Daft Punk Tron Cosplay: Final results!

Here it is, ladies and gentlemen, the moment you've all been waiting for: The complete cosplay, in action! (I actually didn't get any good shots from PAX East, so these are a conglomeration from MIT Maker Faire, and Halloween from this year.)

And a very terrible quality video of the lights reacting to external sound input: 

Daft Punk Tron Cosplay Build 6

While I was dealing with the frustrations of thermoforming and trying to tint things, I was also working on the rest of the cosplay: the costume itself. I went on a consumerist mall safari to acquire a leather jacket. At first, I stopped by the Garment District, which is a consignment and thrift store in Cambridge that tends to have nice vintage retro things. But their leather jackets, while awesome and great quality, were running more than $50 on average, and I didn't want to spend so much on a jacket I'd end up modifying and sticking things on. So I headed to the mall, and ended up buying a men's pleather jacket from H&M.

Daft Punk Tron Cosplay Build 5

Exhibition at Techfair was a great time. I had a lot of fun explaining my inspirations and process, but it was a bit of a bummer having to say that it was still a work in progress. I went onto Mcmaster and ordered some PETG to thermoform the visor, before it became too late. The helpful guys at the Pappalardo laboratory (Super shout out to Professor Braunstein for dealing with my constant pestering) were kind enough to let me use their thermoforming machine in the middle of the 2.007 class. I caught them during the tail end of spring break.

Daft Punk Tron Cosplay Build 4

Wow, this is a long build sequence. But I was determined to make this pipe dream of mine work out.

I was under the impression that thermoforming would be easy. I had the visor set up on blocks, and I made a nice wooden frame using some plywood and nails that I had lying around. 

Daft Punk Tron Cosplay Build 3

I put off carbon fibering my helmet for so long. Part of it was because I was still busy marveling at the fact that I had rotocast my own helmet hnnngggg.

And part of me was scared. I didn't have a vacuum former or any way to shape the carbon fiber other than draping. The helmet had a lot of curves, and I didn't have a very fine carbon fiber weave (something something budget something something close enough). And I really, really didn't want to ruin everything forever. 

But I had to do it. It was four days until techfair. I had these four days to carbon fiber, attach electronics, thermoform and tint the visor, and do any cleaning up. Not a lot of time, so I gritted my teeth and buckled down to work. 

I started by dremeling out the visor. Yayyy more pretty pictures of the hollow thing I made omg--

Daft Punk Tron Cosplay Build 2

I'm not sure why I keep wanting to do this to myself. Silicone is gross, my floor is even grosser, and it's painstaking and time consuming and nothing ever goes right. But I got funded by the excellent Techx, which can reimburse selected projects up to $500 in funding for a project to display at the annual Techfair at the end of January. It really let me splurge and do this project all-out, as far as materials goes. But while all of this cash is great, it does mean that I had very specific check-in deadlines I had to have results for. It's the golden rule of cosplay, folks. Cheap, good, fast: pick two. And apparently I picked good and fast, so it was really the funding that allowed this all to come together.

As it happens, the major deadline for a halfway point happened during the same weekend as the annual MIT Mystery Hunt. For those of you joining us new to the world of the Institvte, Mystery Hunt is a huge world-reknowned puzzle hunt, where dozens of rounds of steganographic codes, ciphers, and real-time activities are released for solving, in the hopes of one team eventually finding the location of a coin hidden somewhere on campus. The hunt typically starts on Friday and goes until at least Sunday, sometimes spilling over into Monday. I've participated in Hunt with a very large team for three years now, and hunting is a 24-hour activity. While I'm not as hardcore as some of the hunters, I like to be on site at HQ to help people solve and bounce ideas off of others, so I was rushing back and forth in the ten minute walk and four flights of stairs between hunt HQ in the Stata center and my helmet in my room on Fifth East. 

Daft Punk Tron Cosplay Build 1

Helmets.

I don't know what it is about helmets. They're bulky, expensive to make, hard to breathe in, and retain heat like greenhouses. They make it awkward to talk to people and usually you look like a bobblehead.

But I just keep making them. Part of it is about the anonymity, and part of it is me being socially awkward and not wanting to make eye contact. I'm self-conscious enough that I don't want people to see my face in regards to my cosplay. I'll have to get over this for next year's PAX East (my planned cosplay has me both wearing a dress and showing my face, oh dear). But for now, I'm happy just rocking it in a kickass helmet and leather jacket.

I've been a huge fan of cyberpunk since I first read Neuromancer in seventh grade. It all started with the literature: console cowboys surfing the crystalline matrix of cyberspace, hacking across the net and tearing down firewalls and black ice. I'm an avid speed-reader; I tore through each of the Harry Potter books in hours and finished the Dark Tower series in a week. Cyberpunk was my introduction to science fiction, and I devoured Stephenson, Sterling, and Gibson's books without discrimination. And then I watched the Matrix in eighth grade, and everything changed. It wasn't just a genre of books anymore; it was a complete aesthetic, slick black pvc and fierce mirrorshades, blaring neon and crisp chrome, high-tech hexagons and low-life grunge. I'm a visual learner, so it took seeing the look to really bring the scenes I had read about to life. I was hooked.

Teaser?!?

Hello! It's been quite a while.

I've been up to the usual: Classes, dance, spinning, reading, writing, fangirling over cars and motorcycles.

But I've also been working on a little something. It's a pipe dream project I've had spinning around my head since freshman year (has it really been two years since then?!?!?), and I'm currently in the process of applying for funding to make this the most awesome costume prop I've ever made.

Here's some teaser pics of the concept I've been developing. There will be electronics, and carbon fiber, and maybe, just maybe, some cyberpunk.

So many small drawings of heads! What could it all mean...?

Those look suspiciously like some LEDs drawn there...

It's been a while since I've worked with modeling clay, but I figured for my interview tomorrow for funding, that I should bring something presentable, if I didn't have a CAD model yet. And since SolidWorks is so annoying about curves... (grumble grumble)

I have to admit, there's something to be said about going to a convention under the confines of a tinted helmet. It's both liberating and limiting in a way; you don't have to worry about people judging your face or your choice of costume for your gender (or the ever-dreaded, "does she even game? I bet she's just another one of those self-proclaimed 'nerd girls'" -.-), but you also feel less attached to the bustle of the convention atmosphere, as if you're an aloof observer that nobody can read, under your black plastic visor. Certainly, I got a lot more compliments on my actual cosplay while I was wearing the helmet, compared to the awkward small talk and double takes I got when my helmet was off. This year, I'm thinking to go the same route, with the androgynous figure and helmeted face.

But trust me, it was real tempting to go in skintight leather, razor steppin' through the crowds at PAX East like a boss.

Zer0 Cosplay: Props and Results

So the costume for this cosplay was enough of a struggle. But I hadn't even begun my pieces de resistance: The helmet and the sword.

I initially wanted to make a silicon mold of the helmet, then cast it in plastic after making it all professional looking. But as a first timer at both mold making and casting, let it suffice to say that I was thoroughly disillusioned on making this happen with any semblance of speed and niceness in the confines of my dorm room. So I turned to the next best thing: Making the helmet as shiny and nice as possible, and simply hollow out the foam on the inside.