Hey everybody,
Adam here!
I am about to embark on a One Day Build which,
if I'm going to be honest with you,
might actually take more than a day.
It is a fairly intense build,
and most of the materials for it are actually
behind me on the work bench there.
Earlier this year for San Diego's Comic-Con,
I decided to be the bear from The Revenant
and drag around the carcass of Leo DiCaprio
And to do so, I made a seven foot tall, furry bear costume.
And it was awesome!
I liked making it,
I liked figuring out the character,
everything about it.
And so; in anticipation of New York's Comic-Con,
I am making another large, furry character.
A creature...
...that many of you know as "Totoro".
Your neighbor Totoro.
My Totoro will be grey
and white.
But first up,
I've got some drawing to do,
some tracing,
some circles to draw,
and some math to do
to make sure I have enough of everything
and to get started and figure out how I'm going to
get in this guy when he's six and a half feet tall
What I'm about to do will make it clear
why I keep this whole shop on wheels.
Well, it's one of the reasons.
So, I need some whiteboard
and I've got it behind here.
So, I'm going to...
...move my stuff out of the way.
That?
That's me.
So what I'm going to do here is:
I'm actually going to trace out my form
so I can see it on the whiteboard.
And then I am going to trace out
Totoro's form on top of that.
I don't need to go much further than this
because Totoro is large and round.
Really, all the support for the Totoro costume
is gonna be here.
Right on my shoulders.
He's kinda square...
He's cute!
Now, I'm trying to make my drawing relatively
bilaterally symmetrical because the character will be.
But, you'll see the...
...the way I'm going to work out the dimensions
of this costume and start to build its framework.
My drawing doesn't have to be perfect,
I actually have some adjustability in there.
But that--
Oh! He's leaning over to the side, isn't he?
That's not good...
Yeah, he's a little taller than me right now.
Totoro's structure, inside
will be created
using a series of concentric rings.
Picture a hoop skirt
and that's how I'm making Totoro.
And the way I'm going to do it is
I'm going to use a constant distance from ring to ring.
This will make sense later in the process,
but it also means that I'm going to be measuring
along the outside of this.
This right here.
Where the drawing starts to get super marked-up,
is actually one of my favourite parts about making stuff
Is...
...I don't know. For some reason, a drawing that's fully
marked-up with measurements and multiple colours
always makes me kind of thrilled.
Why don't you do evens and write them down there...
and I'll do odds.
Clearly, what I've done,
is I've measured across the diameters of each of the
fourteen rings that will make up the structure of Totoro.
I could have done it with twelve rings,
twenty rings...
I tried to go with a balance that it wouldn't look too
stepped once I'd covered him in batting and fur.
I then took those diameters, multiplied them by 3.1...
...415927...
Pi, essentially.
And came up with the circumference of each one.
And now, the next step is to start making the rings.
So I'm going to put back some of my shop
and gather a brand new material which I have never
worked with before for costuming or any other purpose,
and start to make these concentric rings.
This is the internal framework of Totoro.
This is a natural product, as you might have gathered.
It is wood. It is in fact, rattan.
If you've ever sat in a weaved chair, this is what it was
built out of.
It turns out you can buy crap-tons of rattan for really not
much money.
I can't remember what I spent on this, but I don't think it
but, I don't think it was more than like, forty bucks.
There's a lot.
There might be enough for a full Totoro costume
right in there.
So, I'm going to start making some concentric rings.
I'm going to be tying them together with  some
some high-strength, really cool stuff.
This stuff.
This is--
Anthony De Longis, the whip trainer on the Mythbusters
Raiders of the Lost Ark episode, told me about this stuff.
It is a syntheic, waxed material called synthetic catgut.
Now when I first made
my bear, I made a pair of test boots for him
and I'm about to tear them up
and use them to make Totoro's feet
Oh good god!
Ah - come on, come on
Two former bear feet, soon to be Totoro feet
Now I'm actually assembling this all from little scraps of fabric
because they're the feet! They don't need a tremendous amount of high detail
and people aren't really going to be looking at them unless they look weird
so I'm just sort of going hell-bent for leather on these
it's totally fine. Let's do that...
I have to make a pair of tubes because Totoro's got legs
I think this is the last sewing I have to do on this project
Oh right!
Okay so he's got the chevrons on his chest, that's the next step
he's got whiskers - chevrons on chest, whiskers - and!
Right - my ability to see. That's the last step.
Totora's coming into his own!
It's time to start glueing on these chevrons
So my solution for the whiskers is to actually utilize loop velcro
it's got the right kind of feel to it - um - and it gives me the ability
to do the kind of - uh - slightly structural taper that I want.
And its fast and easy
Lets see how we do here
That, that, THAT's a nose!
That's a good lookin' nose
I don't mean to get so verbal and verbose about it but
hell's bells thats fun
to see that working like that
I think he's pretty much done
I have to put on the legs put on the feet, put on my headdress and put on Totoro
and I'm ready for Comicon. Okay I'm sure I'm missing something
let's see
oh whoops, there we go that was the problem. Alright let's see here
Do you have it? Are you in it?
okay
let's see if I can turn, I can
That's it! Hello! Okay, so, I don't have fantastic control over - I don't know why I'm yelling, the microphone's right on me -
I don't have fantastic control over my arms, but that's fine, I don't have to use those arms
walking is fine - Oh! I know what I forgot! I can't see!
I have no idea how to look out of this thing. Wow. I really have no idea how to look out.
Alright, we'll have to figure that out
Alright, I've figured how I'm going to see outside of Totoro - this. A camera.
This is the first time I'm trying a camera mounted vision system in a costume. I'm gonna mount this onto his head
Okay here we go
Okay, so
Next up, I need a monitor
So this framework I'll be wearing inside, let's see here
This is my monitor, two nice big fat batteries, let's see... Oh this is gonna be so cool
I'm so into this.
I probably won't wear glasses inside of Totoro, that's interesting
Yeah, oh yeah, see, I'm near sighted.
Oh and what's this for? This is a little fan, this blows cool air on my face.
Yep, totally necessary inside this costume.
I'm not exactly sure how to put this on by myself, but let's see if I can do it
C'mon, c'mon
Okay, alright Totoro, work with me here. There we go, okay, oh yeah
It's not bad in here, and the fan is blowing on my face, it's quite nice
Now I'm gonna hook up my monitor, let's see here
where is that
that is the hdmi that goes into the right-hand side, and if everything goes right I should be seeing out front
Dude! There we go! I can totally see outside of Totoro!
This is really cool
cause I have both my hands free inside of Totoro it's actually kind a nice environment
I like it in here!
This is great, awesome, I'm gonna figure out a dance and everything
Wooh!
So, there is my one-day Totoro build. I am really, really ecstatic about him
I am hoping that you are inspired enough to make your own paper lantern Totoro costume like this one
I have forsee an army of Totoros! But now, it's just this one for me
And it's off to New York Comicon
