too cosplay: 2009

Kamis, 31 Desember 2009

AVATAR

So I just got back a while ago from watching the movie AVATAR with Robby. I have to say I haven't seen a movie that I enjoyed that much for quite some time. I really liked it and it was such an enjoyment to watch. Very beautiful creatures and also some creepy ones too. :3 I kept noticing the details of the clothing designs the Na'vi (Blue people) would be wearing. It would be fun to cosplay as them if...I had a body like theirs and was about 9ft+ in height? =P

I recommend anyone who is into Sci-Fi or action to go see this movie... or if you simply want to see a good movie. :D

Anyway...that's all for tonight. My feet stink...I need to take a shower. D:

BAI.

-
Sheik

AVATAR

Rabu, 30 Desember 2009

EOY 2009: The Idol M@ster’s day

And so all of you should already know, along with 5 other fabulous ladies, I cosplayed as Makoto Kikuchi from Idol M@ster during EOY 2009. This entry shall document the tedious day we had and my opinions of the event.

As yours truly is a lousy costumer and procrastinator, I only managed to finished the costume around 4am plus. After that, I bathed, packed my stuffs and slept at around 6am=_=. And I’m sure I wasn’t the only one. Ringo darling was on MSN with me too lol. We are such pathetic “Idols” LOL

I knew I wasn’t going to get anything to fill my tummy the rest of the day so on my way over I bought an Old Chang kee Spring Roll and a Grande Mocha frappe with whipped cream and caramel drizzle from Starbucks :D. Need all the sugar for the rest of the day man!

So we reached the event hall at around 11+am. Squeezed out way through the crowd and got in to our dressing room. Idols have to look gorgeous right? So we spent the next 2 hours preeming ourselves up. The dressing room had fabulous mirror and lighting but the professional lights around the mirror also made the dressing room uncomfortably hot!

And 2hours before our allocated performance time we were told that we have to go on stage in 5 mins. Read my rant here.

Cutting back to the chronicles of that day. We were basically stuffed/trapped inside the dressing room all the way from the time we reached till the end of our performance. We tried to practise our dance inside the dressing room and it was a pretty funny trial because it was just sooooo crammed! We kept banging into the walls or kicking our luggage.

Anyway, here’s a videos of us before we went on stage !

If you missed our performance, here’s an upload by Valefor !!

Our blood and sweat for near 2 months, over in 5minutes. And blahhhh I screwed up so much on stage!!! Oh wells… the stage nerves always gets to me =(

The dance took us quite some time to prepare and get used to. We had originally wanted to only dance one song but since we had a bit more time, we decided to up the challenge and do a short medley. Kami Sama no Birthday (the first song) ahd some really weird footsteps and it took us forever to get it right.

We started off pretty hilariously and it took quite some effort to get to the stage we were. But thankfully for us, the dance steps this time round were much easier as compared to our Cosfest full team dancing to a full and compact 6 minute medley.

Our cosfest performance.

After our performance we finally got the chance to GET OUT !!!!!! But being in a group of red & white combination meant we stood out quite a fair bit. And after we went out, the photo request kept coming…

But we met a real Idol M@ster fan though! He cosplayed as P-San and even had the profiles of each girls print out on a file! How cool xD!

Sorry i don’t remember who took this photo =X

And yes, if you were wondering, that IS the original music playing at the event hall. I did not add any additional music. So this is the music the people outside the auditorium were listening to while watching the competition projected on the screen=_=. How…… epic.

Then it was time for some photo shooting session! We went back into the dressing room and had our shoot there.

Yuanie as Chihaya and Kaika as Makoto

The idols getting ready before they go on stage!

Bleh… I look fat.

Jia-er as Haruka and Ringo as Ritsuko

Hoshi as the 200% genki Yayoi!

Naughty Yayoi decides to try on Ritsuko’s glasses while she borrows Makoto’s comb.

Yayoi got ready faster than everyone else and is bored to death waiting. Chihaya the ever kind soul decides to help the hopeless Makoto with her makeup. Can’t have an idol who isn’t flawless yeah? But where is Yukiho??

