How to build Vi hands from League of Legends

I have gotten many request to make a tutorial for how I built my Vi hands. As always my documentation skills are not sufficient, but I will try to cover this build as best I can with some simple hand drawings. There is also a part two where I upgrade the hands.

These are my hands (a little flat at this point in the build)

Photo: Pål Andresen

I made my hands based on the concept art and not the in game model, there are some differences and in the end I thought these looked better. 

To make the build easier I divided the hands into four parts as shown under. 

Photo: leagueoflegends.wikia.com

The core is the bottom base with the pistons and "the tube" where you put your hands. The core is attached to the knuckles, where all the electronics are hid. All the fingers are attached to the knuckle. And on the back there the pressure gauge is placed. 

I will also try to explain the mechanics of the fingers and electronics. 

Core
Foam mat and cardcoard for the base, and a cylinder for where your arms will go. 

 Details

The pistons are made of several sized cylinders inside each others (like toilet paper cores)

Knuckles
In one of the picture above you can see an early stage of the knuckles. These are made out of Styrofoam and cardboard. In principle I used this shape to build it. 

The red circles are "those small white dishes you get at a cafeteria". Gotta love recycling. 

Fingers
I wanted the fingers to be able to move. To make it easier for me the thumb is static. My idea was very simple, a finger with three hinges and a fishline attached to the first joint. The fishline ends in a metal ring so I can control it with my own fingers. 

So I made eight cardboard fingers as shown under. At every joint there is a spring on the underside and a elastic band on the over side (as to stretch the fingers out automatically) 

Above the hinges I glued on a bit of folded foam mat painted gold. 

The fingers are attached to the "knuckles" using contact glue and hot glue. 

I move the fingers by pulling the metal rings that are attached to the fishwire. I have tried to illustrate it better in the picture below. 

And here are the metal rings in the "hand cylinder." I also glued in a small plastic tube for a "handle", makes it easier to operate the hands.  

This video shows the principle of the mechanic of the finger movement

The back
The back of the hands are made with a cardboard base with foam mat pieces on top. 

The foam pieces were covered with filler, then painted. 

I was mening to cast the blue crystal in epoxy, but I didn't finish the mold on time. That will come in the next iteration. 

The pressure gauge is made with a paper needle and and a nail. The "glass" is simply a circle cut out from the lid of a take away sushi box. But any transparent plastic will do. Around it I have just used a strip of foam.

The electronics
In the hollow part of the knuckles I hid a battery and lined up four red and a blue LED in series with a switch on the front. Gives a little extra while standing on the stage in the dark. 

The result (after upgrading, more info under photo)

Photo Joacim Schwartz

There are several things I will upgrade in my second iteration since I'm wearing this at NCC. I will build up the back of the hand, it is a little too flat now. I will also improve the fingers and all edges. And finish the mold for the blue crystal. 

So Check out the upgrade tutorial

Also Ryan Brandt made a genderbender version of Vi and posted a youtube video of his experience and thoughts about the build process. Might be useful to get a few more pointers to ass even more details. 

And who knows, maybe I can get it to steam ;) 
Update: Yes, I got it to steam

Vi Legue of Legends cosplay

I just entered the cosplay contest at Banzaicon 4 in Larvik and I actually won first prize, omg I'm still on cloud nine. And I get to be one of four representing Norway in the Nordic Cosplay Championship in July. And my cosplay: Vi from League of Legends. She is a bad ass character and it was really fun cosplaying her.

See this post for how I made the hands

Vi and Caitlyn cosplay

So until I get some wip photos out I will post some pictures from the Vi and Caitlyn photoshoot with my awesome friend Tine Marie Riis as Caitlyn. 

Piltover's finest

Photo by: Chris Morstad

Who needs a hug...

Photo by: Chris Morstad

Come on, bump it!

Photo by: Sophie Karine Riis

Nice shot, cupcake!

Photo by: Chris Morstad

"I not doing anything...^^"

Photo by: Chris Morstad

I will do an update of this cosplay, and an upgrade later on. And a lot more photos I guess. But as always, ask if you have any questions. 

Elvish staff

I was going to Desucon:Fantasy and realized I did not have the time to finish my Codex cosplay. With two days until the con and about 8 hours of spare time, I challenged myself to make an elvish costume with the time I had at hand. So here is a simple tutorial for the staff I made.

Also I have made another staff, the staff of Kraken with tutorial here. 

