Devola + Popola Build Log

Build Log

Introduction

This is a build log for my Devola+Popola Nier Replicant cosplay. An abbreviated version was previously shared on my socials, but this will go deeper into each section.

Introduction

photo Allison Stock

References

The twins appearances can have some drift in official appearances, so I selected the following three sources as my primary references. I defaulted to game screenshots as my main source of truth, as they were the most detailed, including subtle textures such as the floral motifs on their sleeves and pants. The album art for 10+1 years captured the vibe I wanted for my take on them. Lastly, when selecting fabric and wigs, I leaned towards the vivid reds seen in the Nier Replicant v1.22 concept art.

Nier Replicant v1.22 character key art.

Album art for the Nier 10+1 Years Devola + Popola vinyl record

Screenshot I took of Nier Replicant, v1.22...

Nier Replicant does have a very constrained camera, with no native photo mode; for instance, Popola in the library is always seen from a fixed perspective, with no ability to zoom or turn the camera.

To work around this, I used this photo mode mod with the PC version of the game to take better references for myself.

Popola, as she is seen in game

Popola, in the same room, with the free camera.

Stamps

There are several minor details on the twins' outfits that I decided to paint on with fabric paint and stamps.

To add all these details, I first pulled up the actual texture files to use as reference files in Clip Studio Paint. These were very low contrast and blurry red on red, so while I still used them as a guide, I shifted to primarily drawing my vectors against straight-on screenshots I had taken for reference, as the game rendered the same designs with much more contrast when zoomed close enough.

The only exception I did not vector myself is the black scrawl/chaos language text stamp in the bottom left of my finished stamps photos. I typed this using the Angelic Font by ThrushCreates. It spells TTAGC and is used as an added detail to my apron.

I had my stamp designs professionally laser cut via RubberStamps.net

Clip studio paint, showing a vector object selected, with several points and the curves between them.

Sleeve design

My finished stamps, laser cut by a service.

Raw texture files, with very low contrast.

My color coded vectors on the right, shown against my reference screenshot I took in game.

With my stamps, I used fabric paint , with rollers to evenly spread the paint across my stamp. I then pressed the designs into the fabric, and then went over the fabric with a iron to set it (with a cloth in-between the iron and the fabric to keep the iron clean and soak up bleed of excess paint)

Props

I 3D-modeled and printed two props for the twins, Devola's sitar, and identical staves for both of the twins, one staff as a solid static object, the other as a travel staff that breaks down into parts connected by magnetic keys.

The travel staff nests inside of the hollow sitar body, as seen in the render below.

Both of my props were modeled in Fusion, using techniques I detail more in depth in my Bridget Yo-Yo retrospective.

Devola's sitar

Twins' staves

While I had access to both in-game models, I did not use either; instead opting to mainly use screenshots and sketch my models from scratch; I go further into the rationale for this in my video "How to (not) use game assets in cosplay), but the short of it can be seen below, where I show my staff (top) and the game staff (bottom) rendered together, with the latter being far more angular and lacking all of the texture of my embossing.

Staff

For the staff, I first sketched out the outline of the front, back, and side views; the curve of the moon, and several designs to emboss on the main body. As the main body designs were complex, I made them in Clip Studio Paint (like my stamps) and imported them in.

Sketches, both of the overall shape of the staff, and of my imported vectors used for embossing.

Final render of my staff

My vectors in red, traced over the in-game model.

For the head, I used the sweep tool, you can see a early step of that on right right with me sweeping a teardrop shape along a curve to get the rough shape I wanted. I then followed that with more sweeps and cuts across different lines to get the head perfect.

Final head

For the lower part of the head (the base, below the moon), I started with a simple shape I rotated around the main vertical axis to get a vase-like object. I split it at various heights and used the pipe tool on those splits to create small lips.

Lastly, I embossed designs I sketched and used the "repeat on circular pattern" to copy the design all the way around the head.

Game reference for staff

Operations taken on lower head

For the main body, I used the form tool, starting with a cylinder with four quadrants (with left/right symmetry) around and several tall, and I matched up the control points of them with the control points of the side/front/back sketches to naturally fill out the shape.

After this, I embossed my imported designs onto the front.

I then split the staff into six pieces vertically for printing, and put a hole for a half inch dowel down the middle.

For my portable staff, I excluded the dowel hole and added a small rectangular key (or matching hole) with a hole for a magnet to each piece.

Three segments of my form selected, with sketch lines bounding them.

Sitar

I designed the sitar to break down into four pieces:

The main body
The faceplate, which magnetically attaches to the body
The neck, which slides into the body with friction
The tuning pegs, which slide into the neck

Much like the staff, I first made sketches and manipulated them, the body was formed using the form tool, the neck was made by sweeping a design along the sketch path, and the faceplate was made by extruding a sketch, and then I cleaned up with further splits, chamfers (edge smoothing), embossing, and similar operations.

Reference screenshot of Devola playing

Final render of my sitar.

While the sitar is not playable, I do have holes that support stringing it with six standard guitar strings, which slot into a compartment I made in-between the tuning pegs.

Additionally, you can see the pattern I vectored and then embossed all the way down the front and back of the neck. A smaller design is also seen embossed around the circle opening of the faceplate.

Sitar strung

Strings slot into the compartment in the tuning block

I modeled the body and faceplate in quarters with several dowels so that they'd all come together and be sturdy, and I cut holes for magnets in both so that the faceplate could pop on and off to give me a storage compartment.

There are two prongs on the neck and two slots on the body, so that the neck also slides in and out easily for travel and storage.

