Overwatch cosplayer kicks it up a notch by animating Blackwatch Genji

An Overwatch cosplayer went the extra mile by having his Blackwatch Genji outfit animated in After Effects to make it look like it came right off the screen.

Cosplayers are always looking for ways to stand out from their peers and create experiences that help them gain popularity in a fandom that’s become increasingly difficult to break in to.

Enter VFX and motion graphics artist Kenson, who goes by Rikognition on Twitter. He was able to use a combination of blue screen technology, After Effects, and some really slick design work to bring JohnnyJunkers’ Blackwatch Genji to life.

 

“For this one, I didn’t do it as detailed so I just used After Effects and it’s auto meshed puppet tool,” Rikognition said on Reddit.  “Otherwise, I would normally use Spine2d and draw proper meshes and weight maps.”

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The goal of the animation was to make “IRL look like CGI,” as Kenson noted on his Twitter. The results have been going viral within the community, with the post currently sitting at 17.5k upvotes and near the top of the Overwatch subreddit.

While JohnnyJunkers may have a modest following of 4,000 on Twitter, he is much more well known on Facebook where he currently has over 51,000 followers. Some of his more well known cosplays include Ultra Instinct Goku and Ryu from Street Fighter.

The cosplayer is well known for his motivational posts on Facebook, especially those focusing on fitness as it relates to cosplay. His Goku post in particular detailed his process for working out to fit into the outfit.

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“Goals help a lot and I can’t wait to show you guys what I’m training towards next year,” he said in his post.

He is currently working on an impressive Mega Man X cosplay that will be sure to wow audiences as well. There is no word yet on if he’ll team up with Kenson to make this one digital as well, but if he does, expect it to be just as epic as the Genji one.