[Closure Cosplay] Arknights Engineering Department's Daily Retouching Reflections

The official studio photos for this Closure cosplay outfit were finally sorted out today. I used to think characters from the Engineering Department would wear something more functional, but when I actually got the costume, I realized the detailed design was far more fancy than imagined. The wig uses a dark blue-black base with subtle dark green highlights; the bangs and stray hairs were trimmed slightly to align with the character's original concept design. The ears and horns were heavier than expected, and with the headpiece's weight distribution, wearing it all afternoon put a bit of pressure on top of my head. Fortunately, it looked natural on camera without that cheap plastic feel.

The coat cut is very distinctive—a broad black cape-like coat designed with a cropped jacket feel, lined in reddish-brown. This color-blocking design is striking: black outside, red inside, and a white core underneath, visually matching the character's effortless swagger of throwing on a coat to fix heavy machinery. The white top underneath features numerous black webbing details, a work badge on a light blue lanyard, and scattered waist buckles, creating rich layers. To further emphasize her role as an engineering technician, I prepared a set of props before the shoot, including a yellow digital multimeter, red-and-black pliers, and a blue-handled small hammer. During shooting, I casually dropped those tools on the pure white studio platform, draped the jacket over my shoulder, and tried to create the vibe of having just fixed a device, carelessly tossing everything down, ready to slack off.

I tried several different postures for the poses. The cross-legged sitting posture in the photo, paired with a raised hand, looks relaxed and playful; standing casually with the jacket halfway off brings a touch of nonchalant rebellious charm, which captures her 'take it or leave it' attitude. I intentionally shot barefoot, as in lore, this character would be extremely relaxed in her workshop or store—likely in an everyday state of disliking shoes while surrounded by scattered parts and tools. Bare feet on the platform added a grounded, casual quality. Looking back at these photos now, that lazy, nerdy, yet always-fixing-things energy was pretty much captured.

Let's talk about the shooting and studio photo retouching process. This time, I chose the cleanest white studio for shooting, with bright, translucent lighting. One advantage of this background is that it fully preserves the texture and details of the outfit, whether it's the texture of the reddish-brown lining, the matte feel of the black coat, or the fine strand details of the wig. However, because the light was so intense, post-editing required spending a lot of time balancing the relationship between skin tone and clothing. The black coat easily loses shadow details under strong light, so I put a lot of effort into adjusting curves to restore the proper black tones and folds. An advantage of a white background studio is focused vision: viewers aren't distracted by cluttered backgrounds and can focus directly on the character and surrounding props. This clean feel fits the straightforward, efficient, and calm atmosphere of an engineer very well.

Many friends mentioned the 'greedy merchant' joke. In reality, after putting on this gear, the biggest impact on me was her character gap contrast. She usually looks lazy and inflates prices to the sky, but she's actually an extremely hardcore engineering expert who always carries a multimeter in her pocket to fix messes. This state cannot be supported just by wearing a nice costume; it requires the right gaze, casual movements, and surrounding decor that looks chaotic but is actually a working environment to express the full flavor of the character. I wonder if this shoot lets viewers feel that I've captured a piece of Closure.

It's actually been a while since we finished shooting, but my laziness took over and I put it aside. While others strike while the iron is hot and post full nine-photo grids, I've always gone with the flow—retouching a couple when in a good mood and putting them away when not. This time, I picked four photos I liked best; rather than forcing a nine-grid set, I preferred polishing these four cleanly inside and out. After all, doing cosplay is about having fun for oneself: shoot when the mood strikes, polish slowly after shooting, and post when ready. This is probably the updating pace that suits me best. In short, every time I pick a character for a formal photoshoot, it's a process of deeply experiencing a different life. Wearing specific costumes and holding specific tools changes not only my visual appearance, but my attitude in speech and action involuntarily leans toward the character as well—and that's precisely what fascinates me most about cosplay.