1. Special Effects for Cosplay
Makeup, Paint and Electronics

2. What we’ll be doing Make up effects Paint effects Electronic effects
LED soldering demo
Please ask questions throughout the talk, there won’t be Q&A at the end due to the demo.

3. Why do you need special effects?
A character has a cool shiny thing you want
The character has a scar/bruise/tattoo/is a zombie
You want to look more like the character
For the lols.

4. Make Up Effects – Contact Lenses
Make sure you get your eyes checked before wearing contact lenses
Go for optician brands if you can.
Ones with more than one colour look more real than block ones
Keep them clean and if you feel irritated take them out
If you’re getting photos done warn the photographer to watch for lens drift.
This is Lense Drift
It’s annoying.

5. Make up Effects- Male and Female
Darker skin
Thicker eyebrows
Defined cheekbones
Paler lips
Bigger noses
Female
Paler skin
Thinner eyebrows
Rounder faces and cheeks
Coloured lips
More defined eyes
Longer lashes

6. Make up Effects- Aging
Most old characters have signature wrinkles so you can copy them
Start out small and build up lines. Subtle is better than really bold lines
Highlight in between the wrinkles

7. Make up Effects- Facial Hair
Look for lace facial hair. Try not to be too weirded out if it’s real human hair.
Apply using spirit gum or prosaide
Remember if there’s stuff glued to your face you can’t move it as much
Enjoy your new beard!

8. Make up Effects- Tattoos
For small details biro pens work really well
Snazaroo works well and is harmless to most skin
You can mix snazaroo with prosaide if you need it to be stronger
Fix with hair spray and talc/face powder. This makes it look like it’s under the skin.

9. Make up Effects- Scars
Easiest way- paint latex on and peel back the edge and use makeup to add the colours desired
Medium way- paint prosaide and latex over tissue paper to build up scar and then add colours
Hard way- mould the scar in plastacine, cast in plaster and mould in either latex or gelatine and then glue it on

10. Easy
Medium
Hard

11. Make up Effects- Wounds
They’re like scars, but you add blood.

12. Make up Effects- Bruises
Bruises are more yellow on the bone, and move towards purple where fat and muscle are.
Look at pictures of the type of bruise you’re after and copy it in makeup
People don’t expect you to be bruised for most costumes. Be prepared to tell people that you’re not actually hurt.

13. Make up Effects- Body Paint
Snazaroo is the best option available
Get a friend to help you apply it. Full bodies take a lot of time so either get up early or cheat by wearing a zentai suit.
Apply in thin layers at a time for even coverage

14. Make up Effects- Goblins

15. Make up Effects- Goblins
This was made by taking a head cast of Timber and then painting latex over the head. It was then removed and a zipper put in the back
On the day it was glued to his face and then blended with latex and snazaroo
The hands were made by gluing cling film to his hands with prosaide and then painting them with latex and acrylic paint

16. Make up Effects- Getting it off
Get a proper makeup remover
Use a lot of it
Wash with soap
Repeat until all gone

17. Paint Effects- Blood and Gore
Use dark red and brown for blood and build up in layers
Think about where the blood would hit on the costume
Use can use spray paint, acrylics and even snazaroo

18. Paint Effects- Smoke and Stains (AKA steampunk)
Think about where ash would hit the character or where they would get dirty
Tea staining makes your costume smell. Use brown watered down acrylic
Black spray paint is very good for dust effects

19. Paint Effects- Ice and Crystal
Everything is blue. Blue blue blue blue.
Dry brush white/pale blue acrylic over everything
Glue ice crystals (aka salt) to things

20. Things that do other stuff
Electronics!
There are two areas of electronics used in cosplay-
Things that light up
Things that do other stuff

21. Things that light up Christmas lights- simple to add onto a costume!
Fibre optics- you can buy premade portable ones similar to christmas lights
Wired LED’s- for when you need specific colours and circuts
EL wire- a light up wire. Can be bought pre soldered or soldered yourself
UV paints- require a black light, but look cool

22. LED Magic!

23. Other things
Motors. Easy to solder but hard to keep things on the shaft.
Smoke makers- generators, misters, smoke in a can. All are kind of a pain and only cool in person as most smoke doesn’t show up in photos
And it’s not electronics, but puppetry is a very good tool to use.

24. EL Wire
UV Paints

25. Final Tips
Buy specific parts from Maplins, anything in bulk that you’re familiar with (switches, LED’s) are far cheaper from ebay.
Buy EL wire from the UK if you can. Customs love it and you’ll get charged

26. LED Demo
Now we’re doing a demo on how to solder a basic LED circuit. If you’re not interested in this part feel free to leave.