Agarwaenwen
New Member
I have visited RPF countless times and find myself in awe every time I do so. I finally had time to post something of my own.
I know this is kind of unusual here that this project is already finished but I wanted to share my hard work with you guys who I know will appreciate it. And I'll be posting more in the near future about new projects like the up coming Boba-Fett short i'm currently participating etc.
But here it is enjoy!
Behind the mask: Black Cat
I’ve done cosplay for years and I’ve always wanted to make a superhero costume for myself. Yet it took me some time to find out who would feel the most home to me. I’ve been a huge Spiderman fan since my childhood and used to watch the animated TV-series with my dad on Saturday mornings.
During the last few years I've been going through Batman movies and comics, which reminded me of my old Marvel fascination and BAM! There she was, Black Cat! All the coolness and feline characteristics that Catwoman has but put together even sassier.
I started to dig deeper into her background story and realized I already knew parts of it. I fell in love with her vulnerability and the fact that she was covering that up by getting tougher and training herself which even made her to start enjoying life again. That was it - I knew I had to bring her to life. When the Ruined Films guys heard I was making the costume, they became excited about it and we made a deal to shoot a short fight scene for the character in a few months.
To kick off the process I went looking for good reference pictures and deciding which designs were the ones I loved the most. I decided to go for the new era look without all the bling on the costume's collar and the white He-Man style boots and gloves.
I loved the more sophisticated versions of the clothing and ordered a high quality shiny catsuit made to my size from fets-fash.com. I knew it would save me time and money because the fabric is hard to find and quite expensive. I chose the shiny and a little bit stretchy material instead of the pvc because I needed to be able to move in it and latex and pvc don’t breathe at all (even though they look amazing). The iconic mask was ordered from a very talentedguys at xtremedesignfx.com!
One of the most important parts of the costume is the hair and I have to admit, it was not an easy task to find a proper white lace wig. I ordered several from a number of sources just to check out the quality of them, but I wasn't entirely happy with the feel or the color of any of them. After ages of looking for a good wig I finally found a perfect one from Wigsbuy, that had lace wigs even in white color I was desperately looking for. The style was just about right. Fluffy and sassy and glamour at the same time. Score! Speaking of the hair, the fur for the suit collar was equally challenging to find. Finally I ended up finding a pretty hideous plush toy that had the exact fur quality I was looking for. The poor toy got skinned, but Black Cat bodysuit was ready once the fur was stitched onto the collar.
At the same time I had started working with the infamous nails of the Black Cat. What I ended up doing was just to buy cheap plastic "witch nails" from a Halloween store. These were then cut into right shape and size and glued onto the gloves that I had gotten along with the suit. After the glue was dry I took a black silicone tube and started molding and filling in the holes to make the nails look more cat-like.
During a test-fit I realized that the huge zipper ring that Black Cat has had to be exactly the size as portrayed in the comics. Otherwise the costume looked a little weak. I went out and purchased a set of metal rings to be welded together with the zipper handle by my friend Iris. Having spare rings turned out to be quite handy during the shooting; while doing the stunts (like being dragged on the floor by a colossal mercenary...) the original ring just broke into pieces. So it was great to have a few extras. Thank you Iris!
As the suit was getting nearer and nearer to completion, we started to practice the fight choreography with Simo Kurki (Crossbones) and fight scene's talented designer Lim Greatman. We did most of the training outside in daylight, but Helsinki's famous Kisahalli served as a secondary training site for our intense rehearsals. It was already midsummer and it was HOT, but I was ready to embrace the hard work to bring my feline heroine alive. So me and Simo put the effort into it with a smile (but believe me, there was a few curses here and there)!
So a few setbacks later and with the help of some very nice people the costume and the actress were finally ready for shooting. I’m very grateful to everyone who helped me with this costume and my dream to bring Black Cat alive. And I must say… It sure came out purrrrrfect.
P.S. If you'd like to see me and the costume in action then check out the short we made.
