Fujin; Designs and Development
Final Design
My final design is maily inspired by this statue image of
the Fujin. I want to make him looked like a painted stone
statue with flaking paint. I will sculpt some of this texture
into the facial prosthetic. I will create one facial piece which
will create the brows, cheeks and nose. I may also create a
jaw piece to create the defined shape. As the jaw piece
doesn't require a lot of flexible movement, I may try running
it in gelatine to save on silicone. I will try and make the face
piece from silicone, for movement and i've never made a
large scale silicone facial prosthetic before, so I want to try
that. I will create the headpiece by sculpting the shape on a
red head and making a latex bald cap. I really think that
considering he's meant to look like an old statue, anything
that would usually be a textural issue won't matter.
I will be painting the body and pieces with PAX paint, as no
translucency is required with this piece because he's a
statue. I will experiment with how to create additional paint
flaking texture onto places like the arms and legs. I will
probably do this with flat pieces, as I am designing for film context, I think this is what would be done in industry.
I want to try airbrushing, but you can't airbrush PAX paint, so I may just have to use sponges and brushes.
I plan on him being topless then maybe have some kind of cape and shorts. I want him to look as much like the statue as possible and I think him being topless will assert a kind of dominance that I want him to assert, as I want him to have a bold prescence, as the character is angry in the scene.
I would love to create teeth for him, but stricly speaking thats not really allowed. I may try using some black teeth stain to make the teeth look slightly pointy.
Initial Designs
This is a slightly more derivative design of the Fujin, mainly inspired by oni masks. I incorporated the curly, cloud-like hair from an image I found of a Fujin statue. The look of it would be completely grey stone, which would be ok if it weren't for the mouth and eyes. I'd need all of the inside of his mouth and eyes to be completely grey. I don't know how that would work, I assume it would have to be done digitally. The eyes could maybe be achieved with lenses and the teeth could be stained grey but the tongue and gums would still be flesh-coloured.
I think this design would consist of two prosthetic pieces; a full face and it would be a cowl, but seeing as we can't make them, i'm creating the piece with a bald cap.
Mood board I had of the images I collected to inspire my design work
Costume
Hands:
Texture:
There are a few different ways I am considering with regards to making the cracked texture.
- I could just try and create the effects with paint, but realistically for film film context, some kind of 3D texture should be created
- I could maybe try and use tissue and liquid latex with the ripped effect creating the cracks
- I could also buy some kind of sand to create the exposed stone effect. I could glue the sand to the skin with prosaid and create and effect around this with tissue and latex.
- I could also sculpt some small flat pieces, maybe incorporating the sand into them and moulding them so the effect will be in the mould and transfer to the flatpieces. This way there would be no chance of sand falling off on set and I could pre-paint the flatpieces which would save time.
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Primary source images of the effect I want to create texturally
Full Aesthetic:
Model
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Meeting and Patch Testing
Ideally, as i'd written a script, I wanted to find someone on acting to play the role of the Fujin. I also wanted to find someone with a larger stature, as all depictions of the Fujin show that he is quite large. I managed to find John Hatziemmanuel, who is a third year actor with an ideal stature for the role.
We had a meeting where I described to him the designs, script and costumes ideas. Here was where I had to compromise the design idea, as he told me that he wasn't comfortable being topless. I'd assumed that being a third year actor, this was something that they had to be OK with, as I wasn't asking for nudity or anything extreme. Nontheless, he was helping me a lot by modelling for me, and I didn't want to make him feel uncomfortable so I changed the costume idea so that it would cover the chest area. Obviously this means that I wont be painting the chest which gives me more time, but also compromises the aesthetic of the piece.
Re-Drawn Full Aesthetic
Originally I had just planned to make a cape and shorts out of these 2 above fabrics. The images of the statue depict a lot of gold colouring, which is very regal and shows his status. However, after my meeting with John, it became clear that I would have to plan some kind of costume which would over the chest area.
I went to the costume store to see if there was anything remotely Japanese related, looking in the sections around the kimonos for the geisha. I came accross this cape which I don't think was actually meant to be Japanese style, but I think it could be interpreted for the purposes of my film. It has intricate swirlying patterns with black silk which I think could look really effective, and then golden coloured underside and trimming look regal which is great. I rented this out and I think I will buy some black shorts to go under it, as they'll barely be showing but I need to cover this area of him as well.
Original Inspired
Oni Inspired
Feline Inspired
Design 1: This design was inspired by the most accurate descriptions I could find of the Fujin, as well as basing it of the characteristics I saw in the statues I could find of him. This would involved a facial prosthetic(s), ears, teeth (which i'm unsure if we're allowed to make them yet) and then some kind of wig to create the upstanding hair. Although I feel this design is accurate and would be staying true to the character i'm not sure if I like it. I really like the eyebrows and the ears, but I think the hair looks a bit silly. It would also make him look more human, which i'm sure is an element I want in my design.
