[Hu Tao cosplay] NARAKA: BLADEPOINT Hu Tao Spring Festival ACG New Year goods behind the scenes

This NARAKA: BLADEPOINT Hu Tao Spring Festival ACG New Year goods styling was actually shot a few days in advance, making it literal ACG ready-to-eat content. Although there's still some time before the Spring Festival, for a lazy person like me who doesn't want to rush around in the cold weather, finishing the Spring Festival shoot early allows me to leisurely handle post-processing, and the experience is indeed great.
The costume this time features an improved red and gold color-matched mini skirt. To fit the Spring Festival atmosphere, while retaining Hu Tao's signature elements, the outfit incorporates a large amount of white plush trimming. A huge red bow at the neckline paired with golden hollow accessories, plus cat-paw prints and golden tassels at the skirt hem, makes the overall look festive yet full of the character's playfulness. The hair is styled into classic double buns, tied with red bows and fluffy white plush hair rings on both sides, with two long black braided pigtails hanging down the chest. For both warmth and styling, thick white plush over-the-knee boot covers are worn on the legs, making every step fluffy and extremely cute.
The props used for the shoot were fully stocked. The white rabbit plush doll held in arms has an ultra-soft texture, along with that bright-colored candied haws stick and a heavy golden ingot. Simple as the props look, actual handling requires a bit of professional technique. The candied haws themselves are quite heavy; holding them requires not only steadying the wrist but also paying attention to the tilt angle of the stick to avoid blocking the face or reflecting light in front of the lens. The material of the golden ingot easily overexposes under lights, so during the shoot I had to constantly adjust my gripping posture, letting the photographer find the side with the least reflection to capture that golden texture.
In terms of set design, we chose a studio setup featuring red walls, artificial plum blossom branches, and Chinese-style furniture. The golden birdcage and dark wooden drawer cabinet hanging in the background added plenty of depth to the frame. The color saturation of the red walls is very high, which is actually quite a challenge for lighting. If flat light hits the character directly, the frame will look extremely flat. The photographer cleverly utilized side-backlighting on-site, casting branch and leaf shadows of the character onto the red wall, which, combined with front fill light, made the facial features more three-dimensional. Because plush-material clothing easily absorbs light, exposure compensation needed to be increased appropriately to retain the details of the golden patterns on the clothes, which is why this set of photos looks relatively rich in texture.
There were also quite a few minor episodes during the shooting process. Because the costume has a lot of plush, staying under indoor lights for too long gives the illusion of being in a sauna, requiring frequent pauses for touch-ups. There is a photo in the frame sitting on a armchair; to present a lazy yet playful state, I tried bending my legs many times—both making the leg lines look stretched in front of the lens and balancing the heaviness of the costume to avoid looking overly bulky. That string of candied haws also became a great interactive prop; smiling at the lens while holding it really felt like preparing New Year goods. The golden ingot became an even better photo companion; holding it with both hands gave the illusion of about to get rich instantly.
Although it's pre-shot ready-to-eat content, whether it's costume matching, prop utilization, or scene polishing, everything was completed to the standard of an official photoset. The makeup this time emphasized blush and eye contours, paired with the red background, making the overall look very festive. Finishing a major engineering task on the schedule early makes me feel much more relaxed inside.