DIY Among Us Costume
The video game Among Us has become incredibly popular lately, and I wonder if it is partly because of the super cute little armless astronauts who spend most of their time doing random tasks around their spaceship. Of course, you can't let their cuteness fool you, there is always an imposter in their midst!
Since Halloween is less than a month away, I decided to create an Among Us template that captures some of the sweet quirkiness of the characters in an easy to build project, using really basic supplies such as interlocking foam mats and a glue gun.
Here are the tools and materials I used:
Among Us Helmet Pattern
10 mm thick x 60 cm (24”) square interlocking EVA foam floor mats:
Size M and L: 4 for the helmet and 2 more for the backpack
Size S: 3 for the helmet and 1 more for the backpack.
Size XS: 2 for the helmet and 1 more for the backpack.
Hot Glue Gun: I highly suggest a glue gun that has an adjustable temperature. If you use a temperature just a little bit higher than the melting point of the glue, you will have fewer burnt fingers, and not have to hold pieces together as long as they cool.
Very Sharp Knife: If it is not really sharp you will have a terrible time when you are cutting the foam. I use a surgical scalpel or utility knife.
Heat Gun or Blowdryer: Used for heating and forming the foam.
Gluing Surface: A surface that you don’t mind getting glue on.
Heat Gun or Blowdryer: Used for heating and forming the foam.
Light Coloured Gel Pen: Used for any markings on the foam. If you use a ballpoint pen and then try to paint over it with a light colour, the pen ink will migrate through the paint and you will never be able to cover the lines.
Paint: Artists acrylics are good, but I have also used ordinary house paint as well. If you want a really durable, long-lasting finish, I would suggest using a flexible paint, such as Plaid FX paints.
2.5 cm (1”) webbing: Used to attach the backpack to the helmet.
2-2.5 cm (3/4-1”) velcro: Used to attach the backpack to the helmet.
Ruler
Scissors
Taping the pattern together.
In the video game, the Among Us helmet just kinda morphs straight into the torso, so I designed mine to fit right over my shoulders. If you’ve got the pattern, you’ll need to measure around your shoulders to see which size to print. I’ve included five sizes in all - the smallest fits my 4-year-old and the largest is too big for me, so there should be something for everyone!
I printed up my pattern and taped it all together. I find it easiest to hold the sheets up against a window so that I can easily line up all the alignment markings.
Tracing the template onto some foam mats.
Now it was time to cut out the pattern pieces and trace them onto the foam. The first three sizes fit easily on a standard interlocking floor mat. The bigger sizes just needed to be a little shorter, but still looked good and fit over my shoulders, so I was happy with them. If you wanted to make one a little longer, I’d recommend using a roll of EVA foam.
Cutting foam can be a nightmare if you do not have a sharp knife. I always sharpen up my knife or grab a new blade. It is soooo much nicer to cut with a sharp knife. Also, I’ve found with thicker foam that it works best to run my knife along the cut line a few times, cutting deeper each time.
Heating the foam to make it easy to form.
Since this is going to be a domed helmet, I heated up the foam and stretched the centre area of each helmet piece over my knee. I suppose you could use any sort of rounded object - my knee was just what was handy at the time!
Gluing together the Among Us costume helmet
That done, I pulled out my trusty adjustable temperature hot glue gun. I love having the adjustable temperature feature because you can turn it quite low which saves your fingers from burning and also means you have to spend less time holding the parts together while the glue cools. Often when I’m gluing up a project, I’ll glue along one seam a few centimetres at a time from one end to the other. With this one, I found it worked best to glue it together at the top and the bottom first so that they were lined up, then glue a section at a time along the seam in between.
I was pretty happy with the strength of the seams, but just in case the glue decided to fail at an inopportune moment, I decided to reinforce the seams by adding a strip of fabric horizontally across the bottom of the helmet.
Too Easy!! The helmet is looking good!
At this point in the design process, I popped the helmet on my head and walked upstairs to my family. First, my wife burst out laughing. Then, she was impressed with how it already had the feel of an Among Us costume.
Glueing the faceplate to the helmet.
I added a rim around the face opening for a bit more definition and detail, then glued an oval ring inside the helmet so that it would stay in place on my head. I also experimented a bit with stacking a few more rings together to adjust the height of the helmet on my face. For me, the helmet sat rather low, so I needed three more rings. My 13-year-old son in the size M helmet was fine with just one.
Gluing the backpack together.
That finished off the helmet, so now I had a look at making the Among Us backpack. Or oxygen tank. Or whatever it is. Again, I wanted to capture the cartoony-style feel so I didn’t want just a regular box. After a bit of experimentation, I decided to use one piece of foam that wrapped around three sides to give it a rounded look. At first I just made it straight across the back, but found that the backpack stuck out and just didn’t look right. It worked much better to curve the back inward so that it hugged the helmet a little closer.
I glued some webbing to the backpack and cut some slots in the helmet wide enough for the webbing to fit, then added velcro to the webbing and inside of the helmet. The straps threaded through the slots and attached to the velcro inside. Perfect! Now I had an Among Us helmet complete with matching pack. I ended up making three more to try out the other sizes. They fit on my family, so now we could be an Among Us crew!
Painting it all up.
Next it was time to figure out what colour paint to use. I chose grey, orange, and white because a search through my costume closet produced those three different colours of coveralls; and pink because…well, when you’re 4-year-old girl, there is just a whole lotta pink in your wardrobe.
I used a few coats of acrylic paint to get a nice even colour. If you’re looking for some durable, flexible paint, I definitely recomment PlaidFX, but any water-based paint will work.
And that is it! Done! Now I’m off to electrical to fix the wiring…
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How to make an Among Us costume