Ah there she is. The terrible crybaby is smiling this time =)

Noshuu as Yukiho

To be honest, shooting inside the dressing was tiring and HOT! As I’ve mentioned before, those professional mirror lights were emitting too much heat. And even with the air conditioning it was hard to bear! But lovely lights are lovely….for lovely photos we will persevere TT_TT !!!!!

Got bored and whipped my camera out when I’m not in front of the camera.

We then decided we would like to go to level one and maybe find a suitable spot to re-dance our dance and film it proper down. But time was up and we got called back again, apparently it was time for the results to be announced.

Luckily for us, Yui Makino’s session was just before the results announcement so when we were on our way to the stage we met her and got a picture xD!

And please don’t ask me about her (Yui Makino). I seriously can’t remember much about the encounter !! Probably because she got led off by her manager also immediately and we had to rush back to the backstage.

LUCKY XD !!!!!

We took a bit more pictures and filmed our dance at one of the empty rooms then half of the girls changed out because they had other commitments. What a pity! Once again, our team seemed destined to roam the event halls fragmented @_@;;

Anyway, after Ringo, jia-er and Hoshi changed out. Yuanie and I decided to go out and experience the event while Noshuu went back to her booth! So yeap, that’s where I finally got the chance to do some paparazzi work!

Okay, I’m coming to my overall impression and comments on the event. I really can’t say much about the actual event on the actual day because I really haven’t had much chance to experience it. Being part of a competition and doing a performance for it really took up a lot of time.

But I do have something to say as a competitor who went through the rehearsals and auditions.

Firstly, I think the organiser did a great job getting the stage. Which is definitely wayyyy better than the stage we had at expo. The lights and sound quality were incomparable but the stage with the musical equipments were kinda crammed. If it was bad for us who had a team of 6, I can’t imagine how things had been for the Guilty Gear XX team (who had nearly 30!). Still, gotta love the “stagey” lightings and sound.

I’m sure the musicians loved it. Well, at least I liked the photos taken on it even though I didn’t enjoyed performing on it xD

Secondly, coming back to the displeasure regarding the pushing forward of our performance as I mentioned above and here. According to the organiser’s reply in one of the forum threads, we were supposed to be ready 2 hours in advance. Well, I double checked the website (basecamp) where we were all supposed to get our information from and the only indication of that was the Event Programme Plan.

At the top left hand corner, it wrote “ Call Time: 2 hours before performance”. I had to google what is “Call Time” =__=

Just my honest feedback to the organisers, please try to remember that we are amateur cosplayers, I don’t even want to use the word ‘performers’ because even though we cosplay and attract attention, some of us are really not ‘performers’. I appreciate the organiser’s effort to carry out the event in a more professional manner but do try to understand most of us don’t have that professional performing experience and background. And, we don’t get anything back for performing, except for the competing cosplayers.

We not only have to juggle our own school/work life, we also have to rush out our costumes, plan our performance and practise for it, time is very tight. The level of concentration we are able to put in really shouldn’t be compared to the paid professional.

I understand the organisers deems everything on stage as a performance and even competing cosplays should rehearse. I can totally agree with it for the singing and dancing performance since audio tuning and stage arrangement all needed to be sorted out. But Cosplay rehearsals?

For the group cosplays this year, 3 out of 4 teams were doing some sort of dance routine (out of pure coincidence haha!) so the rehearsals seemed more appropriate. But not all Cosplays dance, get what I mean =/ ?

I appreciate the chance for us to rehearse this year because we needed it. But I suggest the organisers keep the rehearsal for the Cosplay competitors optional. If a groups feels that they needed the rehearsals, they can request to join in the rehearsals (for the singers, dancers and bands). For those who don’t, well, they can go home and rush their props/costumes/wigs/whatever.

Adding some pictures because its getting too wordy.

