In some areas of Stoke on Trent, problems with alcohol among children are becoming such a big problem, that the council decided to work with schools and children directly to combat the problem. The children were directly responsible for commissioning a short film about drinking and some software to show how they would look older, with the effects of alcohol. The project was a great success and should pave the way for similar pro-activity throughout all schools in Great Britain, especially those areas worse effected by alcohol abuse.

Together with the digital company Rancon, we created this unique ageing software to age the children a few years before adding a slider effect with worsening effects of alcohol. The children had a direct impact on the way the software looked and worked. For a start, it had to be very easy to use, at one click the children can upload a photo of themselves, they then place markers for their eyes, mouth and chin, then click to age. Once the aged image appears, they can use the slider to increase effects of alcohol, including red bloated cheeks, bloodshot eyes, weight gain and blemished skin. At any time, the children can click to return to their original image.

As the image changes, the tension builds, culminating in the final ‘worst case scenario’ of the child as an alcoholic. The results speak for themselves as the children gasp and claim never to want to touch a drop of alcohol in their lives – the images are shocking but realistic unlike many other software programmes on the market.

We are so excited to have worked on such an important project and hope that other schools and organisations may benefit from the alcohol ageing software too. We are now working on the smoking version.

For more information please contact Auriole Prince on 0845 539 3399 or 07958 635 905.

www.changemyface.com

With the growing trends in cosmetic surgery, I noticed there wasn’t a service like it at the time, and I thought it may be helpful for people to visualise their changes before going under the knife. I also felt that it was important that people should make an informed decision – so therefore deciding against surgery as well as deciding to undergo surgery. I did some research with surgeons and found out that for the most part they would do a scribble for the patient to show how they were going to look.

I initially thought that surgeons would love this idea, but what I’ve found is that they don’t like to show people how they are going to look, just in case it doesn’t turn out that way (and maybe they don’t want to put people off?). Most of my clients come to me in the early stages of thinking about surgery and find it really helpful to visualize their changes but surgeons don’t seem so keen.  I do think it will be eventually be a service that is automatically offered to people before they undergo cosmetic surgery, especially rhinoplasty operations.

As it happens I’ve had fantastic feedback from people….

This was one of my clients a man who had already had two lots of surgery to correct his nose but was unhappy with the results. In this case we did some 3D imaging and manipulated his nose from every angle so that he could then convey his wishes to his surgeon.

I’ve also done lots of imaging for TV Programmes and PR companies and have probably learned something new from each job. I cut my teeth on my biggest TV job when I first left Missing Persons.

This is one that I really enjoyed doing, a celebratory image of Marilyn Monroe to show her at 80….a purely decorative age progression commissioned by the Independent and then subsequently bought by a Japanese magazine. I created this image to show her as if she had lived a wonderful, happy life.

An interesting and topical project was for the government initiative Change4Life campaign which is tackling the problem of obesity. This growing problem sees cases of obesity tripling in 20 years time – a problem that will ultimately bankrupt the NHS if not tackled now. This project mission was to take 10 children and age them 30 years to different weights.

These are the kids and here they are as adults. I had to age each one, using only one parental reference photo, and then fatten them up according to the government statistics. This was quite a fiddly job – I first had to cut them out of the backgrounds, then age each one, then fatten them up to the appropriate weight, then make them fatter, then some of them thinner (I genuinely think that some of them are just not fat enough….) –  then put them all together making sure they were all naturally lit in a similar way.

Here is Holly with her older self – I think the kids were a bit bemused and the parents a bit worried to see their kids looking overweight and older.

Another project to do with weight issues was for Channel 4’s Jo Frost’s Extreme Parenting whereby 22 girls ranging from age 6 to early teens were photographed and I did the imaging to show them both 3x larger and 3x smaller in size.

The girls were supposed to pick out the image that they thought was them (nearly always picking a larger version) then they were asked to pick out the image that they preferred of themselves which nearly always the skinniest. I guess it highlighted issues that even young girls have about their weight these days.

I did some recent imaging and filming for the forthcoming series of Embarrassing Fat Bodies on Channel 4 (not mine you’ll be pleased to hear) so watch this space…November 2010.

