Wolfman Makeup and Animation

I've recently made two posts about new and old horror movie makeup, that you can find here and right here. While I will also extend on that, now as I continue to progress over the years of horror, id like to touch on the newest form of creating a movie. Animations. And I will do so by giving examples from one of my favorite films. Graphic designers can do amazing things. In my personal life I have seen amazing works of art created digitally from my lovely girlfriend, as well as many other examples. I have also seen step by step process of how horror movies are created digitally.


One of my all time favorite digital creations is The Wolfman from the 2010 remake. This movie blew me away. It is jam packed with detail both made by a computer and a makeup artist. Adding hairs in graphic design is one of the hardest things to do. Yet these designers managed to cover an entire man in hairs from head to toe. They took a digital copy of the actor, Del Toro, and they began their process. In the end they ended up with this image to the left. That is days and days of work. In the end, the animated version was able to actually move with Del Toro and accomplish scenes that normally, before this technology, would not have been plausible.

Here is an image of the step by step creation of Del Toro into the character of The Wolfman...

Step one of the transformation

Lastly on the animated aspect of things, is of course, the transformation from human to werewolf. This has been done many times in numerous different films. However, this one has really stuck to me. It starts off with a lot f yelling on Del Toro's part and then changes into a full blown hairy monster. Here are some pictures that I think represent the transformation.

If you would like more detail, click here for an awesome technical breakdown of the transformation, including all of the aspects. 

Step two of the transformation

Step three of the transformation

Now onto the physical makeup that was actually applied to Del Toro for all of the other remaining scenes. The techniques used in this are amazing, and top of the line. They have managed to completely transform this man into a screen ready creature of the night. Check out this video to see some footage of the transformation.

As you can see in the video, it is ridiculously detailed. Through their makeup you can really see all of the emotions, which Del Toro also does a great job of expressing. Every single one of those hairs was put in by hand, just as it was digitally. Hours and hours of tedious processes were put together to create this, just like any other piece of art. I have a great respect for this.

Not only did the artists have a difficult job, but Del Toro also did. In order to get that "wolf" stance, he had to wear these specialized stilts. They took a lot of training to learn how to walk in them.


In the image to the left you can see what they looked like. They extended his legs, and gave a sharper, more animal like curve to them. In the film, this produced an amazing visual to the character.                                  

All around this movie is stellar. It encases everything that I could look for in a good movie. Seeing the animations and makeup broken down step by step has truly given me more respect for the film also. If you haven't seen tis film before, and actually seen these creations brought to life, then for sure check this on out.

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