STEP 1 -  GETTING READY - Prep work consists of washing my face, shaving, and wearing clothes that will be easily removed once the paint work starts to progress past my neck downward.

STEP 2 -  MATERIALS - Our weapons of choice on this project included Paradise brand body paints, a Nikon D90, a large paper backdrop, studio lighting, a lot of time and patience. I’m the model for this round so I can’t man the camera, one of my employees took over this responsibility as well as the documentary photos. (Photo Credits Nga Ma)

STEP 3 -  PRIMING THE FACE - Krystal prepares my face for the paint by coating my eyebrows in a special primer that allows the paint to go smoothly over the hair.

STEP 4 -   QUALITY CONTROL -  We hired a supervisor to overlook the project and make sure the creative flow stayed on track. Originally I thought he was a good choice for the job, but in retrospect, he just slept the entire time and got in the way.

STEP 5 -   BASE COAT -  The base coat was put down for three reasons. The first reason was because my Hawaiian side dark skin had to be lightened so the blue would show up better when the final overcoats were to be applied. The second reason was the paint used in this step had a slight pearl quality to it that shimmers when hit with a flash, similar to the translucent skin quality of the Na’Vi tribes in the movie. Third reason was it allowed for the “sculpting” of my face... as a base coat you can see she is defining my nose bridge and cheek bones for the other layers of paint to come.

STEP 6 -   JOY -  Professional hair-braider Joy Teague was on hand to braid my bangs, this was the most important step of all.

STEP 7 -   ADDING COLOR -  Krystal starts applying the layers of blue, all the while we are referencing photos online.

STEP 8 -   PAINT CONSERVATION -  We paint keeping in mind what will and will not be photographed, so in this project, just the front and sides... no sense in wasting expensive paints!

STEP 9 -   DETAILS DETAILS DETAILS -  This was definitely the most time-consuming stretch of the whole project. Stripes, blending, pulling, texture, dots, nose and lips.

STEP 10 -   PHOTO SHOOT -  We took roughly 100 pictures in this set. Keeping in mind that the photos would undergo extensive Photo-shopping and post process. Right now it’s just me in paint, and although the paint job looks impressive, there is only a certain level that paint can take you as far as the final goal is concerned.

STEP 11 -   SAMPLING -  I took pictures of Nga’s hair and ponytail so I can have image samples from the same lighting source and setup as my photos. This will make adding the tail-plug much easier in Photoshop when the time comes. The rest of the Na’Vi features will be sampled from photos of cats and High Definition promotional photos from the film.

STEP 12 -   PHOTOSHOP! -  With some patience, things are shaping up! The major challenge here was masking off hair, matching colors and skin tones. Another issue is that when your skin is painted, it throws off the natural color palette of your skin and teeth, so some time is spent recoloring all those elements as well.

STEP 13 -   FINISHING TOUCHES -  Trying to keep lighting and photo-realism can be a challenge. Luckily there are several online resources in the form of promotional pictures, trailers and the work of others. This was an amazing project which I was happy to be a part of! Special thanks to James Cameron for his amazing talent and vision as well!

FINALE -  Roughly, this is the final product... not claiming that this is amazing, but considering I have paying clients, my own busy schedule, the amazing work of everyone involved... I think we did a decent job! This is one picture, but I plan to eventually do a total of five from the photoshoot. If you liked this, please share this with your friends, comment on my YouTube Channel. Also if you are in the Dallas Fort Worth area and interested in creative photography work or body painting projects, don’t hesitate to drop me a line!

-Bei

STEP 14 -   VIDEO DOCUMENTATION -  Time Lapse of Krystal’s work in conjunction with me showing off the layer build in PhotoShop.