Pazuzu Studios
Active Member
The goal for this costume was to realize one of my favorite (If oft neglected) childhood Batman villains, in one of my favorite incarnations...with a twist. I've seen only a few people attempt Clayface over the years, and all of them seemed to stick to a pretty cartoony interpretation of the character. My goal was to take my favorite version of him-Bruce Timm's design from Batman: The Animated Series- and bring it to life, with an element of realism added to give him a real-world feel. In order to do that, I had to try to capture the true-to-life feel of really heavy, gloppy clay or mud, while maintaining trademark physical characteristics that Timm gave the character in his original designs. Features such as a pronounced, furrowed brow atop deep, sunken eyes, eyes that glow deep inside of said sockets, the exaggerated lower lip, and the trademark chin ripples all needed to be present to really bring this particular incarnation of Clayface to life.
The costume is largely fabricated from EVA interlocking foam floor mats, heated, shaped, fused (using hot glue), and then carved with a sanding tool on my dremel to really simulate deep grooves and flowing lines commonly associated with organic material. I wanted the entire surface of the costume to feel like it was visually moving. It was also quite necessary to make him as asymmetrical as humanly possible. A character with no set form would most likely have to exert a ton of effort to even move, let alone consistently look the same. Insulating foam was applied and carved to give the appearance of those gloppy clusters all over the body. Because I always felt as though Clayface must still possess a skeleton in the midst of all that clay, I created a set of misaligned vertebrae roughly where his spine would be from carved and shaped EVA scraps. Calcified spikes (made from carved green floral foam) emerge from the surface of the body like bits of armor. These spikes are re-visited in a few places on the costume, most notably on the iconic mace hand I built for him. I also constructed 3 other weapon hands: An ax blade, a giant mallet, and a massive, fully posable articulated hand, design with photo ops and other Bat cosplayers in mind! The hand is large enough to wrap around a full grown adult's waist for pics. All of the hands are designed to be swapped in and out as need be through the use of a PVC tube and coupling installed in the 'weapon' arm. The glowing eyes are powered by small clustered groups of LED lights, attached to a battery pack. The paint job was part of a 5 step process, in which 4 different shades of brown were applied with everything from an airbrush, spray can, and dry brushed from a pallet for texture. The teeth were also hand-sculpted in semi-transluscent Sculpey, and then given a two part paint job and a coat of gloss for realism. Being on the short side (at a whopping 5' 7") I knew I needed to give myself a little lift, so with the use of some EVA in the feet, I gained a solid 2 inches in height, and a bike helmet mounted inside the head/uppers torso granted me an extre 3-4" up top, easily helping me hit Clayface's 6' tall stature.
The only real snags I ran into with this suit were the arms and legs. I actually constructed 3 versions before deciding on the ones that worked the best, both physically and visually. Everything from solid tubes of foam to double skinned nylons stuffed with polyfil happened before deciding to create alternating rings, carving them to simulate spiraling layers of clay. From there, installing the weapon rig into the left arm was pretty simple, and as an added touch I added ridges to the right arm, to simulate residual characteristics of a transformation into Bats himself at some point. Start to finish, the entire suit took just about 10 months to complete, but I'm exceptionally proud of the end result!
The costume is largely fabricated from EVA interlocking foam floor mats, heated, shaped, fused (using hot glue), and then carved with a sanding tool on my dremel to really simulate deep grooves and flowing lines commonly associated with organic material. I wanted the entire surface of the costume to feel like it was visually moving. It was also quite necessary to make him as asymmetrical as humanly possible. A character with no set form would most likely have to exert a ton of effort to even move, let alone consistently look the same. Insulating foam was applied and carved to give the appearance of those gloppy clusters all over the body. Because I always felt as though Clayface must still possess a skeleton in the midst of all that clay, I created a set of misaligned vertebrae roughly where his spine would be from carved and shaped EVA scraps. Calcified spikes (made from carved green floral foam) emerge from the surface of the body like bits of armor. These spikes are re-visited in a few places on the costume, most notably on the iconic mace hand I built for him. I also constructed 3 other weapon hands: An ax blade, a giant mallet, and a massive, fully posable articulated hand, design with photo ops and other Bat cosplayers in mind! The hand is large enough to wrap around a full grown adult's waist for pics. All of the hands are designed to be swapped in and out as need be through the use of a PVC tube and coupling installed in the 'weapon' arm. The glowing eyes are powered by small clustered groups of LED lights, attached to a battery pack. The paint job was part of a 5 step process, in which 4 different shades of brown were applied with everything from an airbrush, spray can, and dry brushed from a pallet for texture. The teeth were also hand-sculpted in semi-transluscent Sculpey, and then given a two part paint job and a coat of gloss for realism. Being on the short side (at a whopping 5' 7") I knew I needed to give myself a little lift, so with the use of some EVA in the feet, I gained a solid 2 inches in height, and a bike helmet mounted inside the head/uppers torso granted me an extre 3-4" up top, easily helping me hit Clayface's 6' tall stature.
The only real snags I ran into with this suit were the arms and legs. I actually constructed 3 versions before deciding on the ones that worked the best, both physically and visually. Everything from solid tubes of foam to double skinned nylons stuffed with polyfil happened before deciding to create alternating rings, carving them to simulate spiraling layers of clay. From there, installing the weapon rig into the left arm was pretty simple, and as an added touch I added ridges to the right arm, to simulate residual characteristics of a transformation into Bats himself at some point. Start to finish, the entire suit took just about 10 months to complete, but I'm exceptionally proud of the end result!
