This is a build of a cosplay costume of Amaterasu from Okami, for our dog Dante.
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 Photo by ~morgoththeone. |
Before I proceed, a few notes for anyone who wants to cosplay their dog:
- Only do this if the dog will enjoy it.
- Dante is exceptionally sociable. Many dogs are not, and may react adversely to being the center of attention. Some might get aggressive.
- Dante doesn’t care about things being on him, perhaps because he’s bred to be a sled dog. Many dogs don’t like to be encumbered. You can desensitize a dog to wearing things, but don’t just shove a costume on a dog that’s freaked out by it.
- Watch your dog’s body language in any unusual situation. Make sure they’re happy.
- Keep the health of your dog in mind.
- Don’t leave a costume on for long. This can cause overheating and can tangle fur or cause it to become ingrown.
- If it’s hot, provide water regularly, if it’s cold, don’t stay out for long, etc.
- Don’t expose a dog to unusual stimuli for long. This will cause anxiety, even if it’s fun.
- Don’t apply anything toxic to a dog. (We used food-coloring markers.)
- Be careful and use common sense.
- I do not recommend trying this with a cat.
Background
We have a Samoyed by the name of Dante. This is a breed that looks like small, fluffy, white wolf. We also occasionally cosplay. It was inevitable that we would come up with the idea of combining the two.
While planning our Otakon 2011 trip at the start of June, my wife semi-jokingly suggested bringing Dante. To our surprise, our roommates at the con were exctatic at the idea. Since this was better for him than leaving him in a boarding place for five days, it was decided.
I then figured it would be a great time to do a costume for him. The Amaterasu costume was perfect. Not too complicated, not too heavy, and popular enough to be quite recognizeable.
Overall plan
I decided to do the wings, shield, flames, and paint. I did not do the clouds around the tail and paws. I couldn’t figure out a way to do either of those well without encumbring Dante’s movement or causing him discomfort. Given his general fluffiness, I thought that would be fine.
To attach everything, I decided to make a harness, and then anchor the costume parts to that. This way, it would be easy to put things on and take them off.
Harness
This is a balance between comfort and stability. I attached it to his neck, front legs, and stomach. The straps that attach to the legs hook to the main part with buckles, so they can be put on separately.
I then made a little saddle, using fur left over from my wife’s in-progress Felicia costume. It turned out that of all our fur remnants, that one matched Dante ridiculously well, to the point where several people asked how we managed to ’shave’ him that well for the wings. The saddle is made out of fur just so if people catch glimpses of it, they can’t really tell it’s separate from him.
The main purpose of the saddle is to cushion his back so the shield and flames don’t rest directly on his spine, so it’s two pieces on either side of the center.
Wings
I first cut the wings out of foamie to get the shape right. I then took comparatively thick wire and bent it to follow the shape, and stapled it to the foamie (medieval, I know). This formed the base of the wings.
I then took the aforementioned Felicia fabric and cut out a pair of pieces for each wing, larger than the foamie cutout. I stitched them together halfway, inserted the foamie, then hand-sewed them shut the rest of the way. (I tried using the machine, and broke two needles on the wire. There’s just too much fur.)
At first, I was going to attach the wings to the leg parts of the harness, but after trying that, it became obious that this would be way too loose. Instead, I made the wings the leg parts of the harsess. So, they have a loop through which Dante’s front paws go, and the top buckles to the main body of the harness. These are hand-sewn on.
Finally, I did the swirling/cloud designs. I wanted to do this with thread, but that turned out impractical with the thickness of the two layers of fur + foamie. I ended up doing it with a sharpie, and am not entirely happy with the result, since when the fur moves, the lines get messy. I regret not stitching lines before putting the wings together, and am pondering redoing it.
Shield
I made the base of the shield out of pink insulation foam, on the general premise that lighter is better in this case. I cut the circle out with a small hand saw and sanded it on my table belt sander, then with sandpaper by hand.
