What kind of makeup is used to make Harvey Dent's horrifying face?

What kind of makeup is used to make Harvey Dent's horrifying face? - Face of woman with blue eyes

Every time I see The Dark Knight, I am surprised when looking at the makeup of Harvey Dent (Two Face). What kind of technology is used in such make ups and how are they done? The makeup was really scary. Especially the way his eyeball and jaw are shown! Here is a picture for a quick recap:

Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight



Best Answer

Sort answer: It was a mix of make-up and CGI.

Long answer:

For Two-Face, Nolan decided to break new ground. "This character was one of our major vfx challenges," recalls overall Visual Effects Supervisor Nick Davis. "Chris was not interested in going the traditional make-up route. He felt that it would be an additive effect, rather than the subtractive effect that he felt the character required. So, instead of adding a layer of material to the actor's skin, we actually removed the skin digitally. It allowed us to reveal the tendons, the cheeks, the eyeballs and to create unique textures. The challenge here was that we were dealing with one of the main characters, and that the digital make-up would be seen in full close-up, including in dialogue scenes…

Framestore's White notes that the key to the Two-Face project was to get enough detail into the CGI to give it realism. "In doing so, we worked at much higher texture resolution than we normally use. We also rendered our CG work at 4K, even for the regular 2K anamorphic shots. A very large number of texture layers were needed, and displacement maps from Mudbox were combined with bump maps and displacement maps painted in Photoshop. It really took a significant amount of work to get it right."

The full details are explained here.




Pictures about "What kind of makeup is used to make Harvey Dent's horrifying face?"

What kind of makeup is used to make Harvey Dent's horrifying face? - Sincere ethnic woman with long eyelashes and floral adornment on wavy hair looking at camera
What kind of makeup is used to make Harvey Dent's horrifying face? - Dramatic male clown with painted face grimacing smile pulling mouth with hands while looking at camera
What kind of makeup is used to make Harvey Dent's horrifying face? - Two Woman



How did Harvey Dent become Two-Face in The Dark Knight?

Harvey became Two-Face due to a combination of Maroni's scarring, untreated mental illness, marital stress and his own personal choices.

How do you make a two faced suit?

  • Take a black eyeliner pencil and draw a line down the middle of your face. ...
  • Cut the bald cap in half. ...
  • Line the piece up so the circle is over your left eye. ...
  • Apply red makeup over the cap with a sponge. ...
  • Part your hair down the middle and slick the left side down with a generous amount of hair gel.


  • Does Harvey Dent have schizophrenia?

    History. Harvey Dent's childhood consisted of hardship. Growing up under an abusive father, he developed repressed mental-illnesses of his own, such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. His hard work ethic, however, allowed him to rise up to become Gotham City's youngest district attorney at the age of 26.



    Harvey Dent - Two-Face Halloween makeup tutorial




    Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

    Images: Erik Mclean, Cleyder Duque, Christian Diokno, Yogendra Singh