Hey gang! A lot of you might know me from the convention circuit. I'm Dustin Dorough, former propmaker, current philanthropist. I do a lot of visits with children's hospitals and the like and will be leaving in January to visit at least one hospital in each state and a few Canadian provinces as part of the Hospital Heroes project that I started back in August.
Clearly, I have a lot of passion for the character of Superman and his portrayal. Since I'm going to be doing so much charity work with my costumes, I wanted to go all-out and REALLY invest in my personal vision of the ultimate Superman costume. With great assistance and creative input from my good friend, Allen Belk, we put together this new design. It's based on lots of different versions going all the way back to 1938 and picking out our favorite parts of each design and tweaking where necessary.
Here's Allen's basic sketch of the suit. The thing we most significantly updated was the boots, but there's lots more detail not quite visible in this image.
The entire uniform is supposed to look like ONE garment instead of suit + trunks + boots + etc. so there will be a uniform diamond texture over EVERYTHING, except for the cape. My suit will look similar to this piece of Man of Steel fan art:
That is also a perfect example of how I want the cape to attach to the neck. I absolutely love those crisp folds and that detailing around the neckline.
Though, unlike the above picture, I want my suit to have a sheen to it like the Man of Steel movie suit. I suppose this would require the same process to make the raised texture that they used for the MoS movie.
The raised texture is particularly important because with a printed texture, it all seems to blend together from any sort of distance. My current Superman costume has the exact texture that I want on the new one, but you simply can't tell once you're more than six feet away.
I'm using the Earth-2 Superman chest shield (Highly similar to the one they're using in Man of Steel, actually.) and the whole suit will be done in vibrant colors, but not cheesy cartoon colors. The texturing will help to subdue the brightness to a realistic level. The color scheme will be similar to the fan art that I posted up there. *points*
I'm going to try having the trunks made in something other than the standard spandex. I also plan for the trunks and belt to be one piece with the belt actually built into the trunks fabric. The belt will be rigid (well, more-so than just fabric, but not to the point where it becomes difficult to wear or anything) and have a gold-ish sheen to it. I want the trunks to have some extra seam lines in them and the same diamond texture pattern so that they will look modern and match the rest of the suit. Very similar to the trunks in this well-known Batman costume. (Which was created by some members here, I believe?)
One of my Facebook friends decided to help me out a bit and do a quick bit of coloring on Allen's original sketch. They helped bring it to life, though there are still a couple of things missing. The border around the \S/ shield will be yellow.
Also not pictured are the wrist cuffs that I'd like to include in the costume. We went through a lot of designs before finally deciding on this one.
The cuff will look metallic and have the same sheen as the rest of the suit, but it won't be textured.
Luckily, I've already found my bootmaker, so the boots are covered. Those were the very first piece designed (and the most complex, undoubtedly).
What I need to know from all of you is... How in the heck do I go about having this made? I'm willing to spare no expense to make this the best suit possible, since I plan on wearing it very often to visit sick children. I imagine that I'll likely have to commission pieces from multiple costume-makers, then assemble all of it myself. I would be extremely grateful for tips and suggestions of who to go to or at least what methods of construction might be best for each part, so that I can begin seeking out costume-makers based on those particular skills.
I'm really sorry if this is cluttered or hard to understand. I'll do my best to explain things further if anyone has any questions. It's been quite a long time since I've used a message board, so it'll take me a bit of getting-used-to as far as the most effective post formatting, especially for a project such as this.
I would very much appreciate any and all input that you could suggest. Like I said, I don't mind spending a lot for quality (even if it means that I have to wait longer and save up for it), but if there is a slightly-less-expensive option that is just as good as the other... I prefer the less expensive one, haha. I also don't need it to be as form-fitting as the MoS suit, so I'm trying to avoid the expense of doing a full body cast.
Thanks so much in advance, everyone. All of the RPF members I know are great people, so I know that I've come to the proper place for great and knowledgeable guidance. *bows low*
Clearly, I have a lot of passion for the character of Superman and his portrayal. Since I'm going to be doing so much charity work with my costumes, I wanted to go all-out and REALLY invest in my personal vision of the ultimate Superman costume. With great assistance and creative input from my good friend, Allen Belk, we put together this new design. It's based on lots of different versions going all the way back to 1938 and picking out our favorite parts of each design and tweaking where necessary.
Here's Allen's basic sketch of the suit. The thing we most significantly updated was the boots, but there's lots more detail not quite visible in this image.
The entire uniform is supposed to look like ONE garment instead of suit + trunks + boots + etc. so there will be a uniform diamond texture over EVERYTHING, except for the cape. My suit will look similar to this piece of Man of Steel fan art:
That is also a perfect example of how I want the cape to attach to the neck. I absolutely love those crisp folds and that detailing around the neckline.
Though, unlike the above picture, I want my suit to have a sheen to it like the Man of Steel movie suit. I suppose this would require the same process to make the raised texture that they used for the MoS movie.
The raised texture is particularly important because with a printed texture, it all seems to blend together from any sort of distance. My current Superman costume has the exact texture that I want on the new one, but you simply can't tell once you're more than six feet away.
I'm using the Earth-2 Superman chest shield (Highly similar to the one they're using in Man of Steel, actually.) and the whole suit will be done in vibrant colors, but not cheesy cartoon colors. The texturing will help to subdue the brightness to a realistic level. The color scheme will be similar to the fan art that I posted up there. *points*
I'm going to try having the trunks made in something other than the standard spandex. I also plan for the trunks and belt to be one piece with the belt actually built into the trunks fabric. The belt will be rigid (well, more-so than just fabric, but not to the point where it becomes difficult to wear or anything) and have a gold-ish sheen to it. I want the trunks to have some extra seam lines in them and the same diamond texture pattern so that they will look modern and match the rest of the suit. Very similar to the trunks in this well-known Batman costume. (Which was created by some members here, I believe?)
One of my Facebook friends decided to help me out a bit and do a quick bit of coloring on Allen's original sketch. They helped bring it to life, though there are still a couple of things missing. The border around the \S/ shield will be yellow.
Also not pictured are the wrist cuffs that I'd like to include in the costume. We went through a lot of designs before finally deciding on this one.
The cuff will look metallic and have the same sheen as the rest of the suit, but it won't be textured.
Luckily, I've already found my bootmaker, so the boots are covered. Those were the very first piece designed (and the most complex, undoubtedly).
What I need to know from all of you is... How in the heck do I go about having this made? I'm willing to spare no expense to make this the best suit possible, since I plan on wearing it very often to visit sick children. I imagine that I'll likely have to commission pieces from multiple costume-makers, then assemble all of it myself. I would be extremely grateful for tips and suggestions of who to go to or at least what methods of construction might be best for each part, so that I can begin seeking out costume-makers based on those particular skills.
I'm really sorry if this is cluttered or hard to understand. I'll do my best to explain things further if anyone has any questions. It's been quite a long time since I've used a message board, so it'll take me a bit of getting-used-to as far as the most effective post formatting, especially for a project such as this.
I would very much appreciate any and all input that you could suggest. Like I said, I don't mind spending a lot for quality (even if it means that I have to wait longer and save up for it), but if there is a slightly-less-expensive option that is just as good as the other... I prefer the less expensive one, haha. I also don't need it to be as form-fitting as the MoS suit, so I'm trying to avoid the expense of doing a full body cast.
Thanks so much in advance, everyone. All of the RPF members I know are great people, so I know that I've come to the proper place for great and knowledgeable guidance. *bows low*
