Futuristic Cinema Armor

Out most ambitious project from 2019 was without contest this full futuristic armor ordered for a Bell Internet commercial. Not only did this set take more than 350 hours to make, but it was a new experience for us, as we decided to use Eva foam as the base material. This dense foam is generally used in the cosplay community, but our team was pretty unused to this new medium.

After many meetings and phone call, we managed to set up the visual identity of our character, using references pictures from many video games famously known in the science fiction genre. Taking from Mass Effect, Warhammer 40k, Destiny, and some others, the first sketches were presented, modified, and finaly appproved. That led us to designing the pieces and sketching them one buy one, like a complex puzzle that would eventually be assembled into this armor.

Next came the measuring of our actor and the adjustments to the sketches. With a 7 feet tall actor as our starting point, the goal was to make him look even more imposing and large. Soon, it became apparent that all this foam would need a strong structure, so we came up with the idea of a leather base that could be adjusted and used to support the layers of foam.

The most important and time consuming step was next: sculpting all this foam. It was a nice opportunity for us to learn to work with this popular material, and we clearly developed some skills after tens of hours spent sculpting, sanding, and heat molding the foam. We also added electronic parts that would later be necessary for the light effects we were planning to include with this costume.

Before beginning to paint and decorate our foam layers, we started by protecting the foam with layers upon layers of rubber spray, which served not only as a primer but also as a way to make the foam more rigid and resistant. Then it was time to grab our masking tape and meticulously paint every piece to create volume, patterns, and details. We also included an Easter egg with the code AA-2113 added on the armor, as a wink to our fans.

Finaly, after hundreds of hours of meticulous and intense work, the armor was ready and it was time to film. Our artistic director accompanied the actor on site to assist with the armor and the shooting crew. We received a lot of very positive feedback from the team and the actor, making this not only a learning experience, but also a fulfilling one we aren't going to forget anytime soon!

Inspiration Sci-fi & Post-Apocalyptic