I know this is kind of unusual here that this project is already finished but I wanted to share my hard work with you guys who I know will appreciate it. And I'll be posting more in the near future about new projects like the up coming Boba-Fett short i'm currently participating etc.
But here it is enjoy!
Behind the mask: Black Cat
I’ve done cosplay for years and I’ve always wanted to make a superhero costume for myself. Yet it took me some time to find out who would feel the most home to me. I’ve been a huge Spiderman fan since my childhood and used to watch the animated TV-series with my dad on Saturday mornings.
During the last few years I've been going through Batman movies and comics, which reminded me of my old Marvel fascination and BAM! There she was, Black Cat! All the coolness and feline characteristics that Catwoman has but put together even sassier.
I started to dig deeper into her background story and realized I already knew parts of it. I fell in love with her vulnerability and the fact that she was covering that up by getting tougher and training herself which even made her to start enjoying life again. That was it - I knew I had to bring her to life. When the Ruined Films guys heard I was making the costume, they became excited about it and we made a deal to shoot a short fight scene for the character in a few months.
To kick off the process I went looking for good reference pictures and deciding which designs were the ones I loved the most. I decided to go for the new era look without all the bling on the costume's collar and the white He-Man style boots and gloves.
I loved the more sophisticated versions of the clothing and ordered a high quality shiny catsuit made to my size from fets-fash.com. I knew it would save me time and money because the fabric is hard to find and quite expensive. I chose the shiny and a little bit stretchy material instead of the pvc because I needed to be able to move in it and latex and pvc don’t breathe at all (even though they look amazing). The iconic mask was ordered from a very talentedguys at xtremedesignfx.com!
One of the most important parts of the costume is the hair and I have to admit, it was not an easy task to find a proper white lace wig. I ordered several from a number of sources just to check out the quality of them, but I wasn't entirely happy with the feel or the color of any of them. After ages of looking for a good wig I finally found a perfect one from Wigsbuy, that had lace wigs even in white color I was desperately looking for. The style was just about right. Fluffy and sassy and glamour at the same time. Score! Speaking of the hair, the fur for the suit collar was equally challenging to find. Finally I ended up finding a pretty hideous plush toy that had the exact fur quality I was looking for. The poor toy got skinned, but Black Cat bodysuit was ready once the fur was stitched onto the collar.
At the same time I had started working with the infamous nails of the Black Cat. What I ended up doing was just to buy cheap plastic "witch nails" from a Halloween store. These were then cut into right shape and size and glued onto the gloves that I had gotten along with the suit. After the glue was dry I took a black silicone tube and started molding and filling in the holes to make the nails look more cat-like.
During a test-fit I realized that the huge zipper ring that Black Cat has had to be exactly the size as portrayed in the comics. Otherwise the costume looked a little weak. I went out and purchased a set of metal rings to be welded together with the zipper handle by my friend Iris. Having spare rings turned out to be quite handy during the shooting; while doing the stunts (like being dragged on the floor by a colossal mercenary...) the original ring just broke into pieces. So it was great to have a few extras. Thank you Iris!
As the suit was getting nearer and nearer to completion, we started to practice the fight choreography with Simo Kurki (Crossbones) and fight scene's talented designer Lim Greatman. We did most of the training outside in daylight, but Helsinki's famous Kisahalli served as a secondary training site for our intense rehearsals. It was already midsummer and it was HOT, but I was ready to embrace the hard work to bring my feline heroine alive. So me and Simo put the effort into it with a smile (but believe me, there was a few curses here and there)!
So a few setbacks later and with the help of some very nice people the costume and the actress were finally ready for shooting. I’m very grateful to everyone who helped me with this costume and my dream to bring Black Cat alive. And I must say… It sure came out purrrrrfect.
 |
| Photography by Marko Saari. |
P.S. If you'd like to see me and the costume in action then check out the short we made.
| Check out Close Call - The Black Cat fan film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yaTiSnaByg Close Call Teaser: http://youtu.be/i8_9jH4969c?a |
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