#henchmen studios

[corvidaedesign]

Henchmen studio zine explanation and process rundown

For the zine project, we were tasked to find a company that inspires us and then imagine that we were to work there, creating a zine mimicking the style the company used. 

Originally i had a hard time coming up with a company id like to parody for this project but eventually found inspiration with a long time account id followed via instagram, Henchmen studios, a Toronto based cosplay and prop company that had been known for a lot of their iconic Blizzardcon, Overwatch cosplay and the live action Anthem ad. 

There website being extremely clean with a little bit of a futuristic edge was quite easy to mimic, after finding the fonts they used on there website, i decided to add my own flair to the Zine and do some cosplay dissections sketching out what i would do if i were to plan out a cosplay as intricate as the ones they commonly tackle, i had to sorta mimic my OWN style and clean it up enough that i'd be able to show someone in a professional setting. My cosplans normally being scribbles on the back of Receipts. 

I then added some images from the company that went well together, doing an overall blue, purple, black and white colour scheme based on my moodboard id made earlier for the assignment. And adding in some descriptions on what the process would be like and some info on the neat company and the zine was finished! I'm very happy with the overall completion of the product having put so so much extra work and doing my best to navigate a program that's extremely forigen to me. I pulled it off! This project I feel was a huge milestone for myself having pushed harder than I do for regular assignments and challenging myself to do better than years prior. The overall time was around 20+ hours and working for huge amounts of time in sittings! 

The physical version of the zine cost 15$ to print, not skimping on any expenses, going for a glossy cardstock finish and a slick plastic tie for binding, Courtesy of Minutemen Printing express!  

[corvidaedesign]

Heres some progress with the zine from before, showing off my lovely grids 

[corvidaedesign]

physical zone part 2 

[corvidaedesign]

Mood board and creative brief for Henchmen Studios Henchmen studio is a Toronto based prop and custom design studio, there main goal is to create costumes and props from the imagination but there main focus being cosplay and builds for anime and video game based conventions. They are multimedia and use many different materials to achieve the goal and create outstanding creations. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~CREDIT~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All Henchmen Studios Images/ Logo courteous of there website/Instagram 
https://www.henchmenstudios.com/about
Cosplay Tools design by Ash Solano Lyons
Worbla Stock Image 
https://www.cosplaysupplies.com/store.php?p=WORB1 Sombra Logo owned by Blizzard

[fuckird]

I'm not at EA play today (will be going tomorrow) but I saw this freaking awesome cosplay of Octane that henchmen studios made for a cosplayer named erinballcircus. They actually have no legs! How fucking rad is that.

[orokin-state]

Creating the WARFRAME STALKER Suit [x]

[yesiamspock]

It’s me as Mercy at PAXEast 2018

Enjoy :)!

[dangerous-ladies]

Hey guys! I'm new to making cosplay and I thought you guys could help me out. I want to make a 2B from Nier cosplay but I'm not really sure what material to use, or how to get the skirt to be as wavy as it is. Any advice? Thanks!

Ooh boy! 2B is a fun one.

Fun fact: I work for Henchmen Studios, and we recently did 2B for Square-Enix’s booth at PAX East. My part was mostly in casting the katana, but I did a teeny bit of consultation for the appliqué and skirt because I have experience with laser cutting and horsehair. 

Extra fun fact: You can infer that anything I’m telling you here is an approach approved by Square-Enix.

Anyway, here’s our girl here:

Look at that skirt! Gil (@gillykins) and Kiga (@blackwatercosplay) nailed it, in my opinion. (Also, @paulhillier for that photo.)

Here are some general thoughts and feelings about 2B’s design:

In my opinion, there is no better fabric option than velvet/velveteen. Aside from taking the fabric nap into account it’s fairly forgiving for beginners and it is beautiful. It has a lushness to it and a level of luxury that suits her O-esque blindfold-and-boots, leather-and-lace aesthetic. Velvet also sucks light in and gives nothing back; nothing looks as black as velvet, and nothing captures a nice velvet’s ability to have dimension while remaining fairly matte. The game textures support it being velvet, too; satin just ends up looking the mildest bit cheap and overly shiny, even when care is taken to find a more matte satin.

The skirt owes its flare to two main elements: its gore-style pattern and horsehair braid. The gored skirt adds trumpet-like shaping seams up the hips to the high waistline but flares out at the bottom in a way that a regular circle skirt simply wouldn’t provide. The horsehair braid –– ideally as wide as 6″, but at minimum 2″ –– sewn in around the bottom of both the skirt and the lining forces the skirt hem to stand out. You’ll want to make sure you pull in the drawstring on the horsehair, too, in order to get it to curve nicely, but the result is a skirt that sits out beautifully on its own. (The weight of the fabric comes into play here, too; anything too light/loose will collapse at the top, but a fabric with enough weight will have the integrity to hold up.)

Here’s one of my shots of the skirt from PAX East the other week; see how the fabric has that dimension to it but resists being blindingly shiny? See how the skirt sits out in big body ripples instead of pooling? Velveteen and horsehair braid, my friend.

And applique –– even if you didn’t ask, a couple other anons did! Today I put together Henchmen’s digital pattern for Nier’s skirt and bodice appliqué. Shameless plug, ahoy, but it includes a skirt pattern! For methods, we did ours with peau-de-soie appliqué. If you want to do the same, iron a double-sided fusible adhesive to the reverse side of your fabric, trace out your appliqué pattern and then cut out (or laser-cut) all of the filigree. Apply to the surface of the skirt, and then topstitch for security and aesthetic. Time consuming but a) not as time consuming as painting or satin stitching and b) extremely clean results. I’m basically never going to do super delicate appliqué any other way from now on.

(I don’t have any good pictures of it but the inside of the skirt is done the same way, but black on white liner.)

Both layers of the skirt (self and liner) are finished by being bound together at the hem. Be careful, though; really thick bindings plus two layers of horsehair can be TOO stiff, so keep your bindings as light as possible.

- Jenn