Finished it a couple months ago at least, but I just took it to MegaCon in Dublin last week. Everyone there was really nice ^^
I can see through it by the way since a ton of people have asked me before, it's just a little difficult because of the LEDs reflecting off the plexiglass lol
I have a massive soft spot for yume no tobira, it holds a special place in my heart because it was my first real introduction to love live. I worked really hard on this dance and cosplay and I’m really excited to see how this pv comes out.
Went to an idol shoot last week, and I got my solos back!! 🥺💖 I love wearing white day so much and I'm so excited to get my other photos back waa 😭💖 I love doing idol things and I love getying to see people at the shoots I go to 🥰
In case anyone else is wondering how i made my Rina cosplay, here's an explanation!
The clothes were mostly just clothes I bought online and modified - planning to sew mostly from scratch for future cosplays though. Got a blue hoodie, replaced the drawstrings to be white and sewed the white stripes on. The skirt was too big so I took some fabric off to make it fit and used the extra to make into a purse. The shoes were just regular red hi-tops and I replaced the laces with light blue ones.
Now the part people are probably actually interested in, the Rina-chan Board!
Most of the Rina-chan Board was from PorzellanProps on Etsy - they sell either a fully printed version they ship to you, or the 3d model files for much less. I live in Ireland so getting a local service to print it was much faster and less expensive than buying the version they printed from the U.S.. It usually comes with swappable faceplates which seem to work really well from what I've seen other cosplayers do with them, but I wanted to make it work like Rina's!
Doing what I did with the LEDs it involved a lot more DIY and improvisation that I can't really get in get into without writing for far longer than I want to the day after an English exam, so I'll give the short version.
I ordered a perforated LED matrix from online, where holes are punched in the unused space between each LED so you can see through it from the other side. Unfortunately something like that was so obscure I had to email the company directly to get an invoice for it since they'd stopped listing it online, but if anyone wants to know where they can get one lmk and I'll see if I can find a link!
I needed a way to keep it in place, so I modelled a custom slot to glue between the faceplates, so the matrix would rest in it without sliding around. I also glued a plexiglass panel cut to shape between the front faceplate and the matrix holder.
To get it to actually work, I hooked the matrix up to an Arduino and installed all the plugins I need for it to run. To control the faces and brightness while actually wearing it (especially at cons), I also connected the Arduino to a small 12-key number pad and coded it so each button corresponded to a face. One fun fact about the default smile face is that it actually blinks randomly every 5-7 seconds!
As a last minute addition just before going to MegaCon with it, I wrapped the faceplates with duct tape and coloured it with an acrylic marker, then cut holes in the tape so the panel would still slide in. Both for aesthetics and structural integrity.
So yeah it's kinda scuffed and a lot went wrong in the process of making it, definitely wouldn't recommend mine as the best way of going about this But it worked well and held up for 3+ hours in a crowded con, so I consider that a win!
This is literally the worst place to promote anything but I am part of an idol group and I just filmed my first solo pv, it’s a cover of Evergreen. Please watch it I really tried my best lol
Hello! If you don't know me I'm a small cosplayer from the Midwest who likes to make costumes of my favorite characters, dance with my idol group, and be cringe.
I mainly post on Instagram, but I'll make sure to put stuff here from time to time :)