Anything and everything involved in Cosplay.
"Cosplay" is short for Costume Play, meaning people go around dressed as their favorite characters from TV Shows and having fun doing it.
A lot of cosplayers, nowadays, have cosplay pages to manage their progress, costumes, and the like, whether it be on Facebook, DeviantART, or somewhere else. It also serves as a communication bridge between other cosplayers. How does one go about managing a page?
1. Make a page
Just start an account somewhere. If you have a Facebook account, it's simple to make a cosplay page. Start by going to https://www.facebook.com/pages/create/. Here, you will choose a category and name for your page. From there, you follow the simple instructions to help you get set up. Another way is to create an account on DeviantART. A lot of the cosplayers I know have one. Great place to display your artwork and communicate with others of the same interest, especially by joining groups.
2. Adding content
Now that your page/account has been created, it's time to add stuff to it. Put up future cosplay plans to keep an organized idea of which characters you'd like to bring to life. Keep Work-in-Progress photos in albums to let yourself and others know how you are keeping track of the construction of your costumes. Another thing is to put up photo shoot pictures of your cosplays, an important part to show your ability to portray a certain character. There are a lot of photographers out there, willing to help you do so. Some will charge, some will not. It all depends. Also, be sure to share tutorials or tips to help other cosplayers should they have any trouble on how to make particular parts of their costumes. Lots of prop and makeup tutorials are available as well.
3. Keeping it updated
Keep your page updated every so often, if not every day. Reason being is you will lose audience members if there is a lack of information, whatever that may be according to the person managing the page. Post memes, tutorials, tips, progress photos, etc. in order to keep your audience interested and engaged.
Sunday Alas, all good things must come to an end, but first... Let's cover the WORLD COSPLAY SUMMIT! A competition where cosplayers, in teams of two, compete for a chance to be the best in the world all while building community, breaking barriers, and making new friends. All of the teams that participated in the Qualifiers were simply amazing. Everyone had to operate their own props with no outside help, so you can only imagine how tough it can be if things don't go right the first time around. Reason why? It's because you only have one shot to make it. These cosplayers spent months upon months getting ready to compete. The lucky winning team from the US competition gets to go to Japan and compete against the rest of the world. The Qualifiers and Finals skits were just spectacular. It's one of those events where it's just better to see it in person because of all the technicality that goes into each performance. Here is the winning team and representing Team USA, Cupcake Cosplay!
I wish them both the best of luck in this year's competition, and may they make friendships that will last a lifetime. That's it for Anime Matsuri 2013! See you next time for more cosplay insight! =D
Craziest day out of ANY convention weekend. Lots of people everywhere, things to do, panels to see, and stuff to shop for. For me, it was a big day because I was entering my Rapidash cosplay into the AM Cosplay Contest later that evening. However, panic ensued when a friend of mine took my badge instead of her own. Luckily, another friend let me borrow his badge, so I can gain entrance into the hotel and make it on time to my pre-judging appointment. He sacrificed a panel that he really wanted to go to for me to have a chance to compete. ;w; To this day, I really appreciate what he did for me.
My day was spent on my Rapidash cosplay, pretty much. Did my craftsmanship pre-judging first thing in the morning. The judges, especially Catherine Jones, had a fun time analyzing my costume. XD They were all up in it, looking very closely at the tiny details. Why were they doing this? I had told them my costume was, completely, sewn by hand. Just needle and thread. No machine. Everything you see in the photo above, taken by Ger Tysk, was all done by hand. After the judging was complete and I got my original badge back, I just wandered around the con, for the most part. Had somewhat of a late lunch, but I was able to eat it and make it to my photo shoot with Ger.
I had a great time working with Ger. She's traveling across the country going to conventions while working on her book, Breaking All the Rules: Cosplay and the Art of Self-Expression. Through Southern Cospitality, it allowed me to get the chance to work with an amazing photographer such as herself. She's also a cosplayer at heart, and her costumes are great. Very sweet person and very passionate about photography. So passionate that I started talking photography stuff with her. =P
Immediately, I headed straight for the dressing room next to the Main Events hall to make the call time. Had I not, I'd have been cut from the contest. Snuck my friend, Alethea, in with me as my "helper." She had so much fun seeing the many contestants and their awesome costumes. This is the worst part of it all, having to wait for hours backstage while things are being set up on the main stage. As with every convention, everything starts late. With AM, it's about the technical aspect, like getting the sound system to work, livestream, and such. Not only that the SyFy network was there to film the entire contest for a show, airing in the summer. No pressure, right?
Eventually, it got to be my turn on stage. I didn't practice any poses or anything, and I was nervous, being the first time I'm actually competing for something. What else to do than to improvise? XD
Afterwards, I was interviewed by Becky Young to talk about my character a little bit. Boy, did I let my mind go. I had no idea what I was talking about! LOL
Went to go have a seat near the back of the hall but ound Alethea by the wall close to the exit, so I stood with her, instead, and watched the rest of the cosplayers strut their stuff and perform their skits from there. Great job to all! (For the other cosplay videos from the contest, just follow the link and search up "ACParadise.") Found Alethea by the wall close to the exit and stood with her. Halftime show consisted of Waveya, a Korean dance team, doing a few dances while in cosplay. Alethea and I were dancing T-ara's Roly-Poly with them in the back while sitting down.
Wait time is over, and the judges came back with the results. First, they did the People's Choice Award, with their live voting system, and the Bioshock team won. So many talented cosplayers won various awards, including me. ^^ I got the Judge's Award from Catherine for my Rapidash, since she was so amazed at the work I put in to it. My very first cosplay award EVER! Thank you so much, Catherine! =D
So that was it for my Saturday. Nothing but cosplay contest stuff. XD Sunday will be pretty short but still eventful. Why, you ask? I'm covering the World Cosplay Summit next! Stay tuned!
Overall, I had fun throughout the convention this past weekend. I cosplayed to my heart's content, was filmed and interviewed for a TV show premiering in the summer, bumped into friends, and much more. Let's get down to the details, shall we?
Friday
Work hard, play harder. That was my whole day, pretty much. First thing in the morning, there was class time. Working on assignments and learning new material was what needed to be done before having fun. Class was soon let out, and I went to my room to finish packing and prepping for an awesome weekend.
First cosplay of the weekend was Reisi Munakata from K. With the amount of people there (about 10,000 people or so), it wasn't too much fun walking around in layers because of all that generated body heat. Enough about my cosplay, let's move on to the con. Got to the Hyatt Regency around 3:00PM. To me, it's fairly late since everything, including panels and Dealers Room, started around 12:00PM. I, personally, did not attend too many panels, but I did have fun looking around the Dealers Room, preparing to shop on Sunday. For once, I caught the Opening Ceremonies. Many of the special guests, in addition to the con chairs, introduced themselves and told the audience of their hopes of the convention; Janet Varney (voice of Korra), Matthew Mercer, Erin Fitzgerald, Carli Mosier (UH graduate), and many more.
As a cosplayer, I had a couple of photo shoots, working with a photographer to bring my character to life. So much fun being able to use my sword and be captain-y during that time. There were parts where I pretended I was on the hunt for the criminal and was able to chase him down. XD Later that night, I attended the formal dance. In my opinion, I have more fun at that than Club AM. Classy dancing, like the waltz and swing, can be seen here. My friends and I had a blast, dancing and listening to the music. While listening to the music, we would try to guess where the song came from, be it from a video game, anime, or movie. Here's a picture of me, doing a jig and having a good old time. :)
