This is a build for Dragon*Con 2013.

Hi, this build is for D*C 2013 in Atlanta. Last year I created the Mr Freeze Build and it turned out pretty well/ So lets try something different. :) If you like my work and designs check out my page Night Terrors of Gotham

Step 1: Materials

This time I'm making Carnage. As with all builds, you will need a little bit of patience. The total cost of this will be roughly $80 - $100 depending on where you get your Materials. Always keep in mind to be patient and take your time. If you rush, it will get sloppy. Read the directions first before assuming anything. If you have already done something and it worked, good for you, but if it doesn't, slow your roll, and please read all of the step instructions before acting.

Notice: This build is easy, somewhat cheap, and takes about 2 weeks to do if you are doing this casually.

Base tools:
Hot glue gun
Sharp Scissors
Exacto Knife
Sharpie pen (or a fabric pen)
Painters tape
Ruler
thin / Wide paint brush (a kids paint bush is perfect)

Materials:
Lycra Suit (make sure to get 1 size up from your normal size. the Sizing tool had me a large, I got it, I needed an XL. Fair warning)
Click Me!!! Amazon
$39.95

Puff Paint
Go to Micheals / Hobby Lobby / craft Store or fabric Store
$1-$3 per bottle ( buy about 3, or more depending on how much you want to use. Always good to have extra)

Craft Foam
Micheals / Hobby lobby / Craft Store (be sure to get the paper thin kind, easier to use and play with)
$1 each (buy about 5)

Black Hot glue
Only use this Hot glue so it keeps the black look throughout
Click Me!!! Amazon
$10.29 for a bag of 8 10inch sticks (Which is more than plenty)

Poster Board
Anywhere
$1 each (buy 2 or 3)

White See Through Material (this is all about your Judgement. You need to be able to see through this and function normally, so choose wisely)
Fabric Store / Jo Ann's
$5 depending on size

Brads
Craft Store / Fabric Store
$2 per box

Industrial Velcro
Hardware stores (Lowes, Home Depot, Tractor Supply)
Around $10 depending on where you go

Stretch Elastic Roll
Hardware Stores / Amazon
Click Me!!!
$12 on Amazon

Styrofoam Head
Craft Store/ Hobby Lobby
$10

That's it!!! Not alot of materials, and easy tools!!!
Warning - Sharp tools hurt, and so does hot glue!!! Be careful!!! I also do not condone violence, and i realize this is a very violent character. Please make this out of good fun, and not for violent acts. I make these builds out of passion and respect for the artist and writers who created these characters, please show the same respect.

LETS GET STARTED!!!

Step 2: The Face (Part One - Mouth Build)

The Mouth
The red mouth picture is not mine, and I use the style to help get an image of how the mouth should be referenced.
I don't necessarily want a duck faced carnage, but it is a great starting point :)
Carnage has a very distinct mouth, sharp teeth and big smile.

1.) Measure from the bottom of your ear to the other. This will help you get a sense of how big the mouth will be. Make this same measurement on poster board. Try rolling a ruler around your face or use a tailors measuring tape.

2.) Make a stencil of how you want the top of the mouth to be, using the poster board. Carnage has a swoop down and up style. So the top of the mouth will actually be on the tip of your nose.Do not add teeth, we will add the detail later. The best way to make this is to find the center of the ball of your nose, and use that as a vantage point to swoop back up to. Also to be exact, you can make one side of the mouth (Left or right) using poster board, cut that piece out leaving the meat of the stencil still attached to the poster board and fold it to trace the other side. This will allow for an exact match.

3.) Fully cut out your poster top mouth. and proceed to do the same with the bottom. Use the ear to ear measurement, and this time the center of your chin should be the center point for the top of the mouth cutout. You should use my pictures to help get an understanding of what it should look like.

4.) Once you have you poster board cut outs ready, and how you want them, use these cut outs to make foam copies.

5) Now use the 2 brads (1 for each side of the mouth) and attach them at the tips of the mouth. Leave enough room so when you move the mouth it doesn't rip the foam. (roughly a cm from the tip of each corner of the mouth) Put the button side on the inside of the mouth, and top mouth on top of the bottom when assembling this.

6) Cut out some teeth triangles out of the craft foam. I used a Long triangle style to make the teeth look more pointy, but this has a downside, it means they won't be as sturdy as fatter teeth, so its up to you of course. Once you cut the teeth out, line them up how you want and hot glue them in orderly.

