In this article of our “How We Did It” blog series, we take you behind the scenes of creating a stunning custom Gold Mirror Tree Outfit. Based on AI-generated images, this unique design showcases our team’s expertise and creativity in bringing intricate, one-of-a-kind custom costumes to life.
Custom Order and Inspiration for a Custom Gold Tree Costume
One of our customers recently asked us to make a custom gold mirror tree costume. The original inspiration photos featured fantastical animals that resembled Ents, male version of dryads, elf acolytes, and other tree-like creatures.
And just like it was with a Custom Pink Dragonfly costume, the client has chosen one of the images and expressed the desire to get the physical embodiment of it. However, changes had to be made because the outfit had to be wearable in addition to being visually striking. Usually we combine several AI-generated concepts and add client’s requests to get the final sample to follow when creating a design. And that’s what we did this time as well.
At the start we planned to cover all the costume, including the helmet, with gold mirror tiles. Later we discarded this concept and resolved to a more elaborated image with gold edging in addition to acrylic mirrors.
This led to the creation of a gold walking tree costume. It includs shoulder pads, a catsuit with flared pants, platform boots, and a full-piece helmet with lenses.
Rendering and Selecting Materials and Technologies
As soon as we had a picture that we could use as a desirable design, the team set to work turning the concept into reality. The initial stage was to render a picture in Clo3D so that the features (such as mirror tiles and gold edging pattern) on a 3D model could be edited and the cosplay Golden Ent tree outfit could be seen on a ‘real’ body. This made it possible for us to confirm that each design component reflected the client’s vision and alter features that did not.
Materials used for the custom gold tree costume project:
- EVA foam – for the cosplay helmet, platforms of boots and shoulder pads.
- Gold fabric – to cover EVA foam on the hemet, shoulder pads and golden gloves.
- Dark-brown velours fabric – for the suit.
- Gold fabric edging – for roots effect.
- Mirror tiles – to decorate the gold tree costume, cosplay helmet of a tree and platform boots.
- Yellow snowboarding goggle lenses for eyes on the tree costume.
Technologies used for the custom golden Ent tree outfit:
- 3D modeling for making patterns for EVA foam.
- Covering EVA foam with dark-brown velours and gold fabrics.
- Laser cutting of EVA foam for small decorational element on the golden hamadryad cosplay helmet and the suit.
- Grinding of EVA foam platform – to get the beveled edge effect.
The ETERESHOP crew then began selecting materials to make the spriggan cosplay costume realistic, such as golden leaves, bark veins, and the overall volume of the golden tree suit. One of the greatest options for voluminous suit designs is EVA foam because of its flexibility and lightweight nature, which make it easy to cut, glue, and heat shrink it as necessary.
Next, we decided to use dark brown velours as the foundation for the cosplay mirror helmet and the walking tree costume. The overall image of a gold tree spriggan was draped by its gentle texture, which acted as a backdrop for sharper and more vibrant features like mirror tiles, golden volumetric inserts, and gold fabric edging for golden bark “veins” of a walking tree creature.
The Creation Process: Design of a Custom Tree Costume in Detail
Everything on the cosplay costume of a golden tree was to resemble leaves, roots and bark veins of an old oak just like on a cosplay costumes of creatures like an Ent, male dryad, elf acolyte, Leshy, Treant, Spriggan, Hamadryad or a Grove Guardian.
The silhouette of a walking tree costume was to be hourglass thanks to flared trousers, golden platform boots under them and voluminous golden shoulder pads combined with a slender waist.
Helmet
The custom golden helmet itself was to resemble a leaf in its form. At the same time it served as a center of the layout of golden decor elements, resembling a tree trunk with gold edging and EVA parts sprouting from it. To get an edgy form we’ve attached EVA parts of the cosplay helmet and then heated it to shrink and get pointy cheekbones and a chin.
To give the golden helmet volume we’ve decorated it not only with gold mirror tiles but also EVA elements in shiny gold fabric and gold edging threads placed over soft brown crushed velour.
The same fabric was also used for a balaclava to assure comfortable wear.
The golden helmet has breathing slots on both sides. Yellow eyes are made with the help of snowboarding goggle lenses.
Suit and Shoulder Pads
Initially we wanted to add foam pads on arms, shoulders and breast for additional volume. Later we dropped this idea and chose a slender silhouette instead. The volume was to be added on legs with the help of bell-bottom trousers and curved platform of golden boots.
According to the AI-generated image there were gold openwork pads on shoulders and a collar construction on a gold tree. We’ve decided to make it with EVA foam covered with elastic golden fabric. At first, the construction was supposed to be curved downwards. But to add dynamics to the outline of a golden walking tree we’ve changed it to upward direction of sharp padding edges.
Boots
Boots of a walking tree costume were partially hand-made. We took ready-made military style ankle boots and made custom platforms and decorated them with unevenly-shaped acrylic gold mirror tiles. EVA foam was also to be used to glue it to soles to create a beveled platform edge. A total of ten thin EVA foam layers were bonded together and then grounded to create beveled edges. Next, we adhered mirror tiles to the platform, golden boot toes, and heels.
The Final Result
The final creation is a blend of influences, evoking traits of an Ent, male dryad, and other forest guardians like Leshy and Spriggan. This creature can be called “The Golden Ent” or even a posh Golden Groot if you like :)
With personal design alterations in addition to AI-generated image, the final version of a golden mirror tree costume is perfect cosplay or an event entertainment suit.
Conclusion
Making the custom golden tree costume was an exciting journey, from the initial idea to the finished piece. Moreover, this project shows how dedicated we are to realize imaginative concepts and making sure our clients are happy with the results. If you have a unique costume concept, we’d love to help you turn it into something spectacular.
Check out our ‘How We Did It’ blog section to see more examples of custom made costumes ETERESHOP team has designed and produced recently.