I drew out the design based on a model (the only halfway decent reference I could find), then cut it out of 1/4″ foamie and glued it on with superglue. I primered the shield with spray primer before and after the application of the design (before to protect from glue, after to get ready for painting).
Amateur Hour
Around this point, I thought it would be a good idea to paint the back of the shield white, to make it blend in with Dante’s fur. So I sprayed it with flat white paint. This is one of those things that demonstrates just how amateur a cosplayer I am (several people have laughed at this). The spraypaint ate through the insulation foam, almost all the way to the front. :/ I painted over it with acrylic paint…
Flames
I decided early on to make the flames out of a foamie-wire-foamie sandwich (using 1/8″ foamie), so I could shape it in 3D. I went back and forth on what to use as a base. I started with a foamcore torus, but eventually switched to a foam disk. The wire is just embedded as deep into the disk as possible. The foam sandwich is sealed with superglue. The flames are cut out best as possible.
Somewhere around here, I painted the shield with green acrylic paint, and tried the whole thing on the dog. None of this is attached, but Dante was particularly tired out that day (we’d just come back from a dog park), so he was willing to hold still to verify everything was fine:
Painting the flames was a ton of fun. It turns out to be way easier than drawing a harness schematic.
I then glued the shield on. (Some paint touchup still to be done.)
Attaching the Divine Instrument
Finally, I needed to attach the harness and the divine instrument (shield + flames). I decided that magnets would be best, so I could snap the instrument on and off quickly as the situation dictated. I get magnets from kjmagnetis.com. I believe these are RC22CS-Ps.
I attached the magnets to the shield, then covered them with extra bits of foamie to fix them firmly in place and painted over those. (Yes, still using superglue.)
I then attached corresponding magnets to the saddle.
Face Paint
That just leaves the face paint. I looked it up, and there were two safe methods: food coloring and dye specifically tailored for dogs. I found food coloring markers that came in a variety of colors, so I ordered those.
Painting his muzzle was easy, because the fur is short. As the fur gets longer, though, it’s harder to draw clean lines. For the first outing, I just did his face, not his sides. The coloring smudges a lot when it’s wet, so be careful, but it’s pretty solid once dry.
Done!
And that’s it. It’s remarkably easy to put on – takes 5-10 minutes to do the face paint (and I’ve only done it once) and then 5 minutes to put on the costume, which is:
1) Put on collar and leash
2) Put on harness (two buckles – one around neck, one around stomach)
3) Slide wings over paws and attach to harness (two buckles – one on each wing)
4) Snap the divine instrument onto the harness (magnetic)
Photo by ~cheebang
Wall-clock time: 2 months
Build-time: ~19 hours
Cost: ~$50
Beers consumed: ~2.
For more photos take a look at my Amaterasu deviantart gallery and photos of this cosplay in others’ albums.
For other photos of Dante, friend him on facebook: facebook.com/dante.kogan.
I added you to StumbleUpon; this is too epic to not share!
I love, love, love this costume.
No responses? But this is seriously one of the best things I’ve ever seen in my life!
So freaking adorable!
I was wondering how it stayed on his back!
Great work!
this is amazing.
just dont tell him Ammy’s a girl!
stellar work.
Dogs are meant to be with their people and vice versa.
This is a much better idea than a boarding facility. Very nice.
This is so cool!
You did a great job and you have a beautiful dog.
Holy cow, this is the best thing ever. I absolutely loved Okami and Okamiden, and I love dogs on top of that. You did an amazing job! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks, all, I’m glad you like Dante (and his costume). He’s a pretty awesome dog.
Amazing!! I love Okami so much!
D
You did such a amazingly cute job
What a cute little thing. Your dog is cute flluffy creature, and of course the cosplay is incredible. Nice job!
I love the caring thought you put into this, and as others have said, Dante is beautiful. Thanks for sharing!
Really loved Okami, and you did a dead on job of recreating Ami! Great work!
