Easy costumes and every day wear

I haven't been here in a long long time, but I think it's time I returned. I'm really into video games and there are lots of awesome outfits in the games I play that I'd love to make.

Trishka's outfit from Bulletstorm is one example of something I'd love to do:
[image=http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/0/3661/1659543-character_trishka_super.jpg]

Annoyingly, now that I'm looking for these things I can't find them. I know there's at least one outfit from Mass Effect 2 that I like. I'll have to keep an eye out for them again, maybe take some screenshots next time I play them.

I have a few questions though. How do you decide how to make a costume you want to make but can't find many pictures for reference? Is wearing the costume as everyday wear something you think about when making a costume?

 

Well, when there's not a lot of reference, sometimes you have to get creative. If they're video game characters, you can try to take screenshots in-game. That's how I did the reference for my first Visas Marr costume, right after KOTOR 2 was released. I did different poses, took shots of the head when it was focused on her for dialogue, made sure I had the view from the front and back... it took some time, but it can be done.

As a last-ditch reference-finding effort, you can sometimes track down the concept artist. The guy who did the concept art for KOTOR 2 is on deviantArt (http://brenze.deviantart.com), and is actually quite helpful when he hears someone wants to costume-ify his designs. If you can similarly track down other concept artists, who knows? If you can find them in an open forum, it's worth asking.

As for wearability, I consider it. I don't wear my costumes every day, but when I wear them, sometimes it's for a long time. I also try to consider how the costume would have to function for the character. Again with Visas Marr, a lot of people make the dress really narrow, but it is pretty much impossible to fight in that, and you see her doing relatively high kicks in-game. Plus, the concept art shows a much fuller skirt, but there are a lot of limitations to video game graphics and what can be realistically rendered in real-time.

I think that, for video game costumes in particular, it's important to take these things into consideration (unless you want that polygon-built look, which is also totally valid). The designs as the artists make them are very rarely fully realized in low-res poly form.

Hope that's helpful!

 

That was a great help, thanks.

I wonder if the artists at Bioware could help me do a Normandy crew outfit.