After learning that I definately couldn't do make any teeth prosthetics, I left this element out of my design. I also decided to work around my model's own eyes with regard to their shape. I think if I maybe shape the prosthetics in a way that they make the eyes look a slightly different shape then this could be a much better option.
Design 2: This was a more Oni-inspired design, based from the research i've done on them. Enlarged eye shapes are very popular in oni design and masks so I don't know whether i'd have to work around my model's eye-shape for the design or maybe make some kind of eye using vacu-formed plastic and painting on it, then making ir part of the prosthetic. However, seeing as this makeup is for film purposes, that would be very impractical. I know I won't be able to find someone to edit in enlarged eyes with CGI or any kind of computer manipulation, so I think I may just have to utilise my model's natural eyes. The brow area for this piece is designed directly from images of oni that have a flat but severe brow area which gives an angry and threatening expression. Again, this piece would involve ears, a face piece(s), teeth and some kind of hair work, either a wig or hair punching. For this small hairpiece I could even weft a wire hair weft piece and glue it on to the bald cap. I like the overall look of this design, although I think it strays too far from the original look of the Fujin, and I do want to stay quite true to what he looks like. I could still paint him green (although oni can be many colours) but I think the Fujin also needs more bulk to his face.
Design 3: One of the illustrations I found of the Fujin had distinctly feline elements to it so I decided to utilise this as a driving factor beind a design idea. Many oni have slightly upturned almost pig-like noses, so I designed a more cat-like interpretatin of this. I also designed the eyes to be very large and catlike, again giving the consistant theme of the strong brow as a defining feature of the Fujin which asserts a more dominant face. I also utilised japanese cloud designs from my research for this design and incorporated them into the eyebrows. This design would utilise similar prosthetics to the other 2 designs, and then the wig would be sculpted into the curled shape in the design which would have no movement. The whiskers would also be hairpunched into the faceial prosthetic. I quite like this design, but again I think it strays a little too far from the original Fujin. I could refine and develop it, but I don't know if I want to pursue a feline design as the basis for my idea, but i'm glad I explored it. Again I also like elements from this design, like the cloud inspired brows which I could transfer into another design.
I met with my model again to quickly check over how the pieces fit him so i'd know whether I needed to run any again or make any last minute alterations. I also patch tested him to make sure all the products I had were fine to use.
All the prosthetics seemed to fit fine but the bald cap didn't fit well around the ears or at the back at all. As I didn't have time to make another one, I decided to put the one i'd made back on the red head and stipple more latex to the back of it. I think that any messy or ripped areas I can turn into cracks as part of the design so hopefully it won't be a problem.
Headpiece made into the bald cap, probably with latex or done as a seperate prosthetic piece in gelatine, as it doesn't need any expressive movement.
Cracked paint texture created all over any exposed areas, either with just paint or flatpieces. Everything will be painted in PAX for an opaque look and then heavily powdered to prevent it from being sticky. I also want a matte surface, as painted statues aren't shiny.
Silicone face piece will be slightly deadened for movement, but not a lot, as I want it to reflect the hard look of a statue. I will work around the eye area, not going right up to the eye. The brow will frame the eye shape to create a menacing expression rather than me making any vac-formed eyes that could hinder my actor.
From descriptions I've read about of the Fujin in my research, he is described as having claw-like nails. I will be creating nails for him by sculpting them in fimo caly over false nails to achieve a thick, pointed claw shape. I can also sculpt a little statue texture into them.
I also plan on making hand appliances by sculpting them onto my model's hands, floating them off and then creating them as flat-pieces. As he is a statue, I will not be adding any kind of human skin texture. If anything, I want to make it as smooth as possible and then add rough statue texture with sculpting tools. I want the hands to look bulky and strong, so I will be making them larger on the join areas and knuckles to give a stronger appearance to them. The only images I can use for inspiration for this are the image I have of the statue and I also think the Hulk's hands are similar in the ideals of what I want to create.
Hulk Hands n.d. [online] Available from: http://williamenriquez.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/hands.jpg [Accessed: May 2nd 2015]
This is a rough sketch of the full look I want the Fujin character to have.
It gives indication of size and scale, and the plans I have for his outfit. Obviously he will be completely painted green with the cracker colour scheme i've discussed previously.
This is the re-drwan and re-compromised final full look for the Fujin which incorporates the cape I managed to rent from the costume store.
This has compromised the look and scale of the bodypainting, but I feel he still looks effective and still has a dominant prescence. In future I will be sure to explain all the details of the role to my model so that I can ensure that I don't have to compromised the overall look.
Product List:
PAX paint, pros-aide, brushes, q-tips, proclean, hairdryer, prosthetics, nails, nail glue and remover, acrylic paint, mastix, IPA, liquid latex, hair gel, hair pins, greasepaints
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