Sometimes you see something amazing in Warframe and wish it was real. That’s where the folks at Lightning Cosplay come in! Laura and Ralf have been professional cosplayers for a long time, using their skills and expertise to bring characters from video games, books, and more to life.

To celebrate TennoCon 2023, the pair are recreating the looks of Lotus and a Dax soldier. Laura will don the distinct helm and form of everyone’s favorite awakener, Lotus, while Ralf will embody the stoic strength of the Orokin’s elite fighting force. Those who attend TennoCon 2023 will be able to see these Warframe figures in real-life! The pair will also be guest judges at the TennoCon Cosplay Contest.

Lightning Cosplay’s work is so awe-inspiring and fascinating that we sat down to ask them about the process and the origins of their craft.

Why did your team get into cosplay in the first place?
It all started as Laura's hobby back in 2011 when she got in touch with the topic Cosplay on Japan-Day in Dusseldorf, Germany. Ralf became more and more involved over the years until Lightning Cosplay finally became a full-time job for both of us.

How did you make the move from personal to professional cosplay?
We started to sell tutorial books, made guest appearances at conventions, participated in costume contests and made our first money through this. After winning some costume contests, gaming companies contacted us and asked us to build costumes for them. From this moment it was no longer a hobby.

Cosplay is an art spread across a number of disciplines, including 3D modeling, 3D printing, foamwork, sewing, painting and more. In your experience, what have you found to be the easiest and hardest disciplines to work with?
It's hard to tell what is easy and what is hard, because in the end it's just a matter of time and experience, but Laura always found painting to be quite easy and accessible, however, still struggles a lot with wig styling. Luckily, the Lotus and the Dax Soldier do not require any wig styling at all.

Even though Ralf is mainly doing 3D modeling and 3D printing, he still finds it quite difficult as it is such a complex subject, with all the different 3D software, file formats and the things you must consider when 3D printing. Sanding the prints, on the other hand, is one of the easiest tasks.

What considerations and challenges do you look out for when you take on a professional cosplay project?
We mentally break down the entire costume into individual parts and discuss what material and technique (3D printing, laser cutting, sewing, etc.) we will use for each of these parts. Next, we'll estimate the time we'll need for each step and create a timeline to get a better overview of the entire build process.

What did you find to be the most complex aspects of both the Lotus and Dax cosplay?

The Lotus costume is quite complex in general as almost every part has to be 3D printed, molded and cast in silicone. This is not only a very complex but also extremely time consuming process.

The hardest part about the Dax costume was building it with good proportions and still being able to move, since video game armors often don't work that well in real life.

What facets of the Lotus and Dax cosplay are you excited to show off?
We're very proud of the overall look of both costumes when you see them with your own eyes, and we're especially excited to share that with everyone at TennoCon.

What tips would you offer to Warframe players who might want to get into cosplay?
It can be pretty overwhelming when you first try to come up with a plan to build a costume, but the best advice we can give you is to just start with one part and then move on to the next and so on. And if you need inspiration for building stuff, there are so many people in the cosplay community sharing their progress online, which we think is great and which we also use regularly.

Where can Warframe players learn more about Lightning Cosplay?
Best is to follow us on our socials, where we share all our costume progress, as well as a lot of cat content, especially in our IG stories. Also feel free to check out our homepage, where you can get our tutorial books as well as our handmade accessories that we create from time to time.

https://www.lightningcosplay.com
https://www.instagram.com/lightning_cosplay
https://www.facebook.com/LightningCos
https://www.youtube.com/lightningcosplay
https://www.tiktok.com/@lightningcosplay
https://twitter.com/lightningcos

If you want to know more about our upcoming celebration at TennoCon 2023, you can check out the main site for the show and the What is TennoCon explainer!