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Pay attention, Hollywood. "Amateur" cosplayers can teach you a thing or two about bringing our favorite video game characters to life.
The cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation used to joke that their fans made better-quality Starfleet uniforms than what they themselves wore on the set. It’s not a joke anymore.
Cosplay — short for “costume play,” in which fans create and wear costumes based on fictional characters — still happily occupies its attention-getting, superfan niche. But the hobby has evolved in recent years from something you might throw together for Halloween into a full-on artistic endeavor. Some companies now even hire “amateur” cosplayers to represent their top-tier characters at professional trade shows.
In an age where a porn parody makes a better Wonder Woman outfit than a failed television pilot from powerhouse producer David E. Kelly (Ally McBeal, Boston Legal), this is no small thing. And it didn’t take much to find a bunch of cosplayers who could also teach Hollywood a thing or two about bringing our favorite video game characters to life.
Launch the gallery below to see 10 amazing examples.
“I was looking to do a popular sci-fi character, preferably an alien with lights,” says Robert Rodgers of My Wicked Armor. Fortunately, BioWare’s epic space opera obliged him. “I loved the character, the elegant shape of the head, and the interesting torso.” The Turian digitigrade legs also made an interesting challenge. “It’s more like a short stilt than a high heel,” Rodgers adds. “I’m only slightly on my toes in the last version.” The mouth also moves when Rodgers talks, and 75 LED lights give him that perfect Mass Effect aura. You can even see the hand-etched visor patterns glow in the right conditions.
Rodgers keeps all his creations on his website: mywickedarmor.com.
For most cosplayers, solid skills in tailoring pretty much gets the job done. Tasha Cosplay, who’s done dozens of cosplays in her time, kicked things up several notches to make the half-Zerg Kerrigan from StarCraft come to life. Detailed makeup work does a lot of the heavy lifting, but the prosthetic Zerg dreadlocks and Kerrigan’s trademark wings seal the deal. It’s a very effective combination of “Wow” and “Oh, I’m going to die now.” That is the correct reaction for running into Kerrigan, after all.
Tasha’s long, long history of cosplay is very well documented on her public Facebook page: facebook.com/TashaCosplay.
Throw a sepia tone over Alexa Karii’s photo and stick a “Summer 2015” in the lower right, and it’s easily a teaser poster for a new Tomb Raider movie. “For a long time, Lara was centered around her sex appeal and use of guns,” says Karii, who wasn’t a fan of either. “I always loved Lara Croft, but I really need to connect with the character to bring it to life. When I saw this new Lara using a basic, more primitive fighting system, I had to jump on it! This was the character I was waiting for!” Creating the costume was fairly simple, says Karii. “Most of the work was in getting the texturing and weathering correct. A lot of people are just too scared [to weather their costumes] for one reason of another. I smeared mud and dirt all over.”
Karii keeps all her cosplay photos on her Deviant Art page: donttellme.deviantart.com/.
Let’s not kid ourselves. The most impressive part of Italian model, bartender, student, and cosplayer Leon Chiro’s Dante are his six-pack abs, and they’re completely authentic. The rest of his outfit is self-made, too. Handguns Ebony and Ivory are even different colors, as they should be. I have no idea if Chiro can act, but we should go ahead and lock him in for the Devil May Cry live-action movie that I just greenlit in my head.
Yes, he brought his knife to the gunfight. Chiro updates his Deviant Art page pretty frequently, and judging by his costume choices, he’s quite a fighting-game fan. Check it out at leonchirocosplayart.deviantart.com.
For an example of a fan’s obsessive attention to detail, look no further than Russian cosplayer Anna Moleva. The pale skin and big, sky-blue eyes tell you exactly who she is, but it’s that stray strand of hair that really says this is BioShock Infinite’s heroine in the flesh. “I love BioShock,” says Moleva, “But unfortunately, there was no character for me in the first two games. Then came Elizabeth.” Ken Levine, head of developer Irrational Games and BioShock’s lead writer, was so impressed that he tweeted out Moleva’s photos … and then he hired her to represent Irrational Games as Elizabeth at special events. Hopefully, they’ll all take place at a lighthouse.
Moleva also made a spot-on Poison Ivy costume, among others. See more at ormeli.deviantart.com.
“Making a costume is like making a painting or a drawing,” says Rick Boer, a teacher in the Netherlands who’s self-made Altair costume (from the first Assassin’s Creed) prompted Ubisoft to not only hire him to walk around conventions in costume but to also be their Connor when Assassin’s Creed III rolled around. “When I was almost done with the costume, they showed us Aveline from Liberation,” says Boer, who’s wife, Dominique, happens to be a dead ringer for Liberation’s lead character. “We were like, ‘They’ve done this on purpose.'” Intentional or not, Boer obliged by creating her costume as well. What puts Boer’s assassin over all the other Creed costumes I’ve seen? The sheer attention to detail and a mammoth ton of weathering. All the rest look like they just went through the wash cycle with a load of whites and an extra scoop of bleach.
You can see more of Rick’s work, including a dead-on Solid Snake, at his Deviant Art page: rbf-productions.deviantart.com.
Jia Jem’s Jack isn’t something you should try to say three times fast, but it does solve the physics and modesty-defying issues around the fashion choices of Mass Effect 2’s psycho psychic. A very well-chosen, carefully painted, and cleverly hidden body stocking ensures Jem doesn’t have any wardrobe malfunctions … and it avoids having to redraw all those body tattoos every time she dresses up. Besides, everything from the neck up is completely authentic (and a pair of LED rings gives her hands that special biotic glow). “I shaved my head many years ago for fun,” says Jem, “so I suspect whenever my friends see a bald chick costume, they automatically think of me.” Either way, that’s devotion to one’s craft.
A look at the back detail.
You can find more of Jem’s work at jiajem.com.
Fine, sometimes you can still throw something together for Halloween and it turns out totally awesome. Seasoned cosplayer Greg Peltz did just that, keeping the cartoonish feel of Team Fortress 2’s designs intact while still feeling grounded in reality. “Most of the costume elements were made from scratch,” says Peltz. “We made a spectacular mess of the apartment over the several weeks that we spent making these things … all worth it, of course!”
Peltz also apparently built the entire Well map from Team Fortress 2.
You can see more of Peltz’s work on his blog: gregpeltz.blogspot.com.
Sure, it’s nice to take your costume out to the sci-fi convention, but Harrison Kris of Volpin Props went one better. He convinced the Georgia Aquarium to let him and his friends come in before business hours for a Big Daddy photo shoot. “There were divers cleaning the insides of the tanks when we first arrived,” says Krix, “Some of them started to crowd around and look at what was taking place. Definitely an odd experience when you’re the one being looked at from the inside of the fish tank.”
And here’s a shot that shows the detailing better. You can check out more of Krix’s work at volpinprops.blogspot.com. His Big Daddy build log is under the September 2009 folder.
Generally speaking, weathering and distressing your gear helps a costume hit that next level of authenticity. Here’s the exception to that rule. Swedish cosplayer Jenni Kallberg’s first, fairly famous, award-winning (and heavily weathered) Samus Aran costume is the first non-cartoon picture that pops up on a Metroid image serarch, but she kept this version of her Varia armor clean and gleaming in ways that truly evoke the otherworldly source material. Nintendo hired her for a Metroid Prime press tour in Germany, and she’s done plenty of work since then.
Kallberg’s armor still looks impressive close up. But would the real Samus leave her pony tail hanging out the back?
You can see more of Kallberg’s work — and build logs of her armor — at her blog: PixelNinja.se.
