Post-AB Brief!

This is just a quick note after Anime Boston this past weekend, which was great! I wasn't really there for very long compared to my usual attendance standards, but I had fun while I was there. I went to Nobou Uematsu's QA panel... so amazing ;_;

Anyway, for now I will leave you with this pic of me in my costume. Needs a little tweaking, but it's totally one of my favourite costumes that I've done... not least of all because of the prop, which I'm pretty proud of. :D

More later!

Costumes for the New Year!

Happy New Year! I don't know about you, but I've had a crazy couple of months. I'm ready to start fresh and break open the packaging for a fresh new 2010. That last decade is old news, man.

I've graduated from school and even managed to get myself a job (for now), so things are going pretty well. The only unfortunate thing is that I'm still in the tiny living space I was last year, which makes costume creation extra-challenging. I'm hoping to be in a larger space by halfway through the year, but... who knows. I'm sure I'll be moving at least once this year.

So what's on the cosplay docket for Triene this year? Well, let's see!

The big news in the convention community of the Boston area and, honestly, the east coast as a whole, is that PAX is coming to Boston! We're all very excited about it. I haven't decided if I actually want to cosplay for it... I might just ride it out and use it as a networking and learning opportunity, as games are my career of choice, and I think I could learn a lot at the con without having to think about costuming. Plus, it could leave me more free to report on any cosplay there for your enjoyment! :D

Anime Boston is immediately after PAX. I think it's finally time to pull out the Pokemon Gaijinka costume that I created oh-so-long ago! I can actually afford the wig commission, and there is very little other work to do on it, so I think it will be perfect for a con that's so close to already being here.

Further down the line are the "up-in-the-air" cons... i.e., the cons I plan on going to unless something (new job, moving, sudden loss of funds) prevents me from going. These are Blizzcon (woo!) and Connecticon. Will I be able to create my Stormrage gear by Blizzcon? In this little room, probably not. But I'll see how it goes. For Connecticon I usually pull a costume out of the costume closet that hasn't seen much love lately, or that is convenient for me to wear. My friends and I will likely enter the Rockband tournament again this year... will we come out on top again? We shall see.

The idea of Otakon this year was batted around, but like the aforementioned two cons, I don't think I'll be able to commit to it as early as I'll need to to make it happen. Next year, then.

Finally, if you didn't know, the second-to-last Harry Potter movie comes out (it had better!) in the fall of this year. I have wanted to make a Bellatrix Lestrange costume, and I may seize this movie as my opportunity. Or, it may have to wait until the last movie comes out next summer.

At any rate, we shall see how this unpredictable year unfolds for me. What are your cosplay goals for the year? What cons are you going to?

Blizzcon Cosplay!

Well, Blizzcon 2009 was absolutely amazing. It's completely different from an anime con, and was twice as big as the biggest con I've been to!

I'm just going to focus on cosplay in this particular post, though as you might imagine, I have a lot to say about the rest of the con, as well. Going there was an absolute dream.

I have to admit, it was very difficult seeing all of the amazing costumes, because as I've mentioned many times before, I want to do WoW cosplay very badly. However, I had several very nice conversations with some of the people in the amazing costumes, so I picked up some good tips for when I start on mine! I mostly asked about armour making, as I've heard of so many ways to do it. Wonderflex was involved on everyone I spoke to (except one person, whose friends made his armour out of REAL LEATHER. Crap.), as I assumed, but the rest was varied.

The priest (first photo) used Model Magic on top of his armor, much to my noticeable surprise. I have heard of people making things with it, but it has some issues... it shrinks a lot, for one, and can be dented during various stages. He wasn't surprised at me being skeptical, so he went on to explain that it works very well and is nice and lightweight, you just have to remember to account for the shrinking when making the pieces. I'm now confident that if I do experiments to see how much it shrinks in different situations, I could form some pretty intricate pieces with it.

A girl dressed as a... which doctor? Shaman? From Diablo 3 told me that most of her stuff was made out of Sculpey, which surprised me even more than the Model Magic guy. Almost as if reading my mind, she said that it of course is very fragile, and she has to be extremely careful not to break it. She also used the much talked about Wonderflex/Friendly Plastic combo. She also used Bondo for a few things, and I asked her how easy it was to work with. She said don't use it on things that bend, which I pretty much figured. She also had a very cool system of LED lights embedded into cast resin jewels all over her armor. She explained that all of the wires were hidden in the cloth, and they were all powered by D batteries disguised in a scroll case! That was a great idea. I regret not taking a photo of her, but she was in the costume contest, so I'm sure there are many photos of her on the internet.

Kael'thas (second photo) is the guy who was wearing a costume made by two friends; one did the armor, the other the sewing. The armor was all hand-tooled leather, and was very impressive. Leather working is an in-game skill I have that I've always wanted to learn to do in real life. Hopefully some day I will. Anyway, he was very nice, and enjoyed doing Kael'thas's voice, which was fun.

