How to become a Werewolf

Hey everyone and welcome to the technical blog for Episode #21 (Werewolf). It's officially October, which means it's officially Mogulween! The first of five creeptacular episodes is a a hairy one. Send in your werewolf movies, or log into the forums and challenge us to a different special effect.

Shopping List

1. Animal mask.
   (The cheapest, latex, animal mask you can find. I used a lion mask, but I'm sure a tiger mask would work well too.)
   
   
2. Spirit gum.
   (Get a big bottle.)
   
   
3. Liquid latex.
   (I used a little around the edges where the mask parts met my face. I had a bottle laying around and so should you.)
   
   
4. Crepe Hair.
   (I used up an entire package of light brown. These come in a little braid.)
   
   
   
5. Fake nails.
   (Get the longest, cheapest ones you can find at your local drug store.)
   
   
6. Black nail polish.
   (Or you could use regular paint, or maybe even a sharpie.)
   
   
7. Fake teeth. (optional)
   (I was lucky enough to have teeth built into the mask that worked.)

The mask

So your going to need an animal mask. As you can see below we found a tiger mask. Which worked well, but you could probably find a lion mask too. The important thing is that it has an animal snout, eye brow ridge and ears. The whole idea is we're going to cut this cheesy mask into smaller prosthetic pieces.

The application

There isn't a lot of explanation here, you really just have to watch the episode or check out the step-by-step pictures below. A few tips though. Don't under estimate the importance of the first layer of brown. It really fills in the areas where you don't stick hair. Use make up and hair to help hide the edges where the mask meets the skin. Practice moving your face around as you apply each piece to get a god fit.

Make sure your not allergic to latex first!

Start with a clean dry face. Apply spirit gum and allow it to get tacky.

You need to apply spirit gum to your face and the mask pieces. Don't be shy with the spirit gum.

I added some liquid latex to help bond each piece to my face and as a whole.

Base coat of white, probably not needed.

Now brown.

Highlights with a darker brown.

Fake fur and ears!

More fur and ears.

Finish up with some brown paint on your hands and fake nails. I used spirit gum to attach the nails because I wanted to be able to take them off when I was done. Add some hair to the top of your hands and paint the nails black.

Check out this build in action, from Episode 21 of Backyard FX