Estelle Ellis Doing Krystal Livestream Tomorrow!
You probably remember that Estelle Ellis, the original voice actress for Krystal in Star Fox Adventures, agreed to voice Krystal in Star Fox Event Horizon, a fangame in ongoing development by UndyingNephalim.
UndyingNephalim will be hosting a livestream with Estelle Ellis tomorrow, July 23rd, at 12PM Pacific. I'm told this will be focused on Estelle Ellis' herself, her career and projects, some of the work on Star Fox: Event Horizon, and then Q&A.
You should be able to view the stream in the video above once it starts. However, you should probably view it on the YouTube page itself so you can participate in the chat.
New Krystal Cosplayer Appears
Introducing Rubiinikettu, a new Krystal cosplayer. She made her debut as Krystal last weekend at Desucon 2022, a Finnish anime convention. It was a relatively small con, but a few pictures are emerging of her time there. Her costume is very accurate to the games and it's causing quite the stir online.
I got in contact with Rubiinikettu almost immediately and she was kind enough to send me a bunch of details about the costume and her experience. I will summarize what she said below.
She's been reading the Krystal Archive and using it for research during the construction of the costume, especially the 3D models. She got inspiration from other cosplayers, specially Ayano Harumaki and Nyalice.
She loved Star Fox Adventures back in the day, but hated the flying parts. She likes strong female characters in video games and believes Krystal to be a fierce fighter.
Rubiinikettu has been cosplaying for a long time under a different name, hence her skill in creating this Krystal cosplay. She took a long break from cosplay before researching what kind of costume would be a good new challenge. She settled on Krystal as she had never done a fursuit-style head, which was the most interesting part of the costume for her to make.
She began working on it in the Fall 2020, with many breaks and slow progress. She tried many new techniques and fabrics, experimenting until she found the best options. She focused on accuracy to the game, keeping proportions the same and avoiding the toony look that some fursuits can have. The head is carved upholstery foam with fur fabric on top. She used the "follow-me" eye technique, which creates the illusion that the eyes are following the viewer. The hair on the head is a synthetic wig. The ears are more upholstery foam covered in fur fabric. The headband is made from EVA foam and attached to the top of the head with magnets so it can be easily removed to adjust the wig.
The armor pieces are very lightweight and not too bulky. They're EVA foam covered in Worbla for the upper armor. The leg armor is just EVA foam with no Worbla. They are mostly attached with a lot of velcro.
The shoes were a special challenge, Rubiinikettu never having modified shoes before. The feat are made from upholstery foam with individual toes that can move.
The bodysuit is stretch velvet, a material used often by figure skaters. Rubiinikettu used an airbrush to help blend the colors from blue to white on the front. The tattoos are stretch vinyl, and might I add that she got the spiral direction and orientation correct, something many artists overlook. The tail is filled with cotton and has a base made with upholstery foam and metal wire.
The jewelry is 3D printed, made by a friend. The red headpiece was cast in red resin, but the bigger green one failed to work the same way, so it is simply a painted 3D print. The clothes required a lot of gluing and ironing to get the details right.
The biggest problem to solve with this cosplay was making sure the bodysuit was flexible while avoiding wrinkles, especially around the neck. She also had to make sure the shoes were sturdy, but comfortable. Lastly, the eyesight through the head was challenging.
Rubiinikettu became more determined with every new problem and challenge she faced. One problem you might not suspect is the difficulty of getting the kinds of fabric she needed in her country. Much of the fabric had to be ordered from Europe.
She's very happy with the outcome of the costume. She was surprised how many people recognized the character, in spite of being 20 years old. In the future, she hopes to work on a staff prop with LEDs later this year. There were some other details she wants to update, like the buckle ornaments on Krystal's back and tail.
This appearance at Desucon was only the first. She plans to be at more cons and do some photoshoots in the future.
You can follow Rubiinikettu's work on Twitter and Instagram.
Photos by Pixeffect, Niinkos, SampoMoN, and possibly others. Please let me know if I missed anyone or if you find more!
Estelle Ellis to Voice Krystal in Star Fox Event Horizon
UndyingNephalim has revealed that he has tentatively worked out a deal with Estelle Ellis to reprise her voice role as Krystal in another fan game, Star Fox: Event Horizon. Frankly, I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner.
The details are still being worked out. I'm sure UndyingNephalim will post more about plans in the near future when he has more to share. For now, it's great to see some authentic Krystal representation in the modern day, like with the first major project: The Half Life 2 Alyx Mod.
I go out of town for a wedding and suddenly all this Krystal news! Please stand by for several big Krystal stories.
Krystal Plush by crispicroissant
Coffee Woozel commissioned crispicroissant to make a custom Krystal plush last year. Finally getting around to posting about it.
It's so cute! She has little custom jewelry, armor, and clothing, just like the games. I'm impressed by the detail on this plush.
Holographic Krystal Poster Available For Sale
Etsy user stillustrated is offering one of her Krystal artworks for sale as a holographic poster print. Check out the listing on Etsy to see the full size preview. There are two sizes available: 5 by 7 inches for $7 and 11 by 14 inches for $15.
Krazoa Palace Remix “A Sacred Place” by Tremendouz
Tremendouz has created a remix for the Krazoa Palace theme, one of the most iconic and mysterious songs in the Star Fox Adventures soundtrack. Visit the remix page for details about the song, it's creation, and links to download it.
Lab Coat Krystal Commission by Pruh
A few weeks ago, I ran across a sketch by artist Pruh that captured my imagination in spite of it's status as but one of many small doodles on a page full of other Krystal sketches. It shows Krystal, with a serious expression, wearing a lab coat, hands in her pockets. Somehow that combination is just epic.
So I contacted Pruh and proposed a commission in which she would finish the art as a colored commission. She agreed, and what you see above is the product of that. This is the full size version without the watermark. Last week, Pruh released a smaller version with a watermark that you might have seen already.
Having looked at it in full color, I've developed a head-canon that this is the version of Krystal that maxed out psychic abilities instead of staff combat. She can probably levitate and can fling enemies around with her mind without needing to move her body.
Thanks again for the excellent work, Pruh!
Dinosaur Planet Queen CloudRunner Ghost Cutscene Reanimated
Jo Lumaya has made another reanimated cutscene from Dinosaur Planet featuring Kyte and Krystal. Check out the previous reanimated cutscene if you missed it!
This is the cutscene in which the ghost of the Queen CloudRunner says goodbye to Kyte and warns her of what is to come. This cutscene was apparently missing from the leaked game demo, so this is a reconstruction mostly from voice lines. As with the previous animation, this uses a combination of old, new, and custom models with voice lines from the leaked Dinosaur Planet code to create this video.
David Wise Demos Wavestate Synthesizer With Krazoa Palace
The composer of Star Fox Adventures' soundtrack, David Wise, demonstrated a Korg Wavestate Synthesizer by recreating the initial ambient portion of the Krazoa Palace theme in just a few minutes. During the video, he talks a little about the process of creating the song for the GameCube hardware. Very technical, but very interesting.
TerminalMontage Krystal Tattoo Spotted
Some friends got together recently and each got a different TerminalMontage-style character tattooed, one of them being Krystal. Kimi got Cloud Strife, Ej got Link, and Isiah got Krystal. The specific design is from TerminalMontage's video "All Super Smash Bros Ultimate Characters Drawn in the TerminalMontage Style" which you can watch below.