Monsters and creatures of all shapes and sizes were on display on 15-16 August in London for the first ever Creaturegeddon event. Fans and students were able to get up close to some real suits that have been used on the big screen while the artists who make such creatures were able to showcase their work.

On the way into the Expo at the Renaissance Hotel in London, The Chamberlain from Hellboy II: The Golden Army watched over proceedings. Also on display were original masks from the 2005 fantasy film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and an original mutated creature from horror film Feast.

In amongst the creatures and monsters were several demonstrations. Prosthetic make-up designer Kristyan Mallett was hard at work turning fellow make-up artist Jack Coakley into an alien, similar to the ones he and his team created for TV show Sexy Beasts.

''Basically we are turning him into an alien - just so people can see the process - which is normally for TV or film. Jack is wearing foam latex pieces, he is only wearing two pieces - he is wearing a large head piece that sits on top and he is just wearing a small facial piece,'' Mallett said.

Mallett has worked in the make-up department on numerous movies including as prosthetics make-up supervisor on The Theory of Everything, prosthetics make-up designer on Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation and as a special make-up effects artist on Guardians of the Galaxy. While a lot of the work he has done has involved old age make-up and likeness make-up he explained how he creates creatures and monsters.

"Obviously when you do concepts you try take things from, things that are currently in our animal kingdom or in the deepest of our oceans because there are some really strange stuff there anyway and if you sort of pick out some of those elements and put them in to some of the creatures we design then there's a sense of realism to it them, there's a sense of - you can believe that would work," said Mallett.

Across the weekend there were several presentations, actor and creature suit performer Paul Warren was one of the professionals who was invited to talk about his work. Warren has been in several blockbuster films including Clash of the Titans, Thor: The Dark World and Guardians of the Galaxy. Speaking about the film industry he said there is room in film for CGI effects and practical effects (sometimes referred to as creature) to co-exist.

"Well I think it's going back to practical because when CGI sort of has come around and it kind of took over the creature, now it's being used with the creature and you're seeing increasing movies that are starting to use it. And I think within the next year - you're gonna see - especially with the Star Wars movies - you are going to see a return back to animatronic practical creature suits, you know puppets - all the stuff that people love in movies is coming back in a big way - hopefully they will use the both together like they have been doing but a lot more,'' said Warren.

Organisers were pleased with the popularity of the event and promise this won't be the last Creaturegeddon.

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