Face Off

As Face Off frequently feature animal themes in their challenges, I though looking at some of the past makeups from the show would be appropriate.    

Syfy (2015) Face Off. [online] Available from:http://www.syfy.com/faceoff/photos Accessed: January 27th 2015]

 

I guess they're all considered hybrid makeups of animal and humans, and I think the majority of the cast try and make it a 50/50 ratio. However, because the canvas they have to work on is a human I guess that affects how you consider the ratio; no matter how hard you tried, it would be impossible to make it even 90% animal simply because of proportions and limitations. I think they often try and make them look as animalistic as possible, but because of limitations, it will typically result in an approximate half and half ration. Especially features like the eyes which, most of the time, have to be worked around for the actors/model's sake, or changeing where you'd want the head to be. I think the real challenge is achieving a plausable likeness to the given animal considering the canvas you have to work around. 

The dinosaur makeup for example; an excellent silouette has been created which makes up for the fact that the proportions couldn't be accurately changed.

Of course i'm not considering CGI for these makeups; were they to be used in films, a lot of the work would be designed and created in an entirely different process.  However, because the standard for the competition is so high, the makeup must be done to the quality of film makeup.

The shark makeup is a good example of bad animal/human hybridisation. Aside from the fact that a sharks face is basically too different to even attempt to hybridise, what they've done is sculpt the siloette and body of a shark and leave the persons face in the middle which looks bizarre. 

However, others demonstrate that bringing subtle lines and texture onto the face can create the illusion of hybridisation in a more subtle way than trying to converge anatomical disasters.