I didn't get to talk to the Draenei Shaman (third photo) about his armor, but I thought it looked very cool. The LEDs gave a nice effect because the whole con was so dark. I wasn't so sure about the scale of his mace, but everything looked really great. You could tell he spent a great deal of time on it. I was also just happy to see a draenei male! More beard tentacles next time, man. Beard tentacles.

The costume contest was great fun to watch. I didn't have good seats, so I have no photos from it. It should be easy to find on the internet. The girl who won had a very intricate and amazing costume and, almost as importantly, was in character all the time! I saw her several times throughout the con, including on stage, and she was always acting her part. Congrats to her for all of her efforts.

Overall, there weren't many people walking around on the floor in costume, and I could see why. Most of the costumes were big and bulky, and the convention was completely packed and difficult enough to navigate in normal clothes. But... I'm going to try to do it anyway! Here's hoping I can get tickets next year.

Blizzcon, Baby! :D

That's right! I'm leaving very soon for Blizzcon with my friend Mike, and we are both ridiculously excited.

I should be sleeping because I have to get up early, but too bad! Hopefully I'll be able to sleep on the plane... I always want to but rarely manage it, so maybe being sleepy will help. ^_^;

I was about to put everything in the suitcase when I decided it would be fun to sew up my WoW-related t-shirts a bit, since they're all a little large (my Ventrilo shirt, ridiculously so). Not cosplay or terribly good sewing, but still clothing-related con prep... and fun! (Do I look sleepy? Because I AM o_o;)

I have some mini cards both for my cosplay site and for my WoW character, and I hope to give out a lot of each! So if you're one of the two people who reads this, and will be at Blizzcon, come find me. ._.

I'm going to try to blog from Mike's phone while I'm there, but we don't know how that's gonna work out. so if I don't, I'll be sure to write a nice entry about the con when I get back. For real! School's over. However, it's going to be hard to control my conflicting cosplay emotions - being jealous and angry because I didn't have time/money to make a WoW costume (which, if you don't know by now, is a gigantic slice of my "Cosplay Dreams" piechart), and being excited and impressed by the nice costumes. Bah!

...BLIZZCON, BABY :DDD

Connecticon 2009 freakin' rocked...

It's true! Connecticon was completely awesome this year. I didn't make it to any of the panels I wanted to see, but it was totally worth it.

I went with some friends, and most of them made it to at least a few of the panels they wanted to see, so that worked out. For one of them, it was their first con, so that was all very exciting.

Four of us made a second attempt (from last year) at entering the Rock Band tournament under the name Tanhaüser Gate... and we won! :D I did the whole thing in Haruhi Suzumiya cosplay... oh well. I love that costume! (PS... this photo of me in my Space Commander Haruhi cosplay is actually from Anime Boston this year, but since that post was lacking photos and I wore this costume to CTcon as well... here it is! Shh...)

I'll add links/photos when we're actually able to get our hands on them. I'm pretty sure they're being held hostage in the cameras of the guys who came out from Harmonix to judge. They were very nice! They gave us prizes and let us talk to them for a while about games, a business which I hope to enter very soon, so it was a very valuable way for me to spend some time.

All in all it took about 6 or 8 hours to do all of the tournament stuff, so we missed most of the con stuff. It was totally worth it. Like I said.

On Sunday, we roamed about a bit more. I went to an anime sing- and dance-along panel, which was run by a voice actress. It was pretty fun! I'm sure there's some video on the internet somewhere of me in a Carmelldansen conga line at 9:30 in the am in a Haruhi costume... ah, conventions. I got to sing and dance Hare Hare Yukai a few times in my costume, so that made me very happy. An enjoyable time overall... I hope they do it again next year. ^_^

Later on Sunday, we dropped by the Legend of Neil booth to play some Settlers of Catan with Sandeep Parikh, who was in The Guild and who had been very nice to us all weekend long. He tried to make a lot of bitch trades with me, and I was having none of that. I can't remember who won. I think it was him, the jerk. Then he signed our posters. :<

I wish I had gotten to check out more cosplay, but I didn't have much time because of the tournament. I saw some very good costumes! My personal favourite was a little girl I saw at the beginning of the day Saturday who was dressed as Yotsuba. It was great. She was so cute! I feel kind of bad that I put it on the internet :<< but I had to share her cuteness with the world. I wish you could see the hair better. It was a good idea; they made it out of felt. It looked much better in person!

I really hope I can make Connecticon next year, because they just keep making it bigger and better every year. Maybe they'll also remember to put the Rock Band tourney finals on the program so we can play to a crowd of more than a dozen!

...it was still awesome.

Did you go? What did you think? What did you do? And, most importantly, what did you wear?

[end]

AB Aftermath

Well, Anime Boston has come and gone, and I've had to integrate myself back into the real world.

It's a sad time for everyone.

I had a lot of fun at AB this year, although perhaps not as much as I had expected. I can't really put my finger on the exact reason for it, but I think part of it had to do with being unable to attend all the panels I was interested in, with the exception of the Doujinshi Culture panel, which was very good.

