Saturday, April 6, 2013

Quick and Dirty Demon Costume

You need a demon for a music video and the project has a tight deadline and a small budget.

Such was the situation confronting Jacob Petersson, who made up for a lack of resources with an abundance of talent to create this quick and dirty demon costume.  He provides a nicely detailed look at banging it out, including some inspirational repurposing of roadside junk.

This is a great example for anyone confronted with creating a creature for a Lovecraftian live-action game.  When you're working with a miniscule budget things like full body sculpts and pressure cast appliances are out of the question.  Compare the detailed stills in Mr. Petersson's post with the final video and you'll see how to the director used quick cuts and controlled exposure to maximize the impact of the demon.  Shot selection and editing are obviously not available in a live-action scenario, but you can still use the principle of controlled viewing to your advantage.  Dim lighting covers up a multitude of sins.  Adding haze or fog and strobe effects allows you to limit the audience's view even more.  Over the last few years the price of portable strobes and fog machines has plunged, putting them within reach of even the most limited budgets.





3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excellent, especially on such a tight (time and money) budget. It strikes me as very reminiscent of the design work for Pan's Labyrinth.

Tylermenz said...

First thing i thought of when i saw the demon was pans labyrinth too...how interesting....

Markus said...

Looks really cool, its style resembles a lot those of some of the beings in the "Hellboy"-movies, especially if you look at the concept-art.