Hyrule Happy Squad: Cortana Process

Hello! Kio here and we just recently got back from MechaConVII. It was fun yet stressful all at the same time. Over all the experiences was good. It lacked a few things, however nothing that could ruin our trip.

I'm here to give a visual walk through of my Cortana cosplay progress. For those who don't know who Cortana is, she is the AI found in the Halo Series. When I was at MechaCon, there was an extreme lack of Halo fans.. People kept calling me "Tron"...I have no idea how they got a female figure out of that but I won't question people.

First thing I do is order an wig. I almost always order my wigs from Ebay and never have trouble. I ordered a blue-black wig. Cut and Styled it myself. At first, I added fiber optics to the wig, however decided to remove them due to complications. The first video shows it style and cut.I I added purple extensions to the wig to give it more color variety. Sparkles not added yet.

Then I added tinsel extensions and glitter spray! For teh extensions, I simply hot glued them into the hair. It works just fine.

A head needs a body right? Well first I had to decide the color scheme I was going for. Being skilled in many forms of visual arts and also going to school for it as well, I decided to take my many years of color theory practice into good use. People are most likely to be attracted to a high value color scheme with low value details with fully saturated colors. People are also drawn to blue over purple by the fact it's more pleasing to the eyes and brings emotional calmness (no I'm not making this up lol) Cortana in Halo 3 is majority a middle value over all. Taking in consideration makeup, body size and wig style, a middle value was not going to cut it.

Now, once I had that decided I needed to find a zentai suit. Majority of ya'll should know what a zentai is since I've seen a lot of undersuits made from them. Well I went on a random website (NOT RECOMMENDED) since the price for it was $50 with custom fitting and no hood attatched. Biggest Mistake Of Life FML. When I received the zentai, It was the wrong size and had a hood on it. Just look at this piece of crap!

O well I had to make it work cause I was pressed for time. So I COMPLETELY tore it apart and reconstructed it from scratch to fit my size. Sorry guy's my butt isn't actually that big, It's carved foam to look like a butt that's attached to some panties. Cortana has a very.. large backside so I tried to duplicate that effect. In the video I'm showing the suit isn't actually white, it's a tin white.

After sizing it I needed to dye it the correct color. It is possible to dye spandex, it just takes a little more effort than most fabrics. I dyed it with liquid Rite Dye in a bathtub full of hot water. First I presoaked it in normal water, next I let it soak for about 10min in the Rite Dye, stirring and squeezing occasionally to get the dye in it nice and strong. I rinsed the bodysuit of all the extra dye and washed it with color safe detergent. Here is the color that came out, except a shade lighter. It's still wet in the picture

After the suit dried, it was time to draw on the designs. My best friend used a blue sharpie to trace all the designs on the suit while I was wearing it, so I could get an accurate reading on where to paint one the suit was off of me. She did a wonderful job, and many thanks to Bexi and Cortana (LiquidFire3 on other websites) for having such awesome Cortana cosplays and progress. We used their photos as reference majority of the time.

Now it was time to paint. The painting took 10+ hours to finish. It was ALOT harder than it looked. First I stuffed the suit, because I already had the markings where needed, it didn't matter how big or little I stuffed the suit. Once stuffed, to paint. The paint I chose to use was Pedeo Setacolor in Colbalt Blue transparent 8.8 fl oz and Black shimmer 4.0 fl oz. I mixed them together and got a darker blue with a slight black shimmer. This paint isn't like normal paint, it acts like a dye instead so no flacking,cracking, or extreme stiffness to the suit. Best paint option for spandex in my opinion.

I won't bore you with the entire process of painting so just gave you the base coat, front and back pretty much. Well once the base coat was finished, time to add the binary details. For the details I chose Createx airbrish paint in pearl, white and florescent purple. I didn't actually airbrush anything on, I used a normal paint brush and painted lines and dots for binary.First coat was the pearl all over.

Next came purple to add depth to the costume, to make it seem not so flat with just blues and whites.(sorry no photo of just the purple) Finally at the last minute, I added white dots, which REALLY made the whole costume pop. It made it more dynamic and not so boring with just lines and dots.

I fixed the hands so now they aren't so long since I have short nubbly fingers. I was having trouble finding shoes to go with my costume, but my mother came through for me and founded some sock-shoe things which I cut and placed inside the suit. They are barely noticeable and SUPER comfy.

BUTT SHOT, but no seriously, I love how the pattern fits well around my body and fake butt haha

Well all I had left was the chest piece. It took FOREVER to come in, it actually came in the week of the con and I made so many mistakes with the chest piece. It was upsetting but I had to keep going cause I was pressed for time. This was the chest piece before I added it into the suit.