Of course that said, I must also applaud the organiser for everything they have done. I really appreciate how they really tried their best to make things as comfy as possible for the performers and competitors. I don’t know about the solo competitors really, so I’m just speaking based on my own experience.

Well, the organisers catered food and drinks for us which is a first for me/us. I really appreciated it even though it was just Mac Donalds. But hey, 50 burgers and fries meant a few hundreds spent alright? Though next year, if they still wanna cater, please prepare more food for the actual day xD. Late comers to the Green Room (the room where lunch was kept) like the Idol M@ster team had literally, nothing left to nibble. Not their fault though of course. Just commenting =X

The wife of the organiser even offered to do our make up for us. Not only is she pretty, she’s nice too =)

Isn’t she just lovely?? Erm no, she’s not Tim’s wife lah

Also, I think the instructions communicated to the performers (gonna merge all the singers, bands, cosplayers into one category) should be kept simple. Of course, that doesn’t mean essential information should be left out but yeah, keep the instructions and information given out short and sweet.

We don’t need to know when the birthday cake should come out on stage and we definitely don’t need to know the contact number of every performers (at least their team leader lah) !!!!!!

I understand the organisers want a single point of contact for dissembling of information among their working committee and the performers. But sharing information that is unnecessary , unrelated and private to non committee member is not only unprofessional and confusing. It is also a lack of respect for the individual’s privacy. I know I sound like a bit*h for harping on this but no offence meant. I really just want to bring the importance of this point forward.

I had previously emailed the organiser regarding this. They had initially plastered the performer’s name and contact number on Basecamp which startled and puzzled me. I requested for them to take it down since the mobile numbers are not necessary for informing the performers of their performance timing. To which, the organiser gave me a very prompt reply and took action immediately (took the numbers down).I was thankful for that but I didn’t know the Programme plan had the numbers inside as well *palms forehead*

Yes, the organisers very kindly explained to me that having the mobile numbers on Basecamp is for easier sharing of information to his team and that Basecamp is a secured website , password protected , invites only and almost spybots proof.

Anyone wanna be friends with the pretty emcee xD ???? Just Kiddin =X!

The spybots were the last on my list. It’s the humans I’m worried about. I don’t mean to be rude or in any way implying any of the team/performers/cosplayers etc would do something as low as disseminating the numbers. But trust should not be handled lightly. Privacy is often negotiated because someone trusts someone but then that someone trusts someone else too and then the wall of privacy crumbles. Very easily.

And yeah, back to the point about distributing information. Many teams who came for the rehearsal on the 23rd Dec had to wait in vain on level 5 because clear information was not communicated to them. At least 2 teams were stuck waiting there for an hour before they messaged one of our team member and rushed down to level 3.

If anyone’s wondering how the Idol M@ster team knew the rehearsal was at Level 3 that’s because we are psychic Hahaahhahahaha!!!! No lah, one of our teammates was studying at the library that afternoon so she had the time to check things out and inform the rest of us. By her own means.

My suggestion is really, just tell the performers/participants what they need to know and nothing more. The rest, just keep it among the organising team. Of course, make sure the right information is communicated lah.

That said, I really do appreciate the organiser’s attempt to use the Basecamp as a single point of contact to disseminate information to everyone. This initiative indicates a farsighted aspiration. In the long run, it will really help the team to work on this project smoother. Though at this point of time, everyone’s just really trying to get used to it.

Erm last suggestion, maybe what the organisers can do is to limit the viewing permissions of the participant’s account so they only see information related to them. That way, privacy is kept, stage surprises kept secret and participants don’t get confused by too much information.

Chihaya decides to give herself a rosier cheek with more blush while Makoto arranges her Santa hat.

Overall, I think the organisers did a good job with the event especially if this was their first time. It is by far, one of the most professional cosplay events I’ve attended and am proud to be part of. The location was central and had a nice ambience though it was wayyyyyyy too small.

Yes, yes, I hear all of you forumers complaining. And yes, to be honest, if they hold it at the same location again and asks for the same entrance dollar, I might really consider long and hard whether to fork the money out or not. A better and more spacious location is in dire need!

