How to make a leg you can rip in half

Hey everyone and welcome to the technical blog for Episode #22 (Limb Tear). Mogulween continues with this gore-tastic episode. Send in your limb tearing movies, or log into the forums and challenge us to a different special effect.

Shopping List

1. Duct tape leg.
   (I got this off the dummy from episode #19. If you don't already have a dummy, just follow the directions but only for a leg.)
2. Wood glue.
   (A big bottle.)
3. 1/8th inch foam.
   (The thinner the better.)
4. A broom stick or dowel.
   (This is going to be for the broken bone, so if it's already broken all the better.)
5. Red paint.
   (I had red and dark red acrylic paints.)
6. Petroleum Jelly.
   (To create "gore".)
7. Soda jug
   (I used a 20oz, but would used a 2 liter bottle the next time.)
8. Clear plastic tubes
   (For blood squirt action!)
9. Liquid Latex
   (It's good to keep some of this around.)
10. A pair of pants
    (Go to goodwill and buy some used pants.)
11. Newspaper
    (Free or cheap.)

The blood bottle

Take a bottle and drill 4 holes into the cap. I used a 20oz. but you should use a 2 liter. More volume more blood being pushed! Use epoxy to seal 4 clear tubes into the cap.

Preparing the leg

Start by cutting off your dummy leg. If you don't already have a duct tape dummy, use the techniques described in this episode. You should be able to whip up a duct tape leg in less then an hour. Pick a spot where you want your leg to be ripped in half and cut.

Setting the "bone"

Take your broom stick or wooden dowel and break it in half. You'll also need to trim the opposite ends so the broken ends don't stick out to much. Then paint both ends white or off white.

Take out some of the newspaper stuffing and start adding wood glue. Rest the "bone" inside and start adding layers of newspaper and more wood glue. The more newspaper you add around the bone the more secure it will become.

When you start getting close to the surface of the stub you can start to color the stump red. I mixed red paint with the glue, added straight paint and even added some red food coloring.

The two halves.

At this point I treated each one a bit different. I stuffed strips of red bloody foam to one end, and blood tubes to the other. The blood tubes will be connected to a bottle full of fake blood and the foam strips will be attached to the other stump later on and create a ripping flesh and muscle effect.

NOTE: As you probably saw in the episode, my "foam flesh flaps" didn't stay attached to one end. I assumed the glue would hold it on one side and then used pins and duct tape on the other. The glue side did not hold and that is why it kind of flopped out instead of tearing. I would use pins on both sides in the future.

When you're done you should have messy hands, a bloody stump with strips and flaps of foam flesh and a bloody stump with tubes coming through it.

Joining the pieces

This is going to be like surgery. Place you two stumps in place and start connecting your "tendons" and "muscle" to the other stump. Start in the middle and work your way out. Cover everything except the bone in a mix of petroleum jelly and red paint. This mix makes an excellent "gore" and will stay shiny and gooey with out dripping everywhere. Then secure everything with pins and tape.

The skin

For the skin I took a section of foam and soaked it in liquid latex. As this cured I was able to pad it down and it stuck to itself. Becoming a thinner, stretchy patch of fake skin. I powdered it a bit to take out some of the shine and add some color.

I then pinned this into place over the bloody mess and secured it with tape.

Before the shoot

Prep your leg by pre-cutting along the skin. If all is well inside (unlike mine) the bloody foam should also be pre-cut a bit and ready to tear. Fill our blood bottle with fake blood and connect it to the leg. Pre-cut the pants too. Get a friend to squeeze the hell out of that blood bottle when ready and PULL! Try not to get blood on the camera.

Check out this build in action, from Episode 22 of Backyard FX