What are the job expectations for a special effect makeup artist?

Answer 1

They vary from job to job. Special effects makeup artists may work for film productions (a one-time job), television series (a season-to-season job), live theater (run of the production), or even theme parks (part or full-time job).

On films, a special effects makeup artist would most likely start as an assistant, not actually doing any designing, but carrying out other people's designs. Later in their career, they would be involved in more design work, working with the wardrobe, production design, and special effects teams, among others, to create the looks and effects needed.

Similar experiences for television series, but they'd be generally working with a known group of actors, within known design guidelines (think Star Trek -- the aliens never did anything too crazy, and were often used over and over).

I don't really know about live theater, so hopefully someone else can fill in that answer.

For theme parks, there would be very, very little actual design work, since those decisions are usually made at a corporate level. The work would generally be the same, day after day, applying makeup effects for set characters and shows, changing occassionally for seasonal productions.