Hi All.

I'm just in the middle of building a certain illusion and need to cast a realistic pair of feet. I am going to do the casting of my assistant's feet to make it even more authentic. Can anyone point me in the right direction as I have never tried anything like this before. I know it may take a few attempts as this is a first for me but I don't want to pay out to have a set cast professionally. Can anyone recommend any websites for instructions, or any more tips on materials to use etc.

Looking for a cheap solution!

Thanks

Mark

If you want to do it right, get this book by Lee Baygan, Three Dimensional Make-up:

http://www.makeupbooks.com/teofthma.html

It will show you the step by step proceedure.

Do a search for three dimensional make-up for other sources.

~michael

To make the mold try flexwax 120. It picks up detail, is safe on skin and reuseable.
John

Check out vilethings.com which is a site run by a halloween builder. This site is amazing- there are some incredible builds here and this guy documents the process step by step, complete with photos. He has several sections involving casting all sorts of body parts. I have done some basic casting myself. I made my own gimmick for my "Disembodied". It was simple enough to do by using alginate and plaster strips for the mold, then plaster for the casting. Good luck!

Ok.. here's some advice by a guy taht does this for a living..

If you need photorealistic feet for your illusion, have it done by someone who knows what they're doing. or... you can buy fake feet from a company like "cinema Secrets" for a very reasonable price.. and then paint them to look real.

I'm not doubthing the talent of freefallillusion1.. but it would be VERY hard to make a disembodied gimmick out of plaster that would fool the modern audience. Real skin has a translucency that painted plaster doesn't have. Plaster is fragile and heavy.. and there are SOO many other materials available that would have been a better choice. The eyebrows, eyelashes and hair are a whole other problem.

If you want tips.. There are several body casting DVD's out there.. one of the latest by a guy named Mark Alfrey.. it's very very good.. but the problem isn't necessarily the original casting.. it's the matreial your final product will be made from. Plaster feet will be heavy and fragile. Most eveyr thing else that is somewhat easy to use can't be cast directly into alginate... or is very hard to paint.

Now.. I'm talking about finished products that are photo realistic.. There are a limited number of 2 part plastics that you can pour into an alginate mold that are stronger and lighter than plaster.. but they're sort of hard to find.. and are even harder to tell you how to use in a message here.

There is a makeup school in Pittsburg called teh Tom Savini make up school.. I'm not sure how far that is from Cleveland.. but they might be able to help you out for a reasonable price..

http://www.makeupguy.com

Thanks very much for all your input. It seems a little more difficult than I first thought. I seem to recall a website of someone in the UK who casts body parts. I'll try and track it down. Just trying to avoid the shop dummy feet we see so often.

Thanks again

Mark

Well, Nimba is based in UK and Tom is a member here.

http://www.nimbacreations.com/

Nimba does good work.. he'd be a valuable asset!!