Hey guys,
I was hoping to offer some insight for you all about how the real costumes are made. Maybe this will help, maybe not.
I did some interviews with people on the team that I know that built the suits for Tron Legacy. The following is pretty much how any form fitting suit for a performer is made. (think: Snake Eyes, Tron, Predator... anything)
These suits start with a life cast. A full body life cast or a scan and machine routered version of the same thing depending on actor availability and cost. For example, Jeff Bridges was not available as I understand it, but the had a recent scan of him to work from for another movie.
So once you have a quick algaenate and plaster bandage (or body double if you have the $$$)negative mold, now you need to make a positive to sculpt it all on. The positive is usually either laid fiberglass or poured expanding rigid foam. This will give you a raw positive of the actor on which to sculpt. Ordering a machine routered life sized maquette from a scan does not bypass this step entirely as the scans rarely have enough resolution and are smooth enough to work on without some finessing by people in the body shop.
Now you take that positive (either the scan or the rigid foam casting) and de-seam it, smooth out the rough spots and start sculpting on it. The sculptors (usually a team works on one suit) reproduce the design that comes from the art department by looking at illustrations or a maquette. These sculpts are refined and adjusted until production is satisfied. (this can take weeks).
When a sculpt is finally approved, the mold department gets the final sculpt and applies a liberal coat of release agent. The seam lines are determined and the fiberglass negative molds are made. Easy right? Wait, we're just getting started.
From the negative fiberglass mold, a positive is cast in urethane. Next it goes to the body shop. it is meticulously sanded and smoothed using a similar material that is used on cars. The pieces are patched, sanded and smoothed where the sculptors could not get those areas super smoothed and machined looking, the body shoppers come in and make it look that way. Details are sanded and routered or drilled in.
Now the whole thing is cast again in fiberglass for the master negative. A core is prepared for the inside that the custom made spandex body stocking (with the little O's on it shown below) goes over.
Note: I just breezed past a whole section of this costume with one line above. But the Fabrication department has to make (by hand) these custom fitted body stockings so the rubber has something to stick to when it's baked. This is no simple task given how many need to be made.
Once they have a core for the mold (usually a slightly sanded down version of the original positive to make it tighter) the body stocking is fitted over it. and it is positioned in the negative fiberglass mold made of the refined/body shopped sculpt.
A group of people prepare and inject foamed latex into the mold and it's baked. When it is ready, the whole thing comes out of the oven and is de-molded/removed from the core and another one is started right away. The newly baked suit (if it free of steam pockets and passes quality control goes to the Fabrication department for seaming (trimming, burning and patching seams and bubbles) and then it goes to the lighting department.
The lighting elements are inserted into the suit, glued into place and all the little wires are connected. then the **** is test lit to look for breaks in wiring. Once all the elements work, the suit is hung up for delivery.
Keep in mind that's one suit., not boots, or helmets or gloves, or props - just the suit. Now you have a small idea of what goes into making these costumes. Teams of people, thousands of labor hours, multiple skill sets by pros with many years of experience. Is it any wonder why they cost $60K each?
Questions? Feel free to ask.
Thanks!