If they wanna keep it at the same location, well, it’s not impossible either, just slash the entrance tix. That should shut some mouth =)

OH YES! lasssst comment, I promise! Please, if the auditorium can’t allow everyone to go in, then at least give the projectors outside live audio feed!!!

Like what some forumers mentioned, in such events where self entertainment and Cosplay competition is the main highlight. You need to cover the logistics for the first element (space) and make sharing of the second element accessible to everyone!

I’m sure the event would have gotten more thumbs up if the live projectors had live audio feed. Singaporeans are not that picky. If we can’t get the actual thing, we don’t mind cheering in front of some flat screen either. Look at the crowd gathering around those sets!

Live feeds will also help the generic event goers feel more in sync with the entire schedule of the event. SOme forumers commented that they felt the interaction with the crowd this year was missing. I suspect this has something to do with it.

Alright this has been a long long post again. Took me so much time to get everything together, hope you guys enjoyed reading it. Leave me a comment and tell me how you felt about the event ok? Slaved over this entry long enough to bake 3 cakes.

Selasa, 29 Desember 2009

Costume Process: Makoto Kikuchi!

Yo~ I had initially wrote this entry to be posted on my personal blog to share with my friends and well…to just generally complain and rant about this costume. but I thought since I’ve already written it and it is Cosplay related, why not share it here?

The costume was a jam pack 5 day’s HARD WORK! I’d say other than Luneth (FF3), this costume has got to be my worse nightmare ever. I had thought making the costume was gonna be easy since it looks simple enough. But I was SO WRONG!!!!! Argh! NEVER underestimate a 2d costume!

First stage of costuming. Dissecting the costume on paper. I highly recommend every new cosplayer to do this because getting your idea out from your brain and on paper really allows you to take a step back and analyse the costume better.

Wearing the paper draft

The weird shape and cutting of the top really daunted me a lot but after getting over the initial phobia I managed to come down to a basic one piece dress draft.

I’m wearing the paper draft on the photo above.YEs, I’m a lazy pig so I only do half of the draft (half of the costume, literally) and stick it on myself. Not exactly the best method for a tight fitted costume. Because my costume came out too loose and I had to do a lot of alterations =_=;;;

At this stage the costume really looks like some traditional Chinese undergarment ahhahaa.

And for the first time in my costuming life, I actually burnt a hole in my costume. Great work kaika. I tuned the iron to the highest setting because I was impatient and the iron only took 1 second to scorched the fabric.

Thank goodness for me, it was burnt at the extra portions and I could cut it away easily. Otherwise I might really have just thrown in the towel and call quits.

Yeay! basic top done!

The white bias at the bottom look innocent enough but they gave me a lot of trouble too. *shakes head* I guess this really shows how poor my costuming/dressmaking skills are =\

The gloves were the next thing to give me yet another headache. Yes, I made the gloves too because I was too cheapo and didn’t wanna buy them . And also because Makoto’s gloves were extra long and had this outturning effect on the top which store bought gloves didn’t have.

My glove pattern. Yeap, on paper again xD

Wasted some good lycra on a glove that didn’t work out and was way too tight =\ But lesson learnt, I gave it more allowance for the next trial and thankfully things worked out better T_T. But I forgot to draft the outturning effect thingy on the gloves so they came out really straight and boring and……un-makotoish. Got me pretty depressed =\

Had intended to ignore that flaw and just wear it the way it is but……… after much deliberations, I decided to push my limits and continued to make some improvements to it. If you’re a cosplayer who sews your own costume, you’ll understand how I felt. This horrendous feeling of screw up and how you just feel like you just stabbed your own butt with a chopstick because you are soooooo going to be a cosfu*k because of that little error/flaw.

