors can begin to sculpt how the character is going to look. The second stage in the process has them making a model of the illustration. After this process of trial and error, they then take the final illustration and it is based on that that the character/creature starts to be created. they are then combined into one.” He states. He was the person who brokedown for me how they made Michael Chiklis become the Thing on the big screen.įirst off, Elizalde said that before any latex is applied everything begins with 2-D illustrations. Greeted by many life-sized creature renderings as I made my way through their lobby, I was soon led up to Mike Elizalde, the President/CEO of Spectral Motion and the makeup effects supervisor on the Fantastic Four. MovieWeb recently was invited to visit Spectral Motion in Glendale to get a hands on impression of how they have created the creature FX for among other films Hellboy, Fantastic Four and the forthcoming X-Men 3. Mushy gets the skinny from Effects Supervisor Mike Elizalde on how they brought The Thing to the big screen
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