[Ch'en cosplay] Arknights Wàn Chóng Shān: This Body, An Empty Boat Floating in the Universe

The idea to shoot this Wàn Chóng Shān skin had actually been brewing for quite a long time. Yesterday, Brother Water and I finally locked in our shoot schedule; seizing the moment while the weather and lighting were in peak condition, we completed the entire official photoshoot in one dedicated go. Rushing through the retouching today, I wanted to share and chronicle the behind-the-scenes journey while the creative spark is still burning bright.

From first glance, Ch'en's Wàn Chóng Shān skin struck me with its intense, evocative Eastern ink wash aesthetic. To faithfully channel that airy weightlessness where martial arts and Jianghu lore intertwine into three-dimensional reality, extensive groundwork was invested in wardrobe and props. The wig was custom-highlighted in purple-blue tones; to preserve the buoyant volume of the bangs and ends, whenever the wind picked up on set, Brother Water had to snap the shutter immediately before the hairstyle flattened. For the conical bamboo hat (dǒu lì), I opted for an oversized silhouette to better anchor the overall profile in frame—pairing it with black sleeves trimmed in gold patterns meant that the instant I raised my hand to swing the prop, the authentic wuxia essence came alive.

The most grueling challenge was capturing the kinetic motion. In the original character art, Ch'en is leaping mid-air. To reproduce that airborne suspension in a real-world environment, Brother Water dedicated immense thought to camera placement and vantage angles. I had to tightly engage core stability at the precise fraction of a second when tiptoeing or springing upward, all while maintaining an icy, composed facial expression. The handheld prop may appear nimble, yet counterbalancing its weight demanded serious wrist control. The dynamic flare of the skirt wasn't achieved purely with a wind blower, but by discovering the exact physical sweet spot across countless repeated leaps. We took several hundred shots yesterday, making photo selection an excruciating joy because every frame marked an artistic breakthrough. To showcase the character's traits, the garment was designed with a high side slit, beautifully revealing leg lines during movement, which, together with the black lacing straps and golden embroidery, injected intense visual tension into the frame.

In post-production, to honor the artistic mood of the original splash art, I treated the background with traditional negative space (liú bái) combined with ink wash mountain rocks. The stone edges retained diffused calligraphy brushwork, seamlessly integrating the figure into the environment. The crimson over-robe set against white paper texture and ink-black crags dialed visual impact to the maximum. Retouching focused primarily on calibrating crimson saturation so it stayed brilliant without looking jarring against the muted landscape, while deepening shadows within the garment folds to enhance tactile dimension.

Ch'en possesses an unyielding, resilient tenacity at her core, and the Wàn Chóng Shān skin imbues her with a transcendent freedom drifting beyond the mundane world. This photo set brought a long-cherished creative dream to life: from garment patterning to the finished selects, every step strove to reconstruct the poetic Jianghu realm in my heart. Brother Water's mastery over light and shadow is phenomenal—many fleeting moments were captured purely because he called out the shooting rhythm on set. Though physically exhausting, seeing the completed work made every bit of that effort profoundly worthwhile.