Special Effects Makeup Artist
Special Effects Makeup Artist
Career Overview
Special Effects Makeup Artists transform performers into characters using makeup, prosthetics, wigs, hair work, and other techniques. They can create everything from realistic injuries and aging to creatures, monsters, fantasy characters, and period looks for film, television, theatre, streaming productions, commercials, and other entertainment.
Education
A certificate, diploma, or specialized post-secondary program in special effects makeup, prosthetics, theatrical makeup, makeup artistry, or a related field can provide the practical skills for this career. Training may include character makeup, prosthetics, sculpting, molding, casting, hair work, and on-set techniques. A strong portfolio is extremely important, and hands-on production experience can help you get started. Some related programs also offer advanced training in makeup and cosmetology.
Work Environment
Special Effects Makeup Artists work on film and television sets, in theatres, studios, and on location. The work is creative and hands-on, but productions can involve long days, tight deadlines, travel, and close teamwork with actors, hair and costume departments, directors, and special-effects teams.
Future Outlook
Special Effects Makeup remains an important part of film, television, streaming, theatre, and live entertainment. As productions create more imaginative characters and visual worlds, skilled artists who combine creativity, technical ability, versatility, and strong portfolios can find exciting opportunities in this competitive field.
Recommended High School Courses
- Communication
- English
- Visual Arts
- Drama & Theatre
- Media Arts
- Creative Arts
- Active Learning - Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Coordination - Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
- Judgment and Decision Making - Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
- Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
- Communications and Media - Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
- Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
- Design - Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
- English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
- Fine Arts - Knowledge of the theory and techniques required to compose, produce, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness - The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Category Flexibility - The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Far Vision - The ability to see details at a distance.
- Finger Dexterity - The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Fluency of Ideas - The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Information Ordering - The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Manual Dexterity - The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Originality - The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
- Selective Attention - The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Visual Color Discrimination - The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Visualization - The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Apply makeup to alter or enhance appearance.
- Apply cleansing or conditioning agents to client hair, scalp, or skin.
- Review production information to determine costume or makeup requirements.
- Assess skin or hair conditions.
- Collaborate with others to determine production details.
- Manage budgets for personal services operations.
- Prepare operational reports or records.
- Order materials, supplies, or equipment.
- Design costumes or cosmetic effects for characters.
- Demonstrate activity techniques or equipment use.
- Teach health or hygiene practices.
- Groom wigs or hairpieces.
Schools
Approx Salary Expectation
Related Careers
References
PayScale, Inc., https://www.payscale.com/.
WorkBC's Career Trek, http://www.careertrekbc.ca/.
O*NET OnLine, National Center for O*NET Development, https://www.onetonline.org/.