Applying New Fabrication Techniques
By Chris Vaughan
As each Live Webinar Class has completed, our students have learned new techniques and new ways of approaching character creation. This is the story of James Wright and his rhino costume fabrication project for FX master Ted Haines' "How to Make a Monster Suit" Webinar.
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- The Making of Saito-San, the Office Rhino
- Constructing the Rhino Suit
- Making Rhino Muscles and Skin
- Filming the Commercial
- Make Your Dreams a Reality
The Making of Saito-San, the Office Rhino
Ted Haines helped James go above and beyond with his rhino costume by sharing the fabrication techniques of the Hollywood masters and providing constructive critique along the way.
The suit, built for a series of web commercials for Anicom Insurance Co, was created entirely by James Wright for his production company Droid On The Moon Design and Development and we are proud to say that Stan Winston School of Character Arts helped make his vision a reality.
(L: Initial concept sketches. R: Maquette for patterning.)
Constructing the Rhino Suit
To begin the project, James first had to determine the size and shape of the suit, making allowances for the performer and the muscle suit. To do this, James began by constructing a maquette and using a silhouette technique to visualize the performer inside the costume.
(L: Basic rhino head constructed in foam. R: Rhino head with additional detail.)
Fabrication began with constructing the foam head from a pattern formed around the maquette and gluing the pieces together to achieve the rhino head.
(Early test fitting of the muscle suit to check the silhouette.)
Making Rhino Muscles and Skin
James then went on to construct the muscle suit from individual foam pieces covered in spandex to form the character's understructure. Care must be taken to place the pieces individually and connect them so that the undersuit moves realistically.
In the final weeks of assembly, James began skinning his creation with 1/8" foam and detailing the skin of the creature with wet foam and a soldering iron.
(Skinning the muscle suit and adding surface texture.)
Filming the Commercial
With the addition of a few dressing pieces, costuming, punched hair, and an eye-blink mechanism, his creature is ready to come to life, and James began filming his commercial.
(James Wright makes his onscreen debut as an office working rhino, Saito-san.)
Make Your Dreams a Reality
Live webinars are a wonderful way for students to interact with Hollywood's masters of special effects and gain valuable feedback and guidance to help make their visions a reality. I would encourage all of you to attend our live classes and learn the skills that will propel your work to the screen.
Keep believing in magic,
Chris Vaughan - Stan Winston School LIVE Coordinator