You're listening to Imaginary Worlds, a show about how we create them and why we suspend our disbelief.

American Mollinsky.

I've always been fascinated by creature makeup design.

And it's partially because these actors are clearly human.

But I'm always amazed when they get to the point where I completely believe that they're not human.

And I like watching the behind the scenes documentaries,

where the actor gets up at 5am into several hours of makeup.

And sometimes the person applying the makeup with the prosthetics will say something like,

yeah, we thought we'd put these ridges on their foreheads and then change the shape of their ears

and then paint their face blue until we got it right.

And I'm always left disappointed because I want more insight.

I mean, I went to art school.

I know there's more to the design process than that.

You know what I mean?

These characters are designed by humans for human entertainment.

The designers have to navigate through an uncanny valley.

Between the human and the non-human, the earthly and the unearthly.

Well, I got to ask two major artists in the field of creature makeup design

about their creative process.

And I was geeking out the whole time.

Let's start with Steve Wang.

Steve was only 20 years old when he got his big break.

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