[The Shorekeeper cosplay] Wuthering Waves The Shorekeeper, Butterfly Landing on Fingertips

The photos of The Shorekeeper from Wuthering Waves have finally been edited, and the overall effect is even more satisfying than expected. It took about half a month from preparation to finishing the photos, and today I mainly want to share some details and behind-the-scenes of this shoot with everyone.

First is the styling part. The Shorekeeper's blue hair is very eye-catching visually. To present that translucent texture, I prepared multiple wigs in advance for trimming and styling. For the choice of hair accessories, I picked light tulle with rhinestones and butterfly-wing-like elements, so that when turning corners and looking up, the hair and headwear would appear very lively. The costume is a set of layered tulle dress mainly in white and ice-blue. I deliberately chose organza and chiffon for the material, because this kind of fabric has a slight light-transmitting sense under the lights, and matching it with the cross straps and ruffled sleeves on the back can well restore the character's light and mysterious temperament. The overall makeup leans towards being clear and translucent, with the eye makeup intensifying blue smudging, matching the cool white skin feel to stay as close to the character's setting as possible.

The lighting setup on the shooting day actually took a lot of thought. Because we wanted to create an ethereal and Dreamy atmosphere, we abandoned complex backgrounds and finally settled on using solid gray background paper with high-key lighting, which can completely highlight the character and the glowing elements in the foreground. During shooting, the photographer kept guiding me to make actions like reaching out upward or turning sideways and looking up. Actually, in semi-kneeling and supine postures, maintaining limb extension is very tiring, and the core must be kept tight all the time to ensure the arc of the skirt hem spreading out looks nice. The first set shot was close-ups, mainly capturing the gaze and hand interaction with the air. The second set shot was back-view and full-body, which required utilizing the train of the long skirt to increase the extension sense of the frame.

Special thanks to the dedicated photographer @Caisebi here. All the glowing butterflies in this set of photos were photoshopped onto it by him for free. Because during the early stage of shooting, we didn't use real butterfly props, but completely relied on post-production special effects synthesis. To prevent the butterflies from looking abrupt, my hand position and line of sight during shooting had to accurately coordinate with the air, pretending that butterflies were really flying there. In the post-production stage, we repeatedly adjusted the size, color depth, and flight trajectory of the butterflies. From dark blue to semi-transparent white, the glowing degree of every single butterfly was different. Combined with the stardust light spots and smoke light bands in the frame, this kind of surround-style dynamic effect was finally presented.

For cosplay, besides the restoration of costume and makeup, I feel that how to convey the character's atmosphere through the frame is equally important. This shoot made many attempts in action design and post-production special effects. I hope everyone will like this set of photos, and fellow hobbyists are welcome to exchange thoughts on shooting and post-production together.