Auriole Prince BA MMAA RMIP

www.changemyface.com

I expect you’ve all seen this  -  In Madeleine McCann’s case her parents went to America to have the age progression done and this helped to maximize publicity – it was first aired on the Oprah Winfrey show. Here, they have kept the distinctive abnormality of the iris, any distinguishing mark such as a scar, a mole, a crooked nose all help to identify one person from another. They will have made the iris smaller to give the illusion of being older…not quite so wide eyed and baby like. They have stretched the lower part of her face, using pictures of her mum and dad at the same age as a guide. The nose has lengthened and the nasal bridge is more defined. All these factors contribute to the ageing process and help the public to visualise how she could look now.

Image produced by Missing People

In the case of missing boy Ben Needham who disappeared off the island of Kos, an updated image will inform people that they are no longer looking for a two year old blonde haired boy, but that now he would be 19, resembling his parents at that age and no doubt with darker hair. Many aged images have been produced by different artists and it’s important to remember – it’s an artist using the computer to create the image, not the computer creating it, so it can sometimes be subjective and not always precise.

You may be wondering if age progression images actually look like the person when they are found, well here is one of my first cases that I did at missing persons where the girl who had been abducted by her father to Pakistan was eventually found. Here is the recovery photo compared to the age progressed image.

It’s great to have success stories but unfortunately, an age progressed image is normally a last resort tactic to trying to find someone and therefore by the time you’re an age progression has been requested, the chances of that person being found are less likely.

Here’s another high profile missing person…..

The FBI recently produced a number of updated images of America’s most wanted… age progression techniques can be used to try and gain new information in ongoing law enforcement enquiries. Also, in terms of those who are wanted, it is important to show how they could look with different hairstyles, beards, with or without glasses etc.

Part 4 follows soon…

www.changemyface.com

Auriole Prince BA MMAA RMIP

Speaking of proportions, I thought this was quite topical…..…these images were produced by VisionMetric who develop the EFit software for police to illustrate how the same face can be manipulated to look both untrustworthy and trustworthy. Although the actual features have been manipulated, it does prove the point that when you mess around with that triangle of proportions, you can end up with a very different looking person. In saying that, some proportions do change with the ageing process, for example a man’s receding hairline can result in a larger looking forehead, and the loss of dentition as you get older can result in a smaller jaw.

Child Age Progression involves much structural change – it takes into consideration the underlying bone growth and the dentition changes which take place at around 6 -7 years old – these changes continue until at least 18 years of age.

Image produced by Karen T.Taylor, author of Forensic Art

You can see from this image drawn by Karen Taylor,  that the baby’s cranium is very large compared to the lower part of its skull. As a child develops the growth of the cranium then levels off and the lower part of the face, the nose, cheeks and jaw continue growing outwards and downwards.

Here are two well known faces who’ve been in the gossip columns recently, you can see how the area below their eyes has grown in comparison to the eyes and above. There has been some research to show that beautiful people have proportions closer to those of a child i.e. larger foreheads, small noses and chins, big eyes.

I spoke before about a unique look, usually you find that there is a consistency of appearance throughout life – like when you meet old friends at school reunions – it’s amazing how people just don’t change – it’s more true for some than others but there are always the extreme exceptions.

www.changemyface.com

Auriole Prince BA MAA RMIP

I found this definition of ageing on wikipedia……Ageing is the accumulation of changes in an organism or object over time. Aging in humans refers to a multidimensional process of physical, psychological, and social change. Some dimensions of aging grow and expand over time, while others decline.

I studied illustration and photography at Maidstone Art college and after a few years, joined the Missing People Charity where I learnt all the different skills to become a forensic artist. This included training at the FBI Academy in Quantico in 2D and 3D facial reconstruction  - witness interviewing and E-Fit training at Durham with the British Police, Age Progression training at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Washington. And last but not least – the Medical Art Post graduate course.

Here are some of the images I produced – I tried to incorporate the forensic art into my Medical Art course as this was my line of work at the time. From 1997 to 2004 I worked for the Missing People Charity – I started as a volunteer then moved into case work, looking after the families of those who had gone missing. I then moved into the Identification department and started to learn forensic art, which included child age progression for long term missing children, facial reconstruction from skeletal remains, sanitizing photos of people found dead and updating photos of missing adults, i.e. changing hairstyles etc I also helped police to match missing persons reports with those found unidentified, dead or alive.

Age progressions are normally done for three reasons……

Firstly and most importantly, they are used when someone has been missing for two or more years and there has been sufficient time for appearances to change. The age progression image normally renews publicity and media interest in a case, therefore the case stays pro-active, supporting families and hopefully finding the person safe.

