About Cosmesis

Welcome to Cosmesis, ai workshop where a handful of uniquely talented artists peg away with passion and vigour to create the impossible with a microscopic attention to detail.

Led by the award winning Clinton Aiden Smith, we take great pleasure in wounding and maiming, constructing and deconstructing and tricking the discerning eye of the HD camera with the rabid enthusiasm of a prison riot.

By constantly adapting and developing our skills, we uphold the balance between practicality and micro realism. This constant reinvention enables our passionate team to offer swift, economical, yet finely crafted answers to the expensive and time consuming needs of a very demanding industry.

More about the crew behind the scenes!

In the Cosmesis Studio

The latest tutorials, tips, product demos and studio culture
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A great kit: The difference between a good job and a great job
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The Crew

Clinton Aiden Smith

Specialities

  • Prosthetic Make-up FX and design
  • Special FX make-up – trauma make-up, out-of-kit wounds, character make-up
  • Design - Photoshop, Corel Draw, other

Other

  • Lenses - working with Sclera and special, painted contact lenses
  • Dental – manufacturing of special dentures and caps
  • Sculpting – realistic heads, large statues, wounds
  • Airbrushing – HD make-up, realistic skin tone
  • Moulding and Casting – foam latex, special silicones and urethanes

With an artist’s passion and a mad scientist’s curiosity, Clinton Smith is a born creator of the unreal. Having discovered his passion at a very young age, he’s been experimenting and creating and teaching himself the ropes of character FX. Now, after numerous courses and a host of local and international productions under his belt, Clinton continues to expand his knowledge and skills by traveling abroad on a regular basis to meet with international experts and Oscar winners to get feedback on new and innovative industry advances.
Clinton’s passion and commitment to his craft and his hunger for knowledge and new trends has him constantly researching new developments in the field, stretching beyond the motion picture and television industry to assisting persons with disabilities who cannot afford quality prosthetics. It is this same dedication that has won him a SAFTA Golden Horn in 2007 and he is recognized as a leading figure in prosthetics and character FX in South Africa. He has been instrumental in establishing curriculums and administering training at all of South Africa’s top schools dealing in character and special effects.
Smith has also been filling a much-needed gap by providing training and workshops to help develop schools in the local prosthetic field. These include Tshwane University of Technology, AFDA, City Varsity, and Face To Face – working with them to help form the groundwork for their curriculum basis. Smith also provides personal workshops and acts as advisor to lead make-up artists on their projects.

International courses:

  • ADVANCE AIRBRUSH make-up by John Woodbridge - BBC - UK
  • BBC Diploma for HD make-up Airbrushing
  • TEMPTU make-up - Los Angeles - USA
  • HD make-up Airbrushing course
  • KETT make-up -New York - USA
  • HD make-up Airbrushing course

 

The Crew
Daleen C. Badenhorst

Specialist in hair effects such as:

Creating life to any form of hair

  • Wig making
  • Laying hair
  • Punching hair for prosthetic appliances and body replicas
  • Creating lifelike fur for creatures

Other

  • Beauty Make-up
  • Special Fx make-up
  • Prosthetic application
  • Scenic
  • Sculpting
  •  

Growing up on a staple of period films, Daleen became enamored with the actresses’ lustrous, flowing locks. It was when she found out that the object of her envy was more often than not manmade that she knew she had found her calling.

Naturally her passion drew her to the industry where she learned to sculpt the perfect head of natural hair, be it for film or fashion. Her ambitions urged her to take up training under veteran wig specialists in South Africa and the United Kingdom. She can now be found in our workshop creating jaw-droppingly realistic wigs for humans and creatures alike.

The Crew
Ashley Alexander Charles Powell

List of skills

  • Excellent all rounder
  • Mimicking the lifelike qualities of the skin and its perfections and flaws
  • Scenic
  • Sculpting

Other

  • Prosthetic Application
  • Beauty Make-up
  • Special Fx make-up
  • Hair
  • Molding

Ashley was drawn to prosthetics and special effects make-up through his fanatical interest in sculpting and painting. What started as a freelance project quickly lead to permanent employment at Cosmesis. His excellent abilities as an all rounder in the studio became apparent as he impressed all with his eye for colour, his supernatural ability to create and mimic the lifelike qualities of skin, and his dedication to perfection. These traits coupled with a passion for the industry quickly earned him a place as Clinton’s right-hand man. As a team they continue to challenge each other and push the boundaries of this ever-evolving industry.

The Crew
Adrian Smith

Specialities

  • Practical Design
  • Animatronics
  • CAD drawings
  • Interior design

Other

  • Molding
  • Casting
  • Sculpting

Adrian is a young engineering genius with a love for design and technical problem solving.

His paths crossed the Cosmesis team’s during his studies when he was roped in to help out on a once-off project. Clinton began to realize the potential of this young technical mind after discussing basic animatronic rules with him whilst on set. It wasn’t long before Adrian received his next call, this time to help create the mechanics for a realistic, beating adult human heart.

