Guan Yu
Smite Games ::Hi-Rez Studios
January 2014
This Project was a sub contract of GSTQ Fashions, through Black Tie FX for Smite Games and Hi-Rez Studios. Matt Silva acted as the project manager for this realistic representation of the Smite character, Guan Yu for promotional purposes.
This project involved alot of people, alot of time, and a heck of alot of talent from eveyrone involved. The entire project contains pieces that were sewn, sculpted, caste, and 3D printed.
My own part in this project starts as early as fabric selection, choosing the silk dupioni to use for the bulk of the costume in order to immitate the two tone effect in the concept art.
It took just under a week for me to drape and pattern the garments themselves, taking into consideration the amount of armor that would be going both under and over the pieces. The sewn garments include a loose fitting jumpsuit, pleated side skirt and asymetical robe.
Additionally it included chainmaille, leather, prosthetics and artificial facial hair, and was modeled by Matt Silva himself.
After the Garments, I was asked to pattern out the appliques that would be attached to the robe and skirt. These pieces were all hand drawn with a ruler and french curves.
After suring up the design, it was traced onto sheets of "Heat n' Bond" and adhered to the gold silk brocade. Once applied, I painstakingly cut out each of the designs with an X-acto knife. Cathy was then able to iron them onto the skirts and carfully satin stitch them to the dupioni.
My next job was patterning out the leather jerkin that would go under the scale maille. I then cut the finished pattern out of leather which was dyed a scarlet red and polished to a glossy shine.
Because the veg tan we chose was so thick, I had to assemble the jerkin by hand. This I did by carving out the seam allowences with a scoring tool, and punching the thread holes with a stitch tool. I then used a wax thread to baseball stitch the pieces together and close up the darts.
Next stitching the scale maille to the jerkin so it didnt move or get bunched up around the other pieces of the costume. Finally I hand tooled a patterned design onto two strips of leather, which were dyed red and painted in the lines. THese were saddle stitched to the jerkin by Alex Brooks.
After that it was onto engineering the leg plates. These needed to have the scale maille framed in leather, and the maille, again, couldn't shift around. I mocked up the design in craft foam, choosing to stitch the maille to a leather plate, and then saddle stitch a frame over top on the edges.
Cathy assembled most of the garments with Alex putting together the smaller leather pieces and Mocking up the hat. I was able to use his mock up to pattern and assemble the hat, and further designed the 'teardrop' shaped piece which was carved out of EVA foam and covered before hand stitching to the hat.
Final touches were dying the braided ropes for the shoulders, and photographing all the pieces for posterity.
The scale maille was woven by Stephen Taylor at Lone Wolf Armories and the other armor piece and the rest of the big armor pieces, including the naginata (bladed staff) was sculpted and finished by the talented artists at BlackTie FX. Final Prosthetics were by Matt Silva with beard made by Diana Sheppard
Due to their large size, all designs were hand drawn with rulers and french curves.
Due to their large size, all designs were hand drawn with rulers and french curves.
Due to their large size, all designs were hand drawn with rulers and french curves.
Once drawn out and applied to the "Heat n' Bond", the designs had to be cut out by hand. This was done very slowly, and with almost no 'wobble' to the lines.
Once ironed to the dupioni, a zigzag satin stitch was used to ensure clean edges on the silk brocade that wouldn't fray or come up over time.
Once ironed to the dupioni, a zigzag satin stitch was used to ensure clean edges on the silk brocade that wouldn't fray or come up over time.
The Jerkin is a heavy veg tan leather that was dyed a rich scarlet red, polished and buffed.
The heavy veg tan leather of the jerkin required it to be entirely hand stitched. The seam lines were scored, then punched with a thread punch. Using wax thread, I baseball stitched all the seams and darts with a leather needle.
The heavy veg tan leather of the jerkin required it to be entirely hand stitched. The seam lines were scored, then punched with a thread punch. Using wax thread, I baseball stitched all the seams and darts with a leather needle.
The Jerkin is a heavy veg tan leather that was dyed a rich scarlet red, polished and buffed.
Engineering how I would attach the scale maille to the jerkin was a bit of a challenge. The maille couldn't move or shift, nor could any of the stitching be visible.
The entire piece of chest armor weighed, surprisingly, only about 5lbs. It laced up the back and had leather cuffs around the arm holes to hide the edges.