7) Chin stabilizer. You will need to set the chin to as pointy as you want it and add a small piece to the bottom to help keep the shape you're looking for. once you have your shape, put a piece of foam under the chin and trace the shape out. Cut the shape from the foam and hot glue it to the mouth.

Once you have completed the mouth assembly, you will add it last to the costume. I say add it last, so when you paint the costume
you don't have to worry about messing the face up by moving it around everywhere.

Step 3: The Face (Part Two - Eyes Build)

The Eyes

Fair warning, this next part will take some artistry skill. There are many ways to do Carnage's eyes. The way I did it was a bit free hand, so if you feel more comfortable printing off a blown up version of his eyes, be my guest, not everyone has an artistic hand. I really want this as easy as possible for people, and this is just how I did it, because it was easy for me.

Helpful hint - Role a ruler or use a tailors measuring tape on your head to get a good measurement, or whatever feels comfortable for you.

1.) Get a measurement from the bottom inside corner of your eye up to about half way mark on the top of your head.

2.) Get a measurement from the bridge of your nose to the center of your ear, or how ever fat you want the eye to be.

3.) Take both measurements and make a square with poster board out of it.

4.) Hold the square to your face and make notes of where facial features are on the poster board as reference spots.

5.) Hard Part!!! Draw the eye how you see it. Now that you have your reference pieces noted it should be easy to see where you want his flares. take your time, and focus on the way the waves of his eye are going. Remember you can always redo it, so you may want to try multiple eyes and see which you like the best.

6.) Once you have you eye, use painters tape to help keep it in place on the White fabric. Once attached, turn the fabric over allowing you to see the outline of the eye. trace it with a sharpie pen.

7.) Do the same process with the other eye but this time flip the fabric so you are tracing on the opposite side making the other eye.

8.) Once you have the tracing done, use very sharp scissors, and cut the eyes out. You will need a steady hand, and patience here. take your time!!!

Now you should have the mouth and eyes as bare bones. As stated before, the face will be added last after the body work to ensure no damage while painting.

Step 4: The Spine (Optional)

THIS STEP IS OPTIONAL

The Spine is to cover the the majority of the zipper in the back. Personally I like the effect of the suit filing in all the wholes, so I made this spine to have a fluid suit.

You will need the thin craft foam, ruler, exacto-knife, Industrial Velcro, stretch elastic roll and hot glue. This is really easy, just tedious

1.) Using the ruler, measure 3 inches on the poster board for the first side, and 3 inches diagonal. Cut out those 3 sides (Top, side, bottom) leaving the 4th side still connected to the poster board. Fold it over onto the remaining poster board and trace the outline making a mirrored image. then cut out the remaining sides to make the shape. this is the first scale and link in the spine.

2.) Using the stencil you just made, cut out about 15 - 20 scales from the craft foam (depending on how long you want it and how tall you are)

3.) Using the stretch elastic, cut a long strip (probably from your butt to your head for a good length of your body) and hot glue the Scales in a line up manner overlapping the previous one by about an inch. (use the pictures above to get an idea of how you want the scales to overlap) Do this to both sides of the scales.

4.) Sadly I don't have a picture of the Velcro on the suit before painting, but I do have one after the paint and before the heat gun. It still works for what we need :) Cut small strips of Velcro (plastic side, not the fuzzy side) and add them around the zipper in a uniformed way. I used 6 pieces, 2 on each side a third up my spine. Use your Spine to line it up where you want. make sure you don't add too many scales making it too lengthy. DO NOT ADD THE VELCRO THE SPINE YET.

5.) Once your length is found and the Velcro is where you want it, you will need to make a head at the top. I just made another scale and reversed it cutting off the excess areas.

6.) Add the fuzzy Velcro side to the spine in parallel spots to the suits Velcro. You may need to add a bit of Hot glue to the Velcro adhesive to get it to stick the elastic easier. Just add 2 dots or so of hot glue, not much.

Opt 1.) You can add hot glue to the top of each plate of the spine giving it a symbiotic look and feel. You can start by adding wavy lines of hot glue, and using the nozzle of the hot glue gun, spreading it around. This will add texture and wet effects to the spine.
HINT: make sure each plate dries before moving onto the next. You don't want a solid spine on accident.

By this point you should have all of the external pieces done. Face and spine.

Step 5: Fingers

The Fingers!!!

This is fairly easy as well. You will need hot glue, scissors, painters tape

1.) Cut out 12 tall Triangles. I say cut 12 so you have extra in case of mess ups. (To test a good length cut one out and wrap it around the tip of your finger, and see how you like it.)

