HELM – Frostreach Dawning Exclusive

Everything starts with the Helmet. The dawning helmet is so fascinating as it evokes the holidays without feeling specific to any year end holiday.  The antlers, the blue color, the fur, and more  evoke the feeling of frosty nights. It was important to get this right and why I started here. It needed to capture attention and draw the eye; I went with a gold chameleon face mask
instead of the dark black as it really queues back to the gold on the lower trim of the cloak.

I modeled the pieces in 3d Blender using the in-game models for reference. The helmet was printed 3-4 times to get the scale correct. Both for the fit but also to look like it belongs in the real world. In game it’s easy to scale as someone’s head doesn’t need to be in there.

Chest and Leg Armor – Frostreach Dawning Exclusive

The chest armor is my very close second favorite armor piece to the helm for me, with the legs finishing the look.  Often in the game it is easy to mix chest and leg armor but these two just look so good together. The stoic shoulders give this armor an intimidating silhouette, with the blue color and painted leaves on the chest leaving you feel protected by this character.

While on the helmet I jumped right into the 3d modeler, I started with the sewing here.  I loved the quilted look, almost like a good guy Darth Vader.  I wanted to get a proper mixture of fabrics to feel have everything feel real and with purpose.  So many costumes pick just one fabric, but the material on this includes spandex and latex for the near fitted under suit with flowing quilted lines. For the flack vest that the armor attaches to, I used duck cloth and black rubber to make it almost look like a Kevlar Vest, because it needs to look like it can take a hit. Finally, a flowing outdoor blue fabric for the cloak. It needed to have a weight to it, as this is part of a guardian’s armor.  For the dawning look, a finishing touch in chameleon gold vinyl applique that I designed drawing freehand in Photoshop.  Which is extra hard when your computer crashes and the second half of the decals not yet printed need to be re designed to match!

The neck area is a combination of three neck seals, and yeah if you look closely there are three in game.  A core neck seal, a foam wrapped in latex collar and an outer TPU Rubber seal that was designed in blender.

For the shoulders and armor, I designed them all in blender same as the helm and made sure to scale everything based on the helm.  The armor was bondoed, finished, and painted the same as the helm, with one major exception.  Recesses were hand cut into the armor after 3d printing that follow the lines painted on the armor so that I could add a power and charging look / effect to the final product.  The flowing lines of the costume were the final selling point for me and I had to take them the extra mile.

 

ARMS – Osmiomancy (In Game Exotic)

The arms are where I really let myself devate and be creative.  I didn’t just want to make all the same style armor pieces for everything as that is a core part of the game is expressing your fashion.  Not to mention you get one exotic to wear, and what better than a stasis winter themed armor piece with big flowing forarm claws.  It matched perfect with the theme of the costume while also adding a mixup to the whole thing, just as exotics do in the game.

I started by patterning an base forarm sleeve that all the warlock armor seems to have.  I then tried to match the cloth shape for the second forearm sleeve using the budgie artist deisngs shared online.   The printed pattern was the next challenge.  Capturing the same pattern was not possible but I used the concept art ot get something very similar, and I deviated from the game color scheme slightly.  While the cloth is the same color I made the decals gold to match the cloak and visor.  Once again tying everything together and making sure it all feels as though it belongs.

 

Reference:

Osmiomancy: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/wJmYKX

Warlock Bond – TIMUR’s Iron Bond

The warlock bond is an armband that is on the left shoulder of the character.  I chose the Iron banner bond as it is a wolf logo and really matches the winter and ice theme.  I did deviate from the game color scheme slightly as I wanted the colors to really blend with that of the rest of the armor, as this needed to look good in person.  I also changed the pattern of the print on the band to include the actual iron banner logo as a callout to more casual players who see it in person, and I am happy with how it turned out!

Special FX, MAKEUP, and Extras

In the game destiny characters and weapons glow so it was important to add FX to add visual cues emulating to that fact.  These are powerful para-causal beings, and it would be fun to have a little of the aw in person.  All the FX are controlled via two ARDUINO Micro Controls that I coded random, pattern based, and trigger-based FX.  What is fun is I have even added a Christmas Mode where the lights will not just pulse the blue theme of the costume but twinkle light Christmas Lights.  A smoke trigger is the final piece that just make everything look powerful!

Final piece of the costume FX are fans in the chest armor and helm to allow for prolonged wearing.  This is designed to help keep air flow moving to help the wearer maintain comfort for extended time.

Final details and extras are thinks like coins from the game tied as mementos to the warlock bond and add character as this person would have trinkets.

The final bit is my character is an awoken male.  AKA Space Elv.  So the plan is I will airbrush Endura alcohol based makeup for the face, and wear eye altering contacts to show that I am the character with or without the helm.  The alcohol-based makeup is key so that it stays with or without the mask ok.

FINAL PICTURES

By Bryan Humphrey
https://bryanhumphrey.zenfolio.com/