Megamind - A little help?

I'm kind of intimidated making this account.. the talent here just blows me away. Seriously, you guys are amazing. I'm sure all of my questions have been asked about five million times in some form or another. I apologize for that. D:

So I'm not completely new to costuming. I've done some in the past, though it's all been pretty novice. Nothing even close to the scale of molds and latex. As the thread title suggests, I'm interested in putting together a Megamind costume. I've been trying to research the options available to me and it's kind of overwhelming.

Keep in mind I've never made a mold or worked with latex in my life. If the research I've been doing is at all useful, it seems like I basically have two options; liquid latex and foam latex. From what I can tell liquid latex doesn't translate expressions too well, so if I go that route I'd be better off just making the dome part of the head and the elongated chin and using my own face. Foam latex sounds like it would work brilliantly for a full head mask, but has the downside of being very complicated and expensive.

Which would you guys suggest for this sort of thing? I'm already concerned about the price of liquid latex getting to be too much, so I'm shying away from foam latex at the moment. There's also the issue that I'd have to use my home oven on the foam and I've heard that's not really advisable. I'm not even sure it would fit.

I'm struggling with a few concept issues with the liquid latex cap and chin. I don't think the chin will be a problem, but I'm kind of at a loss on the cap. I know it'll need to be reinforced with something. I was thinking of expanding foam but as far as I know all expanding foams heat up quite a lot when you add the agent that turns it from liquid to foam, and I imagine that would just damage the latex. I'm also concerned about the weight of something even as light as foam really stressing the points where the cap is glued to my head. Would it stay on or just rip and fall off? The logistics of this thing is really confusing me and making me wonder if I should be focusing on the full-head mask instead.

I'm also curious about any resources you guys recommend for tutorials on the process of casting my own head and casting the sculpture and working with the latex and such. I realize that for the best walkthrough I'll probably need to buy some videos and I'm fine with that.

Soooo yeah, I s'pose that's enough rambling from me. If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions at all I'd really appreciate them a lot. I'd love to do this costume but I can't afford to start it unless I've really figured it all out and know it's something doable.

I don't know if bumping threads is smiled upon here or not. It was down to page 3 with no replies.. I'm really hoping for some advice if anyone has some suggestions. :confused

For a beginner to mold making and Latex, I highly recommend you head over to this site-

DH2 - Definitive HOW-TO - Costume and Propmaking Tutorials

I learned a majority of my basic mold making skills from this site, and they'll help you out big time.

As far as how to make the appliance, maybe you could make the dome of the head, then a rigid structure underneath that straps to your head and holds it in place. If this is your first time trying this, I would go with regular latex, since as you said foam latex is expensive, and I never do expensive materials when I'm trying new techniques out. Good luck!

Thanks!

Don't be intimidated. Hell, as a newbie, you are off to a great start just by putting the thread in the correct category.

It is the weekend, and to me, things move a bit slower here during this time. I would not go crazy with the bumps though.

Welcome to the RPF.

I appreciate the warm welcome.

Megamind would be a lot of fun. Megamind would work best for a thin body type with a big huge head appliance.

When I was watching the movie I kept thinking how great a Minion costume would be. Robo Gorilla costume!