There is a single dowel running down the whole neck, with rectangular keys and holes modeled so that they only fit together in the correct orientation.

A cross section of the body, showing the holes for dowels and the friction slot for the neck

All of my sitar pieces, cut to fit my printer bed

Finishing

I followed my standard process for assembling my props,

first cutting all of my dowels to size, sliding the printed pieces onto them, and gluing them and the magnets together with Loctite superglue,

then sanding in multiple passes from rough (~80-120) to fine (~220-320) to smooth out print lines. I generally use a palm sander to reduce strain on my arms, but for smaller parts, such as the tuning keys on the sitar or under the moon on the staff, I still sand by hand with sandpaper or metal files.

after that, I shake and spray a couple coats of primer spraypaint cans, and then after those coats have set, I spray a few coats of color.

For more details on finishing props, I do highly recommend Lutavia Cosplay's Prime + Polish panel where I initially learned how to finish props.

(and as always, please use proper PPE when sanding and painting, I wear a respirator, goggles, and gloves)

Staff with head fully painted and body primed

The sitar pieces, assembled, sanded, and covered in white primer paint.

Sitar with the initial coats of paint

Unpainted sitar with sanding completed; you can see wood filler across the seams of the face plate.

Unfinished staff, assembled, still with print lines

Staff hanging after being painted

Inner Layers

The main garment consists of pants, a bodice, tights, heels, and a bolero. The heels were unmodified, the remaining parts are detailed below.

Pants

I drafted very wide pleated palazzo pants, stamped designs along the pleats, and made lacing panels lined with grommets. I laced them with cord, and I sealed the ends of the cord with electrical tubing after knotting them.

I installed waist ties, similar to those on Japanese field pants to keep the pants fastened, allowing the belts on the outside (two simple fabric tubes, tied together on each side in a bow) to be purely decorative.

Above the knee, the pleats are sewn in place to stay cleaner, but are free to move below the knee.

The pants are made of linen and lined with cotton.

Using snap tape, the flaps of my pants snap to the base of my bodice to stay upright at all times.

Stamps being painted

Sides laced up

Lacing panels I've lined with grommets

Electrical tubing, put on to cut end of cable, and shrunk and sealed with flame to prevent fraying

Snaps on both the pants flaps and the bodice

Top inside of pants, showing lining and ties.

Pants laid flat

Front and back of pants, sans belts

Game reference

Tights

While wearing a pair of tights on my legs (to keep the stretch at the appropriate level), I pinned red lingerie elastic to them and hand-stitched elastic to the tights at points where the elastic bands crossed each other.

Bodice

I made the bodice out of cotton and lined it with linen, the inverse of the pants. I used Indigo Jinjo's basic strapless bodice block as a base, then added a faux lacing panel, with wide elastic sewn onto black cotton. I added a small fur trim around the top, then installed a lining and zipper.

As shown above, I also added snaps for my pants flaps to snap into.

Faux lacing panel, with elastic strips

Front view

Back view, showing zipper

Trim to be sandwiched between outer and lining

Bolero

The twins wear a bolero top with large trumpet sleeves open in the front. While theirs are two separate sleeves tied together, mine mocks this: the front and back center are gathered and the ties are sewn in place in front of this, giving the illusion that they are tied together.

The bolero is made of charcoal linen, stamped with silver paint, and lined with black cotton.

I dyed some lace trim to match and put it around the top and bottom of the body and the ties.

The ends of the sleeves have grommets pressed into them, and I run silk ribbon through the holes to tie the sleeves closed.

Final Sleeve shape before finishing, with lining clipped to outside.

Mockup, with the sleeve in white and the body in red.

I cut a normal (but wide) trumpet sleeve first, and then cut a slit for the open part. Similarly, the body started drafted as a crop top and then I trimmed it down to what it is now.

Lace before dyeing

Lace dyed charcoal

Design stamped onto Sleeve

Ties untied, showing that they are stitched in place and not separate sleeves.

Outer Layers

While the rest of the costume detailed above is the "battle" outfit seen in their boss fight in the endgame, for most of the game, that outfit is covered by an apron and standing collar as they wear their "town" outfit around the library, fountain, and tavern.

photo Allison Stock

Apron

My apron is simple, rectangles on the front and back, ties on either side of the waist on the front, and straps crossing from the front to the back. The exterior of the apron is linen, and it is lined with cotton.

I took a liberty with a design element that is not in game, and added the Black Scrawl, a pattern heavily tied to the twins, to my straps and ties.

Apron back view

Apron front view

A cafe apron's straps draped over my dress form to help me position my back cross.

Straps printed with the black scrawl, a DNA sequence, in the game's chaos language.

Collar

I drafted a simple standing collar, interfaced and stamped the pieces, and assembled. There is a bias binding around the bottom, and I have a hook in the front to fasten to the collar.

Outer collar pieces. There are identical unmarked pieces for the inside, all four pieces are interfaced.

Front view

Back view

Hair and Makeup

Makeup

To help bring out all the red I used a "desert" eyeshadow palette, adding different shades of reddish brown and orange above and below my eyes, and mixed some of the pinker colors into my blush. I also blended some of the browner red into my eyebrows. I used a warm red lip stain.

Hair

I started with two Arda Wigs in Rust Red, then trimmed and heat styled them, both with a flat iron. For Devola, I added a bunch of curls and messy flyaways, while for Popola, I mainly straightened and curled the whole wig slightly inwards.

Both wigs were trimmed to their respective shapes, with the ends thinned slightly with thinning shears.