Photo by: Nils Katla Photography

I started with a hollow card board pipe (the core of a roll of paper table cloth actually - so in other word a really long toilet paper core)

Then I glued on strips of foam (the cheapest kind from Biltema) For the "branches" that are sticking out on the top I used steel wire to stiffen the shape. For the thinner details (hoops) I used a couple of electrical wire stumps. 

I wanted a glowing orb on the top of my staff and found a transparent rubber ball at TGR in Oslo

Then I added paper clay (from Clas Ohlson) around the foam. For the wood grain details I used a blunt pencil and pressed in some lines along the direction of the "branches".  

Then I let it dry over night. This paper clay is easy to paint on and it doesn't need any priming. First I painted the whole staff with a lighter, warm brown color and let it dry. Then I painted on a darker brown (acrylic) color mixed with water and wiped off most of it. This way the dark color sets in the creases and especially in the wood grains and adds dimention to the texture.

The ball is glued on as I didn't have time to make a mechanism to attch it so I could take it off. But the staff is hollow, so I could still make it slow - see description further down. 

Next I added even more dark brown and some gold highlights using a dry brush and gold paint. I have not used any clear coat, only golden highlights. 

For the handle I wrapped a strand of green fabric around the staff and added rope painted gold around the edges of fabric. Everything is attached using hot glue. 

My philosophy is that everything look a thousand times better if it lights up. Since my staff is hollow I placed a small flash light (like this from Clas Ohlson) with green cellophane over, right under the orb. No wiring, I just turned the flash light on right before the con and let it glow the whole day. 

As I mentioned the orb is glued on, but the staff is hollow. So I inserted the flashlight from the bottom up. A thin rope is attached to it so I can pull it out to change batteries. 

Photo by: Nils Katla Photography

For the rest of the costume I used pixie ears from Festmagasinet Standard, the cape is sewn out of two square layers of fabric (lining makes everything look more professional, just sew the two pieces together along the edges) The corset is the same I had made earlier for my Big sister cosplay and I just attached a green satin scarf as a halterneck (no sewing, I only used safety pins). Last I used a sash around my waist over faux leather pants. If you have any questions just ask, I love to answer. You can also find me at my facebook page ChrixDesign.

Game of Thrones Dragon Easter Egg

And I mean actual easter egg. My easter hobby is to take ordinaty easter eggs and make them better - usually inspired by game culture, see: Portal Turret Egg and Protoss Pylon Egg. 

Photo: www.westeros.org

My first observation was that the eggs are not completely covered in scales, the bottom is rougher.

This is what I used, one ordinary easter egg, packaging carton and hot glue. 

Building up scales

More scales

Rady for paint

And of course, I forgot to take pictures during the paint job. In short: I painted the entire egg ocre, then I added dark brown shadows under each scale and on the bottom of the egg. I finished with gold paint on the edges of each scale. 

With candy (and some of it healthy)

Protoss Pylon Easter Egg

My new easter tradition is to make an easter egg for my boyfriend inspired by geek culture. Last year I made the portal turret easter egg. Portal easter egg

And since he is a StarCraft player I made a Protoss Pylon style. 

Photo: Team Liquid Wiki

My rule is to use an ordinary easter egg as a base - and it must contain candy.  

I started out with cardboard mockups which I later covered with paper clay.

Then we skip a few steps because of missing pictures. The parts below are hand sculpted out of paper clay and spray painted gold. 

Then a layer of blue

Then some more light blue details

And some finishing touches

Then it is the impossible task to make a easter egg like this look like a crystal. I didn't succeed 100% but hey, there is candy inside. 

For the paint job I started off with a white base while adding light blue detailing with a sponge. 

And darker blue shading. 

Put it together and I hope you see the resemblance.

Happy easter

More brains! Zombie part two

So I have this ready from my Zombie time post. Please note that all blood and teeth are fake. The blood is acryllic paint, and the "teeth" are made from fake nails, please see previous post about how this appliance was made.

Next step will be to make the rest of the face. First put on contact lenses, I think it makes a zombie makeup so much better. 

Then the process is much the same as last time, put latex and paper over your face. 

Blend with a sallow facepaint. The rough texture enhances dead zombie skin. 

And peel back your skin. 

Now you put the other mask in this hole and glue down with spirit gum. Seal the edges with more latex. Paint the inside of the skin edges/flaps red with brown edges, add some blood and dark circles under the eyes. Since I was going to the movies I did not use too much blood as to not make as mess on their interior, but next time the teeth and skin will be dripping. 

All blood and gore effects are makeup

And next time I will use this in an Alice in Zombieland style :)