The amount of time and effort, sweat and tears that go into making movies is impressive. Just take a look at the intricacies required in applying movie makeup on Hollywood actors. Even characters who we think don’t need any serious makeup can take hours and hours to get ready for the set. Not to mention how much effort goes into making fantasy and sci-fi characters look believable.

To show you just how much work it takes to do Hollywood-tier makeup, we’ve collected some of the best before and after, as well as step-by-step pictures. For example, who knew that making Thorin Oakenshield look like, well, Thorin Oakenshield was a very involved process? And here we thought that putting on a wig was all it took!

Keep on scrolling, upvote your fave pics, and share them with your movie-loving friends. When you’re done, have a look at Bored Panda’s previous post about incredible pics of actors before and after applying movie makeup.

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The life of a Hollywood movie makeup artist is difficult and involved, even if it’s exciting and purposeful. But makeup artists aren’t one homogenous group of professionals.

You have 4 main movie makeup artist roles. Starting with key makeup artists who design the makeup worn by the lead actors. In other words, they take care of the stars.

They also come up with the more complicated and intricate makeup designs and oversee other employees to make sure that there’s visual continuity and consistency in how the makeup looks throughout shooting the entire movie.

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Then there are your run-of-the-mill makeup artists who are responsible for making non-lead and supporting actors look good. They’re under orders to turn the key makeup artists’ visions into reality.

Of course, not much would be done without makeup assistants who help organize makeup kits, do other small but necessary tasks, and lend a hand to the artists with whatever they might need. They’re the unsung heroes of every movie.

Lastly, there are special effects makeup artists who probably have some of the coolest jobs in the movie industry. They create special makeup effects, such as prosthetics and the like.