2.) Roll up some foam about as long as your little finger, and tape it in a roll as displayed in the picture.

3.) use the roll on the inside of the glove and hot glue your triangle around each finger where your nail should be. take your time, don't rush.

4.) Once dried, fold the hangover triangle in half down the center of the triangle making a nail. Don't be afraid to some force to get a good crease on the hangover foam.

5.) Add some hot glue to the crease you just made under the nail. let dry.

Try it on, and make sure it fits well, and get used to moving your fingers around with long nails. If you're a girl that uses long nails, you may feel right at home. :D

Step 6: The Body (Front)

The Body

The body is fairly simple.
HINT: Puff paint has 2 forms, Ink and Puffed.
Ink - Shinny and very tacky. Don't let it fold on itself once painted and dried. It won't stick to you, but it will stick to itself. Follow the directions below carefully
Puff - Not Shinny, and dull / matte looking. The puff form adds the texture we are going for, and it feels rubbery, but it will not stick to itself, which is great!!! lol!!!

To start off, I used the picture above to get the overall look of Carnage, but went with a muscle and bone style. I have seen a few different styles to do the Black and red, but I loved the bone and muscle look.

1.) Put the suit on, and make your nodes on the body with a black sharpie. under your chest, your waist, the bottom of your breast on each side, belly button, hips, and go ahead and mark your face. 2 dots for your eye centers (do that gently), small line for mouth, and a dot on the ball of your nose. You will also need to node your inner wrist, ankles, toe line, and the top of your butt crack.

2.) Using the puff paint, draw a line down the center of the body, making it roughly thick. Don't make the chest thickness in the picture just yet.

3.) From the center node of your chest draw a line with Puff paint from the center through the bottom breast to your arm pit corner on both sides of the chest to get your base lines.

4.) Now, using you paint brush go over your lines, and draw them out again.

5.) Alternating with the paint brush, and puff paint, add your lines of the body where you want them. If you want an ab and rib cage look, make sure to "V" your abs, and for the rib cage, treat them as 3D circles (make a center-ish line, and make gradual curves around them.

6.) Be sure to black out an crevasses you wish to hide, black lines are a good slimming color. For example, black out the Neck, arm pits, and out line the body. I gave the suit a black waist style to help hide my junk better, but that's up to you.
HINT: When making a line, make sure to flair out the ends of the line, to give it that stretched look.

7.) Now we draw the arms. You will want to try and stretch your curves to get that muscle look down right, and you will use the same process when making the lines. I ended at the wrist to help give him a full hand. Do this to both arms, and keep in mind they don't have to look the same. Carnage is not symmetrical with his suit.

8.) Onto the legs. Draw out a curvy line down the legs to your ankle node, then do the same with your ankle to toes. Again make the curves long, so it looks stretched. Draw your remaining lines and veins to any pattern of your choosing for the Carnage look you're going for.

9.) Let dry for 4-5 hours. Do some touch ups if you see any, then wait again for those to dry, if not, then go over it with the heat gun on low (remember to take your time, if you have 1 or 2 spots that need touch ups, and you feel lazy, don't skip it. Take your time, and a good product will emerge). When you turn the heat gun on, hold it in the air facing up until it gets to its full temp on low setting. Once hot, trace out your lines with the heat gun in a swirling motion. be sure not to sty on one spot for to long. Once the Puff Paint changes color to a dull black move on to the next spot. if it is taking a while on one spot come back to it. DO this process to everywhere you painted.

Step 7: The Body (Back)

The Back

We will essentially be doing the same as the front.

1.) Add your paint around the Velcro patches. Its OK if you're not right on top of them, the spine will cover up a little bit of that area.

2.) Make your Lines curved up, making your back wings seeming stretched and slim.

3.) I continued the waist from the front to the back along with the outlines as well.

4.) When making the arms this time, you will need to make the back of the hands as well, so don't just stop at the wrist, color in the tops of the fingers too.

5.) I made a pattern on my thighs to give a little extra scaling to the body. Totally optional to add.

6.) Color in the feet and curve out the ankles to give a black footed look. Makes it seem like the lines are being held down by your feet and chest.

Step 8: Heat It Up!!!

You will need the heat gun for this.

When heated the suit, I turn the gun on full blast to heat it up faster, and get a consistent heat going, then turn it on low.

When on low setting , I would hold the gun above the suit about 5-6 inches and in a circle motion, go over the entire suit.

