他曾给汤姆克鲁斯“易容”被称为特效化妆界的魔术手|Legendary special effect makeup artist

“If I got injured somewhere, I would take photos of it all through the healing process," said Liu Ji. However sick this may sound to most people, it feels totally normal for the special effects makeup artist who has worked on nearly 60 films in the U.S. and China.

“如果受伤了，我会第一时间拍照，记录伤口愈合、结痂的过程。”这过程听上去有些“变态”，却是特效化妆师刘吉的日常。

A graduate of the Shanghai Theatre Academy and former pupil of Emmy-winning makeup artist Mark Garbarino, Liu's credits include such films as "Mission Impossible III," "The Warlords" and "Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back."

刘吉毕业于上海戏剧学院，曾师从于艾美奖得主、好莱坞著名特效化妆师Mark Garbarino，在《碟中谍》、《童梦奇缘》、《投名状》、《西游伏妖》等国内外近60部大片中负责过影视物理特效。

"Imagine you got punched in the eye, normally the bruise changes color in different stages. It looks plastic otherwise," said Liu. In order to make his works look real, he's always observing and accumulating. Skin bruises, burns, knife and gunshot wound – these types of photos are all over in his studio.    

“如果你的眼睛被人打了了一拳，正常情况下，它的伤口会有青、紫这些色彩的过渡与渐变，否则就会看着很假。”为此，他需要在生活中观察积累，收集资料：人的皮肤青肿起来是什么样的，烧伤、枪伤和割伤又有什么不同……他的工作室里挂满了这种照片。

"I hadn't even heard about 'special effects makeup' 20 years ago," said Liu. "I just loved drawing. Days before the gaokao, I watched Michael Jackson's music video with zombies and monsters dancing in the street. I thought those scary faces were CGI at first. When I found out that they were because of makeup, I was really impressed, and looked forward to learning more about it."

“20年前，我只是喜欢画画，还不知道特效化妆。高考前，我看到一支迈克尔·杰克逊的MV，里面有各种鬼屋怪兽。我本来以为那是电脑特效，最后发现都是化妆出来的。当时就觉得太酷炫了，对这种技术产生了憧憬。”

There was no major for special effects makeup at the Shanghai Theatre Academy.Luckily for Liu, Mark Garbarino was invited to the academy for the relevant training in his sophomore year. Despite working part-time jobs to pay his tuition fees, he never missed one of Garbarino's lectures. Eventually, Garbarino took him as his pupil and introduced him to the industry in the 2005 film "Wait 'Til You're Older." Liu has worked in the business ever since. 

上戏本没有特效化妆这个专业，但刘吉是幸运的——大二时，学校请来了Mark Garbarino专门培训特效化妆。于是他勤工俭学，专门跑去上这位前辈的课，最后成为了他的徒弟，并在2005年参与了《童梦奇缘》视觉特效创作。就这样，他顺利入行。

His job is to create aging makeup and wound effects, as well as make sculptures of monsters, mannequins and corpses. Unlike everyday makeup, special effects makeup isn't to cover flaws. It is all about creating another face or body, the more life-like the better. Besides possessing art skills, a special effects makeup artist needs to know a lot about the human anatomy and various chemical materials.

刘吉的工作内容包括化老年妆、伤痕妆，制作各种怪兽、假人和尸体。与“美妆”不同，特效化妆不负责遮掩瑕疵，而是要塑造出另一张脸庞、另一幅躯体，越逼真越好。所以，特效化妆师们除了需要美术功底，还要对人体组织、解剖学和各类化学材料有深入了解。

"In 'Journey to the West: The Demons Strikes Back,' there was a handsome Pigsy, whose pale white mask was a tough job," said Liu. "In the beginning, we intended to use latex, which turned out to wrinkle easily without the porcelain texture. After many tests, we chose this new material called platinum silicone. With its hardness increased, it wouldn't show all of the actors' facial movements. You could see that Pigsy was wearing a plastic smile, which was exactly what the director wanted."

“《西游伏妖》里有一个美男子猪八戒，他那张白脸皮花了我们很多精力。最初打算用乳胶，但是它容易产生皱纹，没有瓷娃娃的质感。我们试了很多次，最终决定用一种叫铂金胶的新材料。把这种胶的硬度调强之后，它不会跟着人的皮肤走得太厉害，猪八戒就可以‘笑得不自然’。这就是导演要的效果。”

The most difficult part of getting those amazing makeup effects is not putting them on, but the creative process before that. The directors have their concepts drawn on paper, while Liu has to concretize these imaginative ideas and build the realistic, three-dimensional sculptures.

要达到特效化妆的酷炫效果，最难的不是上妆，而是事前的创作。刘吉从导演那里收到的设计要求，都是画在二维纸张上的概念。他必须把那些模糊的概念具象化，最后交出来一座逼真合理的立体雕塑。

"How do we make a monster look like it exists? One of the best ways is making a reference," Liu said. "I pick colors and textures from the natural world and combine them with the human figure. Eventually you'll find the character somehow familiar, like it was real."

“如果我们要设计一个怪兽，怎么能确保它是‘真的’？我觉得‘参考’是很有效的方法。从大自然那些生物的身上找颜色，找纹理的变化，再把它们与人体结合，融进自己的雕塑中。最后你会觉得好像见过这个东西，它很实在。”

Liu's works have earned him fame in the field. As more jobs are offered, however, there are few capable makeup artists for him to work with in China. 

凭着自己的作品，刘吉在影视圈小有名气，接到的项目越来越多。但他能合作的化妆师依然不多。这是因为国内非常缺乏特效化妆人才。

"We couldn't make a film franchise like Lord of the Rings, because we don't have enough specialists yet. As China's film industry rises, we have more domestic films in the making, which definitely need more special effects makeup artists to meet their needs," Liu said.

“现在，如果我们要做一个像《指环王》这样的片子，国内的人才是不够用的。随着中国电影工业的发展，国产片的崛起态势非常明显。我们需要更多的特效化妆师资源，去消化国产电影的需求。”

Despite receiving job offers with daily rates as high as 800 U.S. dollars, Liu chose to return to China after his advanced studies in the U.S. Now he has established a makeup school to promote the industry in the country. He hopes that people can see as many fantastic monsters in Chinese films as there are in their Hollywood counterparts. "We've got awesome ghosts and goblins in Chinese mythology like in the 'Classic of Mountains and Seas.' They are part of our very civilization. I hope that one day I can create some great film characters that truly belong to us."

所以，刘吉去美国进修之后，面对日薪800美元的高薪工作，还是选择了回国。现在，他在国内成立了自己的化妆培训学校，希望提高相关从业人员的规模。他希望，像美国的奇幻片一样，中国的银幕上也能出现栩栩如生的，属于自己的妖怪：“《山海经》里就有很多具象化的鬼怪。这是流淌在我们中国人血液里的一种文明。希望有一天，我可以创造出属于中国人自己的角色。”

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