Consult
Costume consulting
What is a costume consultant?
Whether you are striving for hyper-realism, problem solving costume mechanics, or are simply looking to elevate your character design, a Costume Design Consultant is an excellent resource for your project. Trained in both conceptual design and garment construction, a Costume Consultant has experience collaborating on Live Action productions as a member of the Costume Department. Their skills differ from a character designer because of their expertise with garments specifically, including costume history, research, construction and materials.
who hires costume consultants?
Animation - Studios like Disney/ Pixar, Skydance Animation and Lightstorm Entertainment¹ employee full time Costume Design Departments to ensure the costumes in their productions are treated with the same level of care and expertise as a live action production.
Interactive Media - Games Studios including Blizzard, Remedy, Rockstar Games, Disney Games, and Massive Entertainment² have all employed Costume Artists or Costume Designers to collaborate on costumes.
Print Media - Comic Books, Graphic Novels and Storyboards often employ costume professionals to break down the fit and details of a characters costume, so they can be simplified and rationalized throughout the story.
ETC. - Costume Consultants are an excellent addition to any character driven story-telling team.
HoW ARE COSTUME Resources utilized?
Avatar: The Way of Water utilized amazing resources at Weta Workshop to create physical samples, concept art, water and motion test garments, and photogrammetry scans, all used by the animators at WetaFX to render the most accurate and realistic 3D models of the Na’vi costumes. In the two featurettes below, you can see the level of detail and sophistication achieved by WetaFX when utilizing the proper costume resources. Costume Consultants collaborate with resources like manufacturing vendors, specialty costume houses, and costume illustrators to help art directors and character designers best realize their characters costumes.
what does a costume consultation look like?
Costume Consultations can take many forms, whether its a few hours to discuss a specific garment for a character, or a weeks or months collaboration to develop the look of the entire population of a story. Being such an individualistic collaboration, each consultation will look different and fit the needs of the briefs independently. Many Costume Consultations include: rough costume sketches, full costume renders, schematics or orthographics, physical samples or garments used for scanning and photogrammetry, and basic 3d models in Marvelous Designer or Clo3D.
Below is an example of consultation done for the development of a graphic novel.
The Brief
Illustrator and Graphic Artist Lee Mendez sought out a Costume Consultant to explore the costume designs while in development on his upcoming Graphic Novel. Following the story of a young girl who wakes up in a dystopian space station with amnesia and must work as a bounty hunter while attempting to solve the mysteries of her past, Mendez wanted to explore the relationship between the main character, Carly, and her mentor through the sharing of a costume piece. Landing on a red jacket, Mendez started by sharing initial concept art and narrative briefs for the story, seen here on the right and below. It was important to Mendez that the jacket feel different on both characters when wearing it, but be instantly recognizable as a shared garment between the two women.
Concept Exploration for Mentor and Carly by Lee Mendez.
Early Concept Art for Carly. Illustration by Lee Mendez
Silhouette Exploration
The first step of the consultation involved silhouette exploration to better understand the fit, fabric and aesthetic of the characters. Since Carly and her mentor will be sharing a jacket, it was important to understand the proportion of the piece on both characters. In this general concept phase, Mendez wanted to explore the relationship between the two characters, both physically and aesthetically.
Silhouette Exploration Costume Sketches by Shealyn Biron
Jacket Schematic by Shealyn Biron
SCHEMATIC
A silhouette was chosen from the exploration sketches, and a technical schematic was created to finalize the exact design of the jacket. Exploring different angles and fit allowed Mendez to understand not only the garment construction, but also weight, drape and closures. This understanding was deepened by the choice of fabric, a nylon ripstop for the outer shell, and cotton broadcloth for the lining.
To incorporate futuristic elements, for functionality and versatility when sharing the jacket between the two characters, magnetic tabs were added along the center seam of the hood allowing it the option to lie open and flat as a collar.
Costume render
Once the schematic was approved, a final costume render was completed. Doing this allowed Mendez to see the final fit, color, and proportion of the costume.
Original Concept vs. Costume Render
Left: Original Concept by creator Lee Mendez
Right: Costume Consultation Render by: Shealyn Biron
Costume Render by Shealyn Biron
Render Background: Cyberpunk 2077 Concept Art by Ward Lindhout
