I visited the Monster Hunter bar in Tokyo last year and was amazed at the detail of some of the props and recreated armour sets around the entire place. But nothing in that bar impressed me as much as the fact someone is creating an entire, lifesize Seikret as a cosplay.
Character Select
Welcome to Character Select, a weekly column where PC Gamer takes a look at the art and cosplay created by you. Each week, I’ll highlight a few of my favourite pieces, spotlight and interview creators and artists, or generally just chew your ear off about the talents of the gaming community.
All of a sudden this puppet had individual scales and electronic eyes that blink, rather than just looking like pieces of foam glued together, and I was amazed at how quickly it was coming together. The sheer amount of detail that had been put into creating the head stopped me in my doomscrolling tracks, even before it was coloured to mirror the creatures in-game.
Much like the first reel, Trine.k.n shared the different elements that went into building the head, including 3D-printed elements, magnetic sheets of foam that clip over the nose section, and a moveable jaw made from PVC piping. The entire decision behind making the eyes blink, alongside the production of a transparent resin eyelid to really make the puppet game accurate was also shared, giving the entire project a documentary-like feel and almost convincing me that I could do the same thing if I put my heart and soul into it.
The next update on the project dropped in early January, with another reel showing the wearable frame of the cosplay, explaining the movement and how it would feel to wear the suit. In the description of the video, Trine.k.n explained “The biggest struggle was keeping everything lightweight while still having a nice weight distribution. The front of the base was naturally more heavy as the head had batteries inside, but I didn’t want to add too much counter weight to the tail as it would ultimately lead to the entire base being too heavy for me to wear.”
But what really impressed me over all of the details is the fact that Trine.k.n actually has no prior experience in creating a suit like this. When you sit and scroll through each of these detailed videos, you’d probably assume their whole career was built around this exact niche: creating wearable suits for raptor-like creatures. But it’s not. In the description of the reel showing the frame process, the creator subtly drops the fact they had “never made anything like this before.”
My disbelief was only reinforced in the most recent update, too, which shows the neck, body, legs and arms assembled onto the body, alongside all of the scales being painstakingly soldered into the body and the painting process. This is where you can really see the Seikret come to life, and with the moveable head, neck, and jaw, it’s hard to believe this thing doesn’t actually have a heart and soul. According to Trine.k.n, the next steps are creating the accessories and feathers which will “really take it to the next level”, and I can’t wait to see what that means.
Honestly, watching these reels is nothing short of inspiring, and makes the entire process look so easy I thought about giving it a go. But, I just know I’d fall at the first hurdle and my Seikret would look absolutely nothing like it’s meant to. I think for now it’s best to leave it to the professionals, and maybe I’ll start with some sort of smaller prop in the meantime. If I can even get that far.
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