Adrian continued to hone his skills whilst freelancing in the movie industry where he was tasked with assisting as well as managing more complex projects. He has since joined the Cosmesis team on a full-time basis where his ability to rise to the challenge of every complex animatronic project has made him an invaluable part to the studio.

The Crew
Gerald Clark Sutherland

Specialities

  • Lab work - molding and casting developments
  • Mold Making
  • Casting

Other

  • Prosthetic Application
  • Sculpting

Gerald is a young technical talent that can take any form of task and perfect it, yet he excels in the lab. He started his career at Masque, the make-up and special effects warehouse affiliated with Cosmesis It is there that he quickly became an expert at chemicals, their application and rendering through learning and creating flawless molds and casting high quality prosthetic appliances.

The Crew
Piet Rheeders De Wet

Specialities

  • 3D & 2D
  • Character illustration & animation
  • Product design
  • Exhibition design
  • Architectural design

Before form becomes flesh, Piet is involved with the 2~ and 3D design on a project.

Piet has a long working history with the team which led to him co-founding Toxic Productions, an events company with Clinton. After temporarily moving to Johannesburg he became more involved in design and illustrations for a host of top name companies and subsequently moved away from Toxic.

Fortunately the Mother City came calling and he now works alongside Cosmesis with his Cape Town based company, Ocellus to jointly service the entertainment industry from a new angle.

The Crew
Anthony Jones

Specialities

  • Dental Technician
  • Dentures
  • Patient crowns & bridges
  • Character Dentures
  • Specialized Dentures

If you’ve ever had the urge to give a barroom brawler with teeth like Shane MacGowan a Colgate® smile, Anthony would be the one to make that happen. Yet, after years of giving those with the fear of fluoride a shot at true love, Anthony needed a distraction. Ever since 2005 he has been working closely with the Cosmesis team to revolutionize the look of dentures for the entertainment industry. From picture perfect pearly whites to fangs that will leave your blood cold – he has done it all. His latest collaboration with the team was to help give actor Luke Goss a burn victim look in the Death Race sequel.

The Crew
Pieter Brink

Specialities

  • New Media & Illustration
  • Conceptual Development of products & brands
  • Web development
  • Illustrations 2D
  • Printing

Collaboration is a major element within the Cosmesis team. Based at the same premises as Cosmesis, Masque and Ocellus, is Idea Catalyst, a new media and design agency with Pieter at the helm. Pieter is often roped in for brainstorming sessions or whenever a new media or illustration element is required

His sharp wit and excellent conceptual work is a massive boon to the flow of ideas at this hub, taking your idea and making it a reality on paper and the web.

The Crew

Press

Vixxen (April 2011)

Vixxen (April 2011)

Featured article on the "virus" promo

Download the Article here (1.6mb)

Press
Your Live Music Guide (Oct 2010)

Your Live Music Guide (Oct 2010)

The Cover for LMG

Download the cover here (1.3mb)

 

Press
Fangoria (March 2009)

The Residents of THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT

In this LAST HOUSE, the villainous Krug and his “family,” who make life a living hell for the Collingwood clan, don’t look much out of the ordinary, but their vicious proclivities are both shocking and repulsive. Under the gritty guidance of director Dennis Iliadis, the Greek director Craven selected to guide this redux, the production eschewed visual trickery when it came to staging the violence. Makeup FX artist Clinton Smith appreciated this approach, though it made him apprehensive at first.

“It was fantastic working with Dennis,” Smith recalls. “He knows what he wants and the way he wants to shoot it. From the first day we met, he said he wanted to shoot everything in-camera with little if any intercutting, keeping everything going. I thought ‘No way!’ but in the end, it actually challenged my crew and I to come up with new ideas and methods to make it happen.

Download the Article here (1.3mb)

Press
Cine Effects (April 2008)

10,000 Bi.Ci. The First Hero

Article by Jody Duncan

Director Roland Emmerich resurrects the prehistoric world — populated with mammoths, saber-tooth tigers and giant terror birds — in 10,000 B.C. Visual effects supervisor Karen Goulekas engaged Tatopoulos Studios to supply early creature designs, which were later refined and translated into photoreal CG beasts by The Moving Picture Company and Double Negative. Additional contributors included The Senate, Machine FX and a production-side visual effects team. An expansive miniature environment for the film’s climax was provided by Magicon.

Press
Huisgenoot (Oct 2005)

Mama Jack

Snippet Being Updated

Back in 2005 Clinton was given the opportunity to work with Local Comedian and Actor Leon Schuster, where he took on a project converting a white male into a African woman in the movie called Mama Jack. The 2005 SAFTA Golden Horn Award was awarded to Clinton for best make-up and fx.

Download the Article here (1.3mb)

 

Press

Awards

SAFTA Golden Horn (South African Film & Television Awards 2005)

Back in 2005 Clinton was given the opportunity to work with Local Comedian and Actor Leon Schuster, where he took on a project converting a white male into a African woman in the movie called Mama Jack . The 2005 SAFTA Golden Horn Award was awarded to Clinton for best make-up and fx.

 

Awards