Cosplay, anyone?

[Master_Craig]

Reviving this thread, if anyone is interested.

I'm gonna try and go to PAX AUS again this year and once more, I'd like to try some more cosplay. I have two things in mind, to either upgrade my Darth Vader cosplay, or to do something completely new, and I'm thinking about Peter Quill / Star-Lord.

So I ended up buying a Star-Lord "Legends" helmet. It's really awesome, but it does have a couple of annoying things. Normally, the helmet is $200 AUD ($156 USD), but I got this one for $125 AUD ($97 USD). Still expensive, but for that price, I figured that was going to be the only opportunity to do it. A friend of my partner had bought this helmet brand new, used it once, then decided it was a bad purchase... so we bought it.

It looks great, but it's not flawless. There's a few minor issues:

1 - To be expected, your peripheral vision goes out the window.
2 - It can be a bit difficult to properly put on, to insure that it's actually secured over your head.
3 - The head/chin straps are tricky to adjust.
4 - The glowing red eyes only really work when you're in a darker environment.

I'm thinking about Star-Lord this year because I want to cosplay as a character I like, but also I want to wear something that's lighter and cooler (temperature-wise) than my Darth Vader suit. In saying that... I am doing some research into upgrading my Vader suit, as I want to try and 3D print the armor pieces for a more realistic, professional look. This one is a bit of an insecurity thing but I would prefer to cosplay as a character who wears a mask.

I'm unsure if I want to do both Vader and Star-Lord at PAX. I think it would be better to try focus on one cosplay only. I already have most of Vader sorted (albeit I want to change/update the armor) but if I were to do Star-Lord, it means I need to spend more money on his costume... and then there's the decision, trench coat, or regular jacket.

What do you all think? Any suggestions?

 

[COMaestro]

If you go with Star Lord, a standard jacket would be easier to take off and carry around if it gets hot. Otherwise, either cosplay would look great.

 

[Master_Craig]

I think you're right, COMaestro. The trench coat looks awesome, but the jacket would actually be cooler temperature-wise and more comfortable to wear, carry around etc.

Plus in the films, Peter Quill doesn't really wear the coat that much when compared to the jacket.

 

[Longo_2_guns]

How long do you have until PAX?
Honestly, I would say do all that you can for Star Lord, and if worst comes to worst you can fall back on Vader (since you can do a few touch ups relatively quickly).
If it's a two day event, do both. It's so much nicer to have multiple costumes at a con.

Speaking of which, I went to a con recently for all of one day, and my whole crew and I did Rainbow Six Siege costumes that we made in about 4 weeks total, and then ran into a bunch of other Siege cosplayers as well.
You can see the pic here, since it's too big to share directly.
I'm the Mute on the right. Unfortunately my hood was falling off, so you can see how little hair I have now.

 

[Master_Craig]

Pretty awesome group you got going on there, man. Nice one!

PAX AUS is still a long way away. It's going to be either October or November this year.

With my Vader cosplay, I would love to get the armor upgraded, either by doing a new EVA foam build, or by attempting 3D printing. As for Star Lord, I'll need to talk to my partner about that one, because that involves spending more money and stuff.

 

[Master_Craig]

If anyone is interested, Kamui Cosplay is having a 20% off birthday sale. I'm not sure how much longer the sale will last for - https://www.kamuicosplay.com/product-category/books/

I bought the first bundle, the digital bundle.

 

[Master_Craig]

I found a website that can tailor make a Star-Lord outfit for a reasonable price - https://www.procosplay.com/guardian...eter-quill-star-lord-cosplay-costume-mp003703

Now I'm just looking into reviews to see if this site is actually good and not a dodgy one.

 

[Master_Craig]

On Facebook, I'm a member of the Australian Melbourne Cosplay Community (although I don't live in Melbourne). A cosplayer reached out asking if anyone could edit their photo to include fire and flames (Sephiroth, Final Fantasy VII). Image editing and manipulation is a weakness of mine that I want to strengthen, so for the sake of practice, I said I'll give it a go.

Here's the original:

Here's my edit:

A little side by side comparison:

It's not perfect, but I'm happy with the result and so is the cosplayer.

 

[used44]

That's great. Looks very 1997.

 

[Bretimus_v2]

You did a great job. I would’ve done much worse on MS Paint.

 

[COMaestro]

I can do this better, but I need to rephotograph the cosplayer.

I also need a lighter and some gasoline.

 

[Master_Craig]

Haha, thanks guys, I appreciate it.

I'm not great at photo editing but I did learn a lot from this experience. I learned that using a graphics tablet, is so much easier (and much more fun) then attempting to edit a photo with a mouse. I also learned that if you want to have a photo manipulated, you should have it shot so manipulation is done as easy as possible. So in this case, I sent a message to the talent and suggested the following for next time:

- Try and have the photo taken by a professional / amateur photographer, with a decent DSLR camera/lens,
- Have the photo taken with a background as plain as possible, like an ordinary coloured and smooth wall, or a smooth white sheet,
- Try and have natural or artificial lighting that's relevant to the photo, in this case, a standard photography light(s) covered with orange plastic could really help.

I think my result still looks pretty good, considering I was given a photo from a phone that has natural (sun) lighting with an outdoors background, but if the following three steps are followed above, I think I could do much better.

A friend of mine did comment on this picture, saying the fire looked good, but there was apparently too much fire and it "takes away" from the cosplay. It's a fair point and makes sense, but the talent requested massive fire in the background to look like the original source material:

If anyone is interested, in my version, I hand drew the fire/flames in Adobe Photoshop CS5, using my Wacom Cintiq 13HD. I then applied some diffuse glow effects, then used the blur brush tool to blend the colours, followed by applying the ocean ripple filter. After that, I created some new layers and drew fake lighting and shadow over the talent, again using the blur brush tool to blend these colours together.

Some orange lighting effects on the talent, some glow effects too, followed by drawing ember all over the place, and then drawing some small flames around her feet. Finally, I applied two "texture" layers, one in the fire itself (which was a high resolution photo of fire), and another of more ember/ash (which was a high resolution photo of ember and sparks).

 

[COMaestro]

Gotta do what the client requests!

Looked good, Craig. Forgot to mention that in my earlier sarcastic post.

 

[Master_Craig]

Haha, thanks man!

 

[NaNaL]

Never cosplayed before,but I would love to know more information

 

[musharraf_hussain]

Definitely into cosplay! It's a fantastic way to embody your favorite characters. My tip: start with a simple character you love, embrace the fun, and connect with fellow enthusiasts.