30 Before And After Shots That Show How Much Effort Is Put Into Hollywood SFX Makeup
The amount of time and effort, sweat, and tears that go into making movies is impressive. Just take a look at the intricacies required in applying special effects makeup on Hollywood actors. Even characters who we think don’t need any professional makeup can take hours and hours to get ready for the set. Not to mention how much effort goes into making fantasy and sci-fi characters look believable.
To show you just how much work it takes to do Hollywood-tier makeup, we’ve collected some of the best before and after, as well as step-by-step pictures. For example, who knew that making Thorin Oakenshield look like, well, Thorin Oakenshield was a very involved process? And here we thought that putting on a wig was all it took!
Keep on scrolling, upvote your fave face transformation pics, and share them with your movie-loving friends. When you’re done, have a look at Bored Panda’s previous post about incredible pics of actors before and after applying special effects makeup.
This post may include affiliate links.
Naomi Grossman, American Horror Story Series
Eddie Murphy, Coming To America
The life of a Hollywood movie makeup artist is difficult and involved, even if it’s exciting and purposeful. But makeup artists aren’t one homogenous group of professionals.
You have 4 main movie makeup artist roles. Starting with key makeup artists who design the makeup looks worn by the lead actors. In other words, they take care of the famous actors.
They also come up with the more complicated and intricate makeup designs and oversee other employees to make sure that there’s visual continuity and consistency in how the makeup looks throughout shooting the entire movie.
Doug Jones, Crimson Peak
Then there are your run-of-the-mill makeup artists who are responsible for making non-lead and supporting actors look good. They’re under orders to turn the key makeup artists’ visions into reality.
Of course, not much would be done without makeup assistants who help organize makeup kits, do other small but necessary tasks, and lend a hand to the artists with whatever they might need. They’re the unsung heroes of every movie.
Lastly, there are special effects makeup artists who probably have some of the coolest jobs in the movie industry. They create special makeup effects, such as prosthetics and the like.
Ryan Reynolds, Deadpool 2
Gary Oldman, Hannibal
This dude can turn into anybody and he never ages. I call vampire ! In 1994, when he 'played' Dracula, I bet he wasn't even acting. They just filmed what he did on, like, a Wednesday, and that was the movie awesome !
Ian Mckellen, Lord Of The Rings
Michael Keaton, Beetlejuice
Bill Skarsgård, It
But the rolling eye thing was hos own preformance! I loved that BP post 😂
Emma Thompson, Nanny Mcphee
Jim Carrey, How The Grinch Stole Christmas
Eddie Redmayne, The Theory Of Everything
Angelina Jolie, Maleficent
Note: this post originally had 57 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
I'm most amazed at the ones where you didn't even notice they had any prosthetics on. They look so natural, with very subtle changes that really drive the character home.
This shows how talented the men and women of the make-up, wardrobe and physical effects teams on films are. They should get much more recognition than just one little oscar for their whole job. I am amazed and impressed by their talent
Yes!!!!
I wonder how hot and uncomfortable it is under all of that? It must feel so good to get it all removed at the end of the day.
For sure, but must be real fun to wear it and also weird to see yourself like that in the mirror.
According to Jim Carrey, the Grinch was no fun to wear.
Back in the 30s - 60s is was extremely uncomfortable, a lot of people had allergic reactions to the makeup and some of them wouldn't be able to eat with the makeup on. These days it's basically harmless. Probably the most uncomfortable part is the actors having their face cast, if they haven't already.
Worse, it takes hours to put that makeup on, then the actors work an entire day and spend another couple of hours having it all taken off. It's not an easy job at all.
And it takes almost as long to get it off, so it can be reused.
I'm also curios how long takes every makeup...
its acting so whatcha gotta do ya gotta do
I'm most amazed at the ones where you didn't even notice they had any prosthetics on. They look so natural, with very subtle changes that really drive the character home.
This shows how talented the men and women of the make-up, wardrobe and physical effects teams on films are. They should get much more recognition than just one little oscar for their whole job. I am amazed and impressed by their talent
Yes!!!!
I wonder how hot and uncomfortable it is under all of that? It must feel so good to get it all removed at the end of the day.
For sure, but must be real fun to wear it and also weird to see yourself like that in the mirror.
According to Jim Carrey, the Grinch was no fun to wear.
Back in the 30s - 60s is was extremely uncomfortable, a lot of people had allergic reactions to the makeup and some of them wouldn't be able to eat with the makeup on. These days it's basically harmless. Probably the most uncomfortable part is the actors having their face cast, if they haven't already.
Worse, it takes hours to put that makeup on, then the actors work an entire day and spend another couple of hours having it all taken off. It's not an easy job at all.
And it takes almost as long to get it off, so it can be reused.
I'm also curios how long takes every makeup...
its acting so whatcha gotta do ya gotta do