"If it's a dream, why wake up?"—this phrase kept lingering in my mind throughout the shoot. This set of field notes aims to share the styling details of combining traditional Chinese elements with 2D fantasy style.
For this look, silver-white long hair was paired with pointed elf ears to enhance the mythical and dreamy perception. The main outfit is a modernized qipao with a white base and red patterns, featuring a cinched waist design. Paired with long red-and-black patterned gloves and white high heels, it visually balances both aloof and striking temperaments. To give the character a touch of dynamism, I specifically added a white fluffy tail on the back. Under the light, it shows soft, furry edges, making the flat character design more vivid and three-dimensional.
The shooting environment was chosen inside a room rich in traditional Chinese charm. Behind me was a giant black ink-wash flower and bird screen, surrounded by warm yellow square paper lanterns placed at varying heights. This warm color tone formed a warm-cool contrast with the red and white on my costume. A very low camera angle was used during shooting. The biggest advantage of a low angle is elongating the visual proportion of the lower body. The white high heels are very eye-catching in the frame, and when paired with casually crossed legs or a relaxed pose resting one hand on the chair back, they highlight the qipao's unique curves, waistline, and long legs. Especially in the moment shown in the third photo where the arms stretch forward, light and shadow fall on the red gloves on the arms, allowing the fan and hand lines to strike a fine balance between tension and motion.
The fabric of the costume is also worth mentioning. This modernized qipao uses a fabric with a subtle luster, which reveals jacquard patterns under the warm lights, offering a far better texture than flat matte material. To fit the hand shape closely, some adjustments were made when wearing the red gloves, ensuring that the finger joints wouldn't look stiff when holding up the folding fan. Although both the boots and shoes were white, this pure color actually made the overall look clean and crisp in front of the camera.
After the shoot concluded, we moved into the post-processing color grading phase. The main focus was unifying the light tone so that the warm radiance from the yellow lanterns diffused softly across the face and limbs, emphasizing a hazy atmosphere as if in a dream. Since I enjoy cross-genre experiments, I tried integrating art styles from various 2D works—such as those mentioned in the post description like Azur Lane, Path to Nowhere Rain Burst, and Hellish Blizzard—into a Traditional Chinese style ACG setting. This interpretation idea actually stemmed from inspiration collisions at anime conventions. For instance, the vibrant ambiance at Firefly Full Speed Ahead Expo gave me plenty of inspiration, proving that 2D culture can freely travel between reality and fantasy.
Looking back at these final images, sitting on a Chinese-style bench, waving a folding fan with half my silhouette concealed between the screen and the play of light and shadow—this is precisely the dreamlike 2D utopia in my heart that I never want to wake up from. The makeup this time was intentionally kept from being overly heavy, preserving the softness of facial contours while combining with aloof eyes to present the character's detached yet independent aura as much as possible. Of course, the shooting process was by no means easy; maintaining these difficult, stretched-out sitting poses or single-leg kneeling postures while keeping focused eye contact really tested core strength and lens sense. However, seeing the final result of this Cosplay photography set, I feel every beam of light and every fold line perfectly matched the atmosphere I originally envisioned.