Becoming a Cyborg
How bodypaint & latex created the look
One exciting and challenging part of creating MetaMoreFire was the creation of the cyborg costume. The task? To show both the mechanical and human sides of the character while maintaining a fluid, artistic transition between the two.
Besides the red fire dress and some party from the full robot costume, we were also lucky to have the latex parts sponsored by Transformaker Shop, which played a crucial role in bringing this vision to life.
The Vision
The cyborg in MetaMoreFire symbolizes transformation between machine and human. This balance needed to be clearly reflected in the costume design, especially on the head, where robotic elements had to blend seamlessly with more human features.
To achieve the look, we invited Udo Schurr, a talented bodypaint artist from Baden Württemberg (Germany).
The Challenge
Blending Human and Robot: The latex parts provided by Transformaker Shop were essential in combining metallic elements and the skin seamlessly.
Together with his assistant, Udo glued the parts onto the cleaned skin and cut the edges. He then used his body paint spray pistol to blend these parts together, painting over the parts and the transitions to the skin. He also helped to create transisitions with paint between the “real” robot parts and the visible human skin.
The look reminded us strongly of „the Borg“ alien group from Star Trek fiction…Was I really turning into a friendly character? … 😉
The Process:
Time and Weather were NOT our best friends.
Creating the cyborg costume wasn’t just a matter of artistic skill—it was a race against time. This process took several hours, with the crew anxiously waiting and trying to make the most of the time by shooting other scenes.We had Udo for only one day and had to complete all of the cyborg’s scenes that night. To make things more intense, it was a windy night, and we had to continuously adjust the fire decorations used in the scenes. The entire crew had to be flexible, recreating setups to deal with the elements. Despite the wind and the late hours, there was no turning back; we had to push forward and finish the cyborg fire scenes in one night.
Though the latex parts from Transformaker can be reused, the effort involved in assembling and painting them makes it too complicated for a simple performance. This costume was built for the shortfilm MetaMoreFire, and it really came alive for that moment.
Watch the process as video
Here is a little video about the process for you, captured by Eduardo Saraiva, cut by Christiane Meyer.
Massive thanks to the artists and team that made this project possible!
- Enrico Lein for sponsoring the latex parts
- Udo Schurr and his assistant for bringing our vision alive
- Eduardo Saraiva for filming some behind the scenes- https://eduardosaraiva.com/
- Michaela & Wolf Müglich for the fantastic catering
- Diego for his allround presence
- Eugeniusfilm & its crew for accepting long hours of filming the set
…and many more!
Transformaker
Enrico Lein, Latexteile
Udo Schurr
Bodypaint & Airbrush