If done properly, you will see the puff paint change from shiny to matte and raise slightly. (its a pretty cool effect to watch change)

Step 9: The Face (Part Three - Eyes and Black Fill)

Remember when I mentioned, (In step 6) you should mark your nodes everywhere, well here is hoping you took the advice on the face. In this step you may need the assistance of a second person to make it a bit easier. (Recommended, but not required to have an additional person)

1) Make your nodes if you have not done so. Center of your eye, ball of your nose, chin.

2) Fill your mask/Head area with the Styrofoam Head and measure where you want the eyes and how you want them placed.

3) Using the sharpy pen and the fabric, make a dotted stencil around the eye on the suit as reference points for the Hot glue

4) Attach the eyes with small dots of hot glue on the edges of the fabric eyes until it is attached.

5) Once attached, trace the eye with puff paint. having about half of your line on the suit and the other half on the eye. let the puff paint dry before moving to the next eye. Then do the same process with that eye.

6) Put the mouth piece up to your costumes face and have the ball of the nose touch the center top piece of the mouth. This will give you an idea of where to apply the puff paint for under the mouth. Make reference dots with the sharpy if it will help.

7) Cover the chin area with puff pant where you would like your mouth to be blacked out.

8) Let the puff paint sit for 4-5 hours, and then heat the face, but be careful around the eyes, because the hot glue will melt!!! if this happens, simply blow on the hot glue, and let sit for about 5 min before you touch to be sure the hot glue has solidified.

9) Now add Hot Glue to the eyes outline to give it that wet alien symbiotic look. Just the eyes for now.

10) once everything is dry and to your liking, grab the inside of you eyes and cut a small circle where your eye node is at. (BE SURE NOT TO CUT THE EYE FABRIC!!!!) Best way to cut is to pull the Lycra and white fabric apart inside the eye, and cut the tip where the node is at, making a circle. Try the face on and see if you need to make it bigger and cut accordingly.

At this point you should have a carnage looking face without the mouth.

Step 10: The Face (Part Four - Mouth Attachment)

Adding the mouth and Symbiotic style...

1)Put the center of the mouth up to the face with the ball of the nose touching the top center of the upper lip

2) Apply hot glue to the ball pf the nose and upper lip piece

3) Add Hot glue to the brads where you want them on your face.

4)Then seal in the top of the upper lip onto the face.

5) Gauge where you want to have the lower mouth piece at and hot glue it in place. The best way, is to add 1 drop of hot glue to the cheek bone and lower mouth and that will be enough to keep it in place. Do this to both sides of the mouth.

6) Now you will need to be a bit artistic with the hot glue. Color in with the hot all the spots you wish to have the symbiotic look. I filled in most of the mouth and nose area to give the wet dropping style from the eyes. You can do the same, or fill it all in. Keep in mind, you can't hot glue off of the mask once applied, so be careful with your choice.

7) Try it on... This is the biggy. You will need someone to help zip you up. Once in your suit, make note of where your mouth is, and if you choose to(Totally 100% optional!!!) make a small slit in the mouth to allow for better breathing and drinking (with straw).

Onto the final step of fading the pieces together...

Step 11: The Finishing Touch

Adding the Symbiote style
100% Optional

If you feel you need to add some "Wet Symbiote" Effect to the rest of the suit, use the hot glue to make lines is certain areas. I added a little to the chest and around my spine on the suit to help make it fade together better. But these effects are not needed, and are 100% up to you.

That's it!!! Not very hard, and honestly, it was pretty fast as well. If you really put the time into it, (After work everyday for about 1-2 hours each day) you could have this done in about 2 weeks.
I do recommend using a compression shirt and compression shorts inside the suit. You can zip down the spine, and fold the top part of the face into the mouth to get some fresh air while wearing it. If you use black shirt and shorts, it also adds to the effect of it being a symbiote. However, you do not need them at all. I do, because am wearing the suit for 5-6 hours at a time, and this helps by not being naked in public :)

If you're looking for a villain without Lycra, I did a Mr Freeze for Dragon*Con 2012 on Instructables.
You can check that out Here!!!

If you're going to D*C 2013, look for me, I'll be with Venom, half transformed Lizard, and the Punisher in the Parade. Take a pick with me, and leave it in the comments!!!

I hope you enjoyed this and learned alot. The best feeling is finding someone who took my design and either replicated it, or used my technique and made there own using mine as inspiration.

Good Luck on your builds :D