Secondly, age progressions are produced by or for police to try to capture criminals.

Thirdly, age progressions are often used in the media to illustrate to people the damaging effects of for example, smoking, drinking and sunbathing as a kind of a shock tactic.

Missing Person April Fabb

This is the case of missing person April Fabb – she was 13 when she disappeared on her bicycle in Norfolk, never to be seen again. She would now be in her mid 50’s.

Here I started off with a reference photograph in colour of a lady in her 50’s. I then used that as my main reference photo. I had pictures of her parents in their 50’s and used those as reference, Each age progression is different, and sometimes I’ll merge the missing photo with that of a family member. It just depends on what I have to work with.

Effectively, you are piecing together a puzzle using reference pictures of family members – here lie the clues as to how someone is going to look when they are older. Ultimately, I’m always hopeful that I’ll maintain the proportions and ‘unique look’ of that person.

Part 2 continues later…..

www.changemyface.com

www.missingpeople.org.uk

www.changemyface.com

“Old is very sexy,” said Thompson, who will soon be seen onscreen as Nanny McPhee in the movie sequel Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang. “It must be awful for women who are in denial and insist on looking 20 years younger.

“How are we going to produce beautiful older women if we don’t allow ourselves to be older. I think the trick is to age honestly and gracefully. Trying to constantly look younger must be exhausting.”

Thompson — who is married to actor Greg Wise — recently revealed she was planning to take a break from Hollywood as a birthday present to herself. (She turned 50 in April.)

“I’m taking a year off. That’s my birthday present to myself,” she said. “I’m not going to act, write or anything like that. I’ll be a mum, teach drama at my daughter’s school, I’ll cook meals and have fun, go out with my friends, I’ll go to movies and not think about working. I’ll see what bubbles up after that.

“As an actor and writer, sometimes I think you have to stop creating and let your brain relax. I think it hones the appetite. I think that’s important.”

www.showbizspy.com

www.changemyface.com

A new TV series investigating the issue of missing children featuring families of those is currently being shown on Sky Real Lives and is also repeated on Sky One. Changemyface helped with their investigations to produce age progressions of how the children would look now, some of them as adults.

Ben Needham who has been missing since July 24th 1991 on the Greek Island of Kos.

April Fabb who has been missing since 8th April 1969 in Norfolk

Lorraine Kelly meets the families and friends of those who have gone missing and uses dramatic reconstructions to retrace their last known steps. She also talks to the police, psychologists and charities who are trying to find out why and where these children have gone. The series looks beyond the shocking statistics, revealing the human stories behind some of these cases. Mixing interviews with filmed reconstructions viewers will find out more about the children themselves, meet the parents who are still searching for them and examine the circumstances behind their disappearance. The child may be a suspected teenage runaway,
a younger boy or girl feared abducted, or a minor who has just
disappeared without a trace.

In the UK it is estimated that there are over 100,000 instances of children going missing every year – one every five minutes. Some of those children missing have disappeared on more than one occasion and thankfully the majority are found within 48 hours. There are those that have been missing for months or years and their families are desparate to know what has happened to them. Children account for around two thirds of those reported missing.

The series looks at missing children of all ages and their stories. Many of the cases were high profile and the programmes look deeper into the headlines to highlight what happens when a child goes missing. The shows also features reconstructions of the events leading up to the disappearance and information from witnesses about what they saw.

The series is shown on Sky Real Lives (channel 278 or in HD on channel 243) on Wednesdays between 12th Augusust and 10th September 2009. It is then repeated the following Sunday at 11pm. The series is also being shown on Wednesdays on Sky 1 (channel 106) at 9pm
Further information can be found in the August edition of the Sky Magazine and by visiting the Sky Real Lives website.

If you have any information about a missing child, you can contact the Missing Persons Bureau via e-mail – missingpersonsbureau@npia.pnn.police.uk.

www.missingpeople.org.uk

Some people, no matter how old they get, never lose their beauty – they merely move it from their faces into their hearts.  ~Martin Buxbaum

There is always a lot to be thankful for, if you take the time to look. For example, I’m sitting here thinking how nice it is that wrinkles don’t hurt.  ~Author Unknown

First you forget names, then you forget faces, then you forget to pull your zipper up, then you forget to pull your zipper down.  ~Leo Rosenberg

The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young.  ~Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891

When it comes to staying young, a mind-lift beats a face-lift any day.  ~Marty Bucella