After securing the boys' hair with a wig cap, Alja Safe was just to get the prelinary negative mold.

The Alja Safe alginate is followed by plaster bandages to support the alginate for creating the life cast.

Once the negative mold is removed, I used a chip brush to fill it with Ultra Cal. This is done in a variety of steps and with varying thicknesses.

Getting ready for the final coat, where I will first secure a wooden rod to make the cast easier to hold.

The Life Cast then needs to be sanded (finely), and sharp edges need to be refined.

Now that it is time to start designing Beast, I used a variety of buffalo images to help guide my design.

Creating Beast with clay takes a long time. I spent about 3 weeks on each boys' design.

Here is one of the designs. Notice the holes on the lower lip for the two fang-like teeth that I will make from plastic beads that melt in warm water.

I used more Ultra Cal to create the Negative Impression of Beast.

As you keep adding Ultra Cal, you slowly shape the outer part into a smooth egg-like shape.

Once in a while, making a great Negative Impression is the goal!

After mixing the foam latex agents, I filled each actors' Beast negative mold, and then compressed their Life Cast to it. I then baked it in a convection oven NOT in my kitchen.

There is this wonderful feeling you get when your Foam Latex comes out as perfect as possible on the first run! I think a chef baking a souffle would understand that feeling!

I used Pax Paint to paint the masks. I also used small snippets of the wig to create the bushy eyebrows. The teeth were created with special plastic beads that become malleable in warm water. The mask is covered in setting powder to prevent it from sticking.

Each actor had his own wig that was custom fit to his head. The horns were generic foam horns I bought, cut down, and spray painted to match colors of actual buffalo horns.

The masks were secured to each actor, and then I added makeup so the area around their eyes would match. I also used makeup to touch up the masks.

Each actor had his unique Beast look since I created two clay designs, one on each actors' life cast.

Each actor also had a back-up mask that I ran. That's the great thing about the life cast - you can run as many masks as you want, though it takes about 4 hours just to bake.

I played Chip, so it was fun to be both in the show and directing the makeup. Each Beast was terrific to work with!

At the end of the night, we were glad to see that the masks, wigs, and makeup held up!