The next big headache was the 2 holes by the side. They are soooooooooo awkwardly placed, I really squeezed my brain dry trying to figure out how I can sew it nicely and not have it show stuffs that was not meant to. If I placed it too high, it’d show my bra, if I placed them too low, they show the skirt band =_=

Trying on the costume with a fake pocket flap and fake side holes XD. Both are made of paper and stuck on with tape.Was trying to figure out where would be an appropriate place to sew them. I always do this to give myself a vision of the end product so I know how to work towards it.

One of the process I dread most in costuming is wearing and taking out the costume x 9892843474 times. It’s just such a bothersome and repetive task=_=!

Finally got pass the holes!

I’m not really pleased with the final product though. Sigh, I wish I gave the collar design a longer and ‘droopier’ tail. I’m sure it’d make the entire costume classier. And argh don’t get me started on my ghetto tie…..

And the end product below!

Special thanks to Yuanie for lending me her wig and for helping me soooo much on the day itself.

I love having helpful teammates. Everyone helped so much its very touching *sniffs* T_T And I guess its really this humane spirit that makes me keep coming back to Cosplay. I’m really glad cosplay has allowed me to meet such lovely people =)

The wonderful world of Wonderflex

This year I wanted to start with something complete new. I'm always searching for new materials, techniques and challenges. So the new MMO from NCsoft, Aion - Tower of Eternity, had some very good exsamples. There were a lof of commercials I saw on TV or the Internet and the details of the armor sets shown below were just awesome. I googled a bit and found a webside with all of the armor sets from the game. And I have to admid that I looked for the hardest and most complicated set in the game. I decided for this one:

I have never built an armor like this before, so I was eager to learn something new. And I already knew how I wwould realise it: Wonderflex.

I heard a lot about this material and read many reviews and tutorials. I already had the money and got my roommate into it, too. Two orders with shocking taxes and shipping costs followed.

Please look at the shipping costs and cry for us! But that was nothing compared to the customs...

So you see, it's very very expensive for me, to order it to Germany. But this awesome material inspired me SO much that I ordered it a second time. Now I had 7 jumbo sized Wonderflex boards. This should be enough. Or at least I hope so...

Here is a pic of this stuff and a further thermoplastic material called 'Friendly Plastic'.

My first experiments with this stuff ended in a completely finished bracer piece. I could not stop to work with it, he he. The day ended at 3 o'clock in the night. Wonderflex stunned me completely!

And here is a little making of my first work:

At first I cut the form I needed for the bracer out of craft foam. Always make copies of these, because it's very hard to find the right form a second time if you make a mistake!
The second step was to cut fitting parts out of wonderflex for the craft foam. Be sure that the wonderflex part is somewhat bigger than your craft foam part. Now you have to heat the wonderflex. For base parts like the bracer itself I took a 3 mm thick craft foam, for detail parts only 1.5 mm. Wonderflex becomes very soft and flexible when it's warm enough, almost like fabric. Then you can put it on and around the craft foam and form it like you want. For the base part I used only one wonderflex part for covering, for details I made a sandwich of 2 parts wonderflex and one part craft foam. Watch out that you use the right side of the wonderflex. It has one surface with a fabric structure and one rough side. I use the rough one, because if you cover it with Gesso it gets a flat and soft surface.

The second bracer followed:

And also 2 pauldrons:

First one...

... and for the second one I made a tutorial for you:

Like always I used half a styrofoam ball as the base and cut the form out with a cutter. Then I covered it with 3 thicks strips of wonderflex. Unfortunately you cannot form Wonderflex on curves like on this ball perfectly. So you see, I got some ugly foldings there. Not so nice, is it?
But we have a solution for this problem: Friendly Plastic

Friendy Plastik is the granule I ordered with my Wonderflex. It's also a material which you can form after you heated it. A hairdryer or hot water are enough for this and you can model it, when it becomes transparent. (You see it in the first picture. Some of the granules are already transparent.)
Then you take some pieces and press it on your wonderflex. Spread it well on the foldings and borders. Unfortunatly the plastic will already be cooled when you are finished. But you just have to heat it a second time to continue working. When your Friendly Plastic parts are transparent again you have to search a hard, flat surface like a desk. Keep in mind that this surface is clean and don't have any PVC on it. Wonderflex and Friendly Plastik loves to glue itself to everything it finds. Now you have to press the part of the Wonderflex and the granule as hard as you can on the desk. Press, roll, heat and repeat it. Over and over, until you get a smooth and flat surface and all of the irregularities are covered with Friendly Plastic. Now you can add some patterns and details with wonderflex if you want. Just cut your form out and heat both parts, to put it together.

