Special Make-Up Effects

One of the best books on the subject, of it's time, other than Savini's Grande Illusions 1&2. There was a gap between classic reference books like Corsen's Stage Makeup, and Baygan's Three Dimensional Makeup, and this is a nice update, although it doesn't offer a lot of new information. More of a streamlined version concentrating on solely makeup effects. No where near as complete as Bebriceni's Special Makeup Effects, but a good place to start before trying to understand more advanced books on the subject. Well written.

Nice companion book.

Special Make up effects starts off explaining how keeping pace with the industry is a key factor in being involved in FX make up. It's a salient point, and one of the things that makes this book irrelevant. It's twenty+ years old, and while a lot of the theory of make up has remained the same, more of the specifics and practicalities have changed. Which is unfortunate as those are the books only strengths. This books suffers from meandering stream of thought writing that makes it difficult to use as a reference. It's filled with obvious and useless information, that is painstakingly deliberated on. At one point the author goes to great lengths to describe the common appearance of the devil in culture (y'know -- goatee, horns), a description rendered superfluous by ubiquity of the subject. Almost as an insulting after thought, the section is punctuated by an uninformative scribble/stick figure version of the devil that communicates no useful information what so ever.There are better make up books on the market than this -- there are better make up books by the same publisher. I suggest purchasing one of those. This book may have been viable as the sole text on make up back in the day, but there's no need to read this now.

Was very helpful to the woman who is our make-up artist here at the theater. She was able to fashion some wonderful make-up for the Phantom in the Yestin/Kopit Phantom here this summer. Thanks for such quick service as well.

The book appears to be packed full of very useful technical information regarding make-up types and possible uses for such.Time and experience will tell if all the information is valid or even useful in a u.k market.Was disappointed at the lack of colour photos which made the book shoddy in appearance

Being an horror-splatter movie geek and on the brink of making my own movies i purchased a few books in order to do fx myself.this book has detailed sections on many special fx plus the material u need to make them.its very easy to understand how everything works.it mentions classic movies.i was very glad to have made this purchase

i actually used this book to reference several special effects i did on a tarantino film. so yeah i would say its a great book if i'm willing to do that.

Great book lots of information. Almost a bit much at times. I'm at odds over the style of writing but it's a great book based on the amost of information it offers. This one fills in some of the holes that other authors leave out.

a great book with behind the sceens stills and descriptions of the processes used by the great names in the art such as dick smith,rick baker, stan winston, christopher tucker as well as prosthetic and lifecasting processes. great addition to my collection however for those who are looking to pursue a career in prosthetic makeup i would recomend todd debrecini's special makeup effects for stage and screen wich covers processes and materials more relevant to todays screen work.

This book is definitely not worth £40 odd some sellers are charging, I was able to pick it up for approx. £20 & was thrilled with the price and quality of book. It offers a useful insight into the commonly used make-up effects & has wonderful analysis of specific effects. I am currently writing my Thesis on a similar topic & found that this book was a fantastic starting point.

must have book, it was a bit pricey but isn't everything pricey when they know students will use this for reference, but worth every penny

This is a great book for all the sfx makeup students out there. Either you go to school or autodidacte learner, this book helps a lot.