Showing Their Creative Colors in Makeup Class

Films such as “Godzilla,” “Total Recall” and “Face/Off” are exploding on the theater scene, increasing the demand for the people who create special effects.

That explains the growing popularity of Abel Zeballos’ advanced theatrical makeup class.

“The demands of the movie industry and audiences are a lot more sophisticated than they were 10 years ago, and the job opportunities are 100% better,” said Zeballos, a Cal State Fullerton theater professor who has been teaching the craft of makeup for 25 years.

His students are the proof. Many are getting hired as makeup artists on movie sets and by TV programs and theaters all over the world. One former student works in New Zealand on the set of “Xena: Warrior Princess,” another works in Las Vegas for Cirque du Soleil, and another owns a successful production company in Hollywood.

A number of former and current pupils are hired to work as makeup artists for Knott’s Berry Farm’s annual Halloween Haunt.

For the final exam in Zeballos’ unusual class, students created masks from casts of their own faces. They made clay and foam molds, then let their imaginations take over. The end product: monsters, colorful space aliens and an old dwarf with deep wrinkles and a giant nose and eyebrows.

Ravinna Rada, 21, of Fullerton turned out a Gamorean guard of “Star Wars” fame in just under four hours. The mold went on, and Rada gave herself a pig nose, a protruding jaw and a pair of giant teeth. She got an A.

“I love this course,” Rada said. “Special effects in the movies are very popular right now, and that’s what I want to do.”