As far as cosplay goes, I would say it was a success. I loved wearing both of my costumes, and a lot of people took photos of me and my friends. I even got a ticket for the judge's hall contest... too bad you need three to get a prize ribbon. Oh, well. Maybe next year I'll hang out in the hallways posing more often. :3

Mike's Ashitaka costume turned out great, if I do say so myself. My boyfriend helped out (time crunch, don't be too shocked) by wrapping the sword handle and making the sheath. Mike showed up with his own bow.

The Pillows put on a really great show on Saturday, despite the concert itself being very far behind schedule (reason I missed one of my panels ._.). It was kind of ridiculous how long we were kept waiting, and that they didn't even start letting people in until 3, which is when the concert was supposed to start. This was bad planning. I enjoyed watching Luv & Response as well... can't go wrong with choreographed dances. They were too r&b for my taste, though. I'm more of a straight pop fan in that category.

Anyway.

I heard about... and saw a little of... the astronomically long registration lines. To anyone who had to wait in that melee, I feel really bad about it. It couldn't have been fun, and I'm sure you missed things you wanted to do. On behalf of everyone, I hope - and pretty much expect and demand - that AB gets it right next year. Six computers to register tens of thousands of people is unacceptable.

I saw many good costumes at the convention, but as I'm still having camera issues, didn't get to take many photos. I'll have to rely on my friends' few pictures to show some of the costumes.

For now, here are some pictures I've gathered off the internet and my friends of all of us in our various costumes. The photo above is me as Gwendolyn from Odin Sphere (her formal outfit), which I wore to the formal ball on Friday and just walking around Sunday.

[Left] Me as Suigintou. [Right] My boyfriend as Phoenix Wright (plus glasses), with a Mia and Maya we bumped into at the Pru.

[Left] Mike as Zabuza from Naruto. After a year, the sword needs some touching up, but it still looked pretty damn cool. [Right] Mike (the other Mike) as Ashitaka from Princess Mononoke.

AB Prep Day 2

Hello there.

Earlier today I finished Ashitaka's hood. Sorry, I know I look... not good. heh. I traced a hood on my WoW hoodie for a general idea of the shape and size of the hood. I brought it over the forehead a little more and made the top more pointed, then cut it out and sewed it together. I made two of these exact hoods, one in red and one in brown (for the lining... the red fabric has a bit of an open weave). Then I used trial and error, putting it on to check the shape. I ended up making the top shorter. Sometimes trial and error is the best way to go.

Right now I'm working on my ball gown. I finally got the top fitted to me properly, which is extremely important for strapless dresses. Now I am working on pinning on the colours. I finished and gathered the top edge of my blue fabric and am in the process of pinning it on, which is what you see in the picture. That's why it looks weird.

I ran into a problem with Ashitaka's pants. I won't go into details, but needless to say it came down to a shortage of fabric... even someone as skinny as Mike wouldn't fit into these. We're going to try to substitute some premade pants for the sake of time, either a pair of Mike's or one that I will go purchase. Sometimes, when there is a simple component to a costume, it is more worth your time and money to just buy it and add it to the pieces you made yourself. That way, they won't detract from all your hard work.

I've been trying to take more step-by-step photos, but I've been having a problem with my camera's batteries running out for no reason, and then I have to recharge them. Since the con's only a few days away, I can't stop working to wait for the camera. So, sorry. ._.

I'm going to post some links to cosplay supply websites that I've found lately. Next post!

Preparing for a Con

Anime Boston is a week away!
Yay!
I'll be blogging all this week, showing pictures of my projects and giving you some idea of my timeline. I try not to have costumes to make right before the con, but that hasn't happened yet, and I have one to make for my friend in addition to finishing my own.

The first step is to make a big fat list. I wrote down each costume and underneath each put what I had to do, in specific tasks. If a task had multiple steps, I wrote those in. If you gloss over things, you will think you have more time than you do. Seriously.

Tomorrow I'm going to make a rough timeline to give myself some deadlines. I'll have to squeeze in some schoolwork, too!

The second step was rearranging my room to accommodate the amount of cosplay stuff that's in it. I live in a single dorm room, and it's reasonably sized for a person who doesn't sew or do cosplay as a hobby. I have crinolines hanging on the walls, bags on the walls... everything on the walls! All I have is vertical space. Use what you have.

I have a lot of materials and supplies, and everything gets organized into separate bags by costumes. Fabric is kept separately from paint, wood, etc. and in ziplocs (to keep out dust) instead of grocery bags.

3M hooks are great for this kind of thing. You can put up tons of them, hang everything your little heart desires, and then take them down after the con!

I'll be posting some photos of the sword making process this week, as well.

I finished up my client's dress. It was a bitch to make, for some reason, stupid things just kept going wrong. It happens. There was a problem when she got it, too, but we figured out how to fix it :D and she has been very nice the entire time. I can't wait to see how she creates the rest of her Urd costume.

Well, off to work on costumes...!