Now comes the dodgy part:

I already told you how to build your puzzle parts.
For 3 dimensional details you can use Friendy Plastic. Loops, flowers, points, etc. Just try it and play a bit with it. Heat it a bit, form it and put it on your wonderflex. You don't need any glue for this, because Wonderflex and Friendly Plastic become very sticky, when they are warm enough. So be careful with your clothes, carptes, PVC or other Wonderflex/Friendly Plastic parts. So you only have one chance to put the parts right togehter. Otherwise breaking it will end with flaws and holes. But just in case you can fix this too, if you have no other option. So with a bit of luck and skills your armor parts are finished. And tadaaaaa, finished!

Now we get to my feet armor stuff:

As usual: Styling, trimming, blow-dry.
It could be difficult to find the right form, because you often have to think in 3D but to paint it on a 2D paper. So try a bit, until you are satisfied with your pattern.

Small parts, which don't have to be as thick as a normal armor part can be cut out of just two pieces of wonderflex. For this you can heat long pieces and put them together. Now you have a double layer wonderflex. Press it well and watch out for air holes inside it. As long as it's warm it's very easy to cut your form out. But with the missing craft foam inside there is no more steadiness. So be very careful!
Now you have a very flexible wonderflex part and can make curves like in the middle picture. But the cutting and forming make also some poor borders. I covered it with some stripes of wonderflex and built a nice armor look with it.

In additon, I have to tell you that this feet armor consists of 20 seperate parts. So you see, it's a huge puzzle you have put together if you want to build such an armor and you need a lof of time and patience for it.
But it's worth it!

Now I have to get busy again and I wish you a happy new year! ^^

New projects

Now we make a jump to the present, guys!
I told you everthing about my last cosplay and hope I helped or inspired you a bit. But now it's time for my new projects:

Nightelf Druid Tier 8 from World of Warcraft

with a still unnamed staff (Arena Season 8)

Asmodian Plate Set from Aion - Tower of Eternity

with a sword that has too many names: (I call it Dragon King's Greatsword)

and - I hope so MUCH that I will manage it - Bayonetta from the same named game from Platinum Games.

So all of the following blogs are about my actual work. Feel free to ask, if you have questions and I will do my best to help you!

Senin, 28 Desember 2009

....Time goes by fast!

It's already the end of December...Christmas is over and New Years Eve is this Thursday! Time sure has gone by fast. I can't believe Robby has to leave this Saturday. :[ I will be visiting him in February but still...I wish he could stay a bit longer but his ID expires on Sunday so he has to go home before he's unable to use it.

I'm just sitting on my couch in the livingroom right now and he's next to me on his laptop, eating the last corn dog I cooked up for him.

Cosplay update? There's nothing new! Sad, I know....but I did get a JoAnn's giftcard so I am happy about that. Robby offered to buy me fabric but I don't think I will have him get me any. He has spoiled me enough.. >.<; I did get a pic from Kay-chan though of her in her top for her Shigure cosplay. I'm pretty excited! I am definitely looking forward to that even more now.

....I feel kind of tired and I keep coughing. My cold has been gone but I've had an annoying cough lately. It's not so bad now but it's still annoying! :P

Anyway...I think I will go for now. I am sorry my posts have been lame...they will get exciting once I'm not so distracted by my fiance ^^;; Don't stop following (T__T);

P.S.
WiiResort is really fun!! :O I also got Harvest Moon: Animal Parade... It's like an upgraded version of HM:Tree of Tranquility.

-
Sheik