{"id":801169,"date":"2022-08-23T10:00:37","date_gmt":"2022-08-23T17:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/us\/?p=801169"},"modified":"2026-06-05T13:42:34","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T20:42:34","slug":"boris-fx-improve-cosplay-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/boris-fx-improve-cosplay-photos\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Ways Boris FX Optics can bring your cosplay photos to life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A lot of creatives are heading back to conventions like Comic-Con this summer, so there\u2019s no better time than now to mention that the Wacom Intuos<\/a> comes with a full-year free trial of Boris FX Optics<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boris is best known for a suite of video effects programs that helped make films like Infinity War, Avatar, Interstellar, and similar blockbusters. Boris FX Optics adapts their tools to still photography, letting you make fire, fog, lightning, explosions, and a host of other effects you\u2019d normally need stock images for, in either a standalone program or as a Photoshop plugin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the time I first heard about it, I was struck by how particularly useful it sounded for cosplay photography: if making fire with a click of a button sounds like magic, that\u2019s because spell-crafting is one of Boris\u2019 specialties \u2013 along with the rest of the lighting, background replacement, and color grading it takes to give a cosplay shoot next-level production values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"fantasy<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Imagine a program made entirely of Photoshop\u2019s adjustment layers: Create one, click an effect to add it, tweak its settings, repeat until you have a composite effect, then save and export. That\u2019s all there is to using Optics, really. It\u2019s as user-friendly as effects programs get, perfect for those new to photo manipulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that simple framework unfolds to reveal massive complexity: its 160 tools come with a combined 1,700 presets, and most have long menus that let you tune every property. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, it\u2019s been years since I\u2019ve shot photos at a con, but I had to pull out some of my old cosplay photos to try it myself. Here are just a few examples, grouped by what cosplay photographers can use them for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Change backgrounds in a flash<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Although Boris FX Optics is known for visual effects, the Photoshop plugin also comes with a smart masking tool that can cut subjects out of backgrounds in a sliver of the time it takes manually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you can get shots with decent color separation between your subject and background, you can take them straight from the con to wherever you want \u2014 without having to worry about masking out each spike of hair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Tristan
Wacom manager Pamela Park\u2019s son\u2019s Dragon Con 2018 cosplay. Screenshot from Team Fortress 2, compositing and drop shadow in Photoshop, everything else done in Boris FX Optics.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

2. Correct colors with a click<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Color palettes are integral to a franchise\u2019s look, and Boris FX Optics has done a great job emulating a lot of famous ones \u2014 some were created with Boris software, after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Color<\/strong>, Film Lab<\/strong>, and Grads\/Tints<\/strong> tabs come with more grading presets than you can imagine, including a series based on actual movies: \u201cBack to the Future\u201d and \u201cStranger Things\u201d will wash your image out in blue, \u201cThe Matrix\u201d will tinge it green, and \u201cThe Walking Dead,\u201d will apply a yellow tint.  A personal favorite is \u201cChildren of Men,\u201d which will desaturate it to an apocalyptic gray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Warhammer<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

3. Work magic<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Optics 2022\u2019s new killer feature is the Particle Illusion Library<\/strong>, a collection of over 70 effects ported over from Boris\u2019s video programs. Entire animations are replicated, so you can advance through them frame-by-frame and select which stage of them you think fits best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The glow effects<\/strong> automatically light the rest of your photo, or you can use smart masking to constrain them to the parts you want lit.  And of special note to cosplayers: it has a whole subsection of anime effects!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Boris<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

4. Match the show\u2019s style<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Finally, after you\u2019ve placed the character in their setting, matched them to the show\u2019s color profile, and given them canonically-accurate powers, time to apply the final production tricks to push it over the top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lighting tab<\/strong> contains smart lighting effects as well as sun ray generators, glints, sparkles, and dozens of lens flares in more sizes and colors than you\u2019d think possible. These are lowkey some of the program\u2019s most impressive tools: they genuinely map the light to the contours of your image, not just add a light-colored overlay to it like other programs\u2019 filters, with very professional results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scattered across the panels, you\u2019ll find miscellaneous other effects for various post-prod duties, like PI HUD-GUI<\/strong>, a selection of sci-fi interface graphics, and S_TVDamage<\/strong> and DigitalDamage<\/strong>, the rare genuinely good glitch effects. And Beauty Studio in the Diffusion tab has your quick skin-healing needs covered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With Optics, Boris FX has done a lot to make their toolset available to laypeople without studio budgets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The one-year trial that comes with every Wacom Intuos tablet is enough to build a substantial cosplay photography portfolio on its own, but at just $10 a month (or $150 for a perpetual license) afterward, it won\u2019t be too expensive to keep enhancing your photos for good. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And for all it can do, it\u2019s surprisingly lightweight. The download was huge, but once installed, it ran comfortably with other programs open on a relatively low-spec laptop, lagging only on complex particle effects. So if you have one of those, you can easily take it to the next con you attend and edit the day\u2019s photos from your hotel room that night \u2014 which I can attest is the best way to get the jump on uploading them to social media before the event\u2019s over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a more dynamic demonstration of these tools, you can watch Boris\u2019s official tutorial on enhancing cosplay photos at the video below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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