What a beautiful puppy! The costume is pure win, y’all did a GREAT job!!
PS: Okami creator studio staff were all fired later after release Davil May Cry.. CAPCOM got to cocky. and Now Hideki Kamiya workes with Sega. O.O dumb fucks Capcom became famous thanks to Clover Studio!!!
Hi!
I was curious how you were allowed to let Dante into the con itself? Did you have to get special permission or something? Usually only service dogs are allowed in very public spaces like this. It looks like he had a great time and have some very fun and creative and thoughtful owners.
Actually, it’s simpler than that – we just didn’t take him into the con. The Hilton adjacent to it allowed pets, and that’s where we stayed. We only took him around outside the con itself.
As it happens, though, after we got back, I checked both the con rules and the convention center rules, and didn’t see anything about dogs. So if we return next year, I’ll check ahead of time and maybe I can actually bring him inside.
And, thanks.
アマ公ｋｔｋｒ
I gotta say, your dog was my favorite part of Otakon. Getting my picture taken with him was the highlight of my weekend. I was amazed at how you put it together and how great he looked. You probably didn’t expect as much popularity as you got! Thanks so much for letting me get a picture with your Okami.
http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/249330_10150339616378268_671773267_9626915_3258954_n.jpg
http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/189376_10150339616353268_671773267_9626914_5594846_n.jpg
Amazing-was thinking of my German Shepherd Dog as Jerome from Ginga Den Setsu Weed, and my other dog as one of the Dog warriors from Okami. We have Cosplayed Princess Fuse and Issun. Plus have our human Ammy, which can be seen under- Google Images, under guess what? “Repede”, there is our whole other group. When we go to cons I miss my pups though, and yes they are therapy dogs too- Delta Certified and tested. Repede would also be good for our GSD but we would have to teach him to hold a pipe! Repede is the same person in the ammy costume, on google images!
So cute!
I’m a cat person myself, but dogs that somewhat resemble wolves are alright. And look at that, a dog cosplaying a wolf goddess! 
Brilliant! And he’s adorable <3
Not all cons disallow animals.
I went to one for many years, conifur NW, and there was a dog who attend.. five or six years in a row.. even had his own badge made up and everything..
And with that said, Dante is a beautiful boy. And this is from someone who prefers cats..
Dante is a beautiful dog and you did an awesome job making that Ameratasu costume, and the care you took to ensure Dante was comfortable and happy!
Heya,
Awsome dog cos play costume. How long did it take to make the costume from planning to finish. Maybe I can get my bf’s cat to dress up as Happy from Fairy Tails though I don’t think she will enjoy having a sack on her back. Oh well I can dream cant’ I
Also,I found your site on GamePro website. So congrats, your hardwork has been recognized.
http://www.gamepro.com/article/news/221872/cosplaying-canine-dante-dressed-up-for-otakon-2011/
Awesome, you gave me a great idea for my dog’s costume this year (I happen to have a samoyed too). Let’s just hope I can pull it out on time
Thanks!
Absolutely stunning…….beautiful dog as well……..genius idea and I tip my hat to you guys and Dante
Thanks, all. The costume took about two months, and I estimate around 19 hours of work (ballpark).
If anyone makes costumes inspired by this, please point me to them – I’d love to see photos, and will happily link to them.
If the con says ok, be prepared for a wall of security to stop you as you enter the bcc. I was accompanied by my guide dog and it was like talking to a brick wall. NevEr had an issue in 09. I also got stopped by staff even when I put it on my reg under special notes like they asked me too.
@Jolynn: Wow, that sounds unpleasant. I hope you managed to persuade them.
I guess I’ll hope that the guards are dog lovers.
Bad @$$.
Was a great read and very helpful. More plz?!
We pinned this on Pinterest to our Otakon Memories page! This was so great last year! We hope to see you in 2012! Feel free to email us if you’d like us to feature this on our Facebook page!
http://pinterest.com/otakon/otakon-memories/
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