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 The OP is in pretty poor shape, and to encourage more people to try out this fabulous  hobby I'd like to get it filled with awesome tutorials and a bunch of useful information!Please post in bold if you have something you feel should be added to the OP. Otherwise please continue posting as normal. Thank you
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Sep 28, 2012 16:00
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Red Robin Hood posted:
Tutorials would be SUPER helpful.
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Sep 28, 2012 16:29
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Red Robin Hood posted:
My group and I have a blog where we post our build info over at https://www.foamcorps.net not sure if it's vain to suggest that that could be useful. 
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Sep 28, 2012 16:32
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McPantserton posted:My group and I have a blog where we post our build info over at https://www.foamcorps.net not sure if it's vain to suggest that that could be useful. awesome. Thanks.
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Sep 28, 2012 16:33
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I think tutorials on basic sewing and clothing creation would be useful.
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Sep 28, 2012 18:03
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I'm working on some tutorials for my site, but who knows when that will be done. In the mean time check these. I plan to have a bunch of sewing and wig working stuff before to long, just getting people to help me record is really the main hold up. http://www.youtube.com/user/Mogrymillian
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Sep 28, 2012 19:23
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Just link to the sewing thread. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2701891 There's so much info there your head will explode. Edit: If that's not hands-on enough, I'm about to start my Merida costume (simple dress) and can document the process. I've been sewing semi-professionally for over 20 years and know a thing or two. Rufus En Fuego fucked around with this message at 20:28 on Sep 28, 2012 |
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Sep 28, 2012 20:21
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A list of the most common materials to use (wonderflex? The foam pads people keep mentioning, etc) and a good place to buy them. Also a general idea of what to do with them. I've been reading through the thread and searching for some of the stuff as they come up, but I still get kind of confused by it all, like how much wonderflex I need, or if that's even the stuff I want or what tools I'll need to work with the stuff.
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Sep 28, 2012 23:04
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I have three clients needing Halloween costumes that would fit into "cosplay" categories. I will post process photos and such. I'm more of a seamstress than a crafter so I already know I will be using other tutorials for things I don't normally do.
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Sep 28, 2012 23:11
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Leper Residue posted:A list of the most common materials to use (wonderflex? The foam pads people keep mentioning, etc) and a good place to buy them. Also a general idea of what to do with them. If you are wanting to do one of the craft foam style armors my recommendation to you is keep an eye out for Joann's coupons then grab the big rolls they have. A lot of what I do is make my list before the year starts get a general I want these for this convention and take advantage of couponing and sales as much as I can. I usually plan all costumes a few months out in the hopes to keep it as cheap as possible.
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Sep 29, 2012 01:46
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Veila posted:If you are wanting to do one of the craft foam style armors my recommendation to you is keep an eye out for Joann's coupons then grab the big rolls they have. A lot of what I do is make my list before the year starts get a general I want these for this convention and take advantage of couponing and sales as much as I can. I usually plan all costumes a few months out in the hopes to keep it as cheap as possible. Or get the JoAnns phone app that has the coupons in it. I've used the same coupon like 4 times on 4 different days now.
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Sep 29, 2012 04:26
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Leper Residue posted:A list of the most common materials to use (wonderflex? The foam pads people keep mentioning, etc) and a good place to buy them. Also a general idea of what to do with them. If someone wants to come up with a list of stuff like this I'll add it to the OP. For now I have added what was requested!
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Sep 29, 2012 04:47
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Or buy cheap industrial EVA foam from McMaster-Carr, along with cheap industrial nylon webbing and cheap industrial plastic buckles and cheap industrial canvas...
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Sep 29, 2012 05:26
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Red Robin Hood posted:
I'm not sure how useful this will be for cosplay, but I've used http://www.onlinemetals.com/ for some of my own projects in the past.
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Sep 30, 2012 06:19
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Crosspost from the gbs halloween thread: This year I want to be a chaos knight. I'm looking to craft the armor out of some spray foam, but I'm kind of worried about toxicity. Of course every can states that it is toxic, the problem is I'm not sure if it's referring to the immediately sprayed wet state or if it counting the foam once it has been cured for eight hours. I've seen a lot of recommendations for Great Stuff gaps and crack filler (expanding spray foam), but is it alright to let that stuff - once dry that is - touch bare skin? Of course I will have clothing underneath the armor, but I'm more worried about the enclosed helmet I would make out of it.
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Oct 1, 2012 00:53
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Abnegatus posted:Crosspost from the gbs halloween thread: As far as I know, it's fine once it's dried (otherwise my buddy Matt is in some serious trouble!). Be aware that expanding foam tends to expand, then contract again as it cures. Also, if you're carving it down, it'll have a lot of bubbles in the material and you'll still have to patch or surface it with something.
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Oct 1, 2012 02:06
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Does anyone know a good way to do smoke effects? I'm feeling challenged because of the requirements it would need to meet. One of my long, long term projects to putting together a Rocketeer costume. I had a lovely one for DragonCon one year, and I am now very slowly working on a quality one. My most recent kick on this has been tinkering around with ways to do the backpack (short of spending a grand on the resin kit). Now, I would absolutely love it if I could have some sort of fire/smoke effect for the rocket pack, but I can't work out a good way to do this. The issue is basically that it needs to be something that can physically fit into the pack and be carried around safely, and ideally be triggered by a switch. The other stumbling block I have found is that it needs to be directed down, out of the jets, and not up (which is more common for stage/prop effects). Anyone have experience with this sort of thing? Ideas?
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Oct 1, 2012 14:54
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I was doing a lot of research on this myself, I wanted to add a creeping fog out of a Mr. Freeze costume. I was really limited to things that would be completely non-toxic since I wanted it creeping out of the neck piece. The only thing I found that MIGHT have worked for my uses was the little "steam" makers that they put into model trains. You can set them up to puff like a steam engine and such. I never really got past the research phase of it but it might be work looking into. It would at least produce a "jet" of smoke. I don't know how it would look directed downwards, but its a place to start.
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Oct 1, 2012 16:18
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Absolutely don't do this for the Mr. Freeze helmet, but for the Rocketeer pack the simplest and most effective thing might honestly be a tank for dry ice. The fog from dry ice will go downward, even. We looked at a LOT of smoke effects when we were building our Nightmare suit, and my buddy tells me that most of the smoke machines that generate enough smoke require an outlet and have a pretty high voltage requirement.
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Oct 1, 2012 16:45
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I had used dry ice on my old version, and was not really impressed by the results. It seemed hard to get a good flow going, and it had the real downside that you can't really control when/how much you smoke - you just have to load up and see how long it lasts. Of course, I think that I had particularly bad results because it was at DragonCon with a steel pack, so the pack was probably 95 degrees and all the ice was gone in half an hour. Maybe there is a better way to package/vent it to get better results. Edit: I have seen battery-powered smoke machines, but they are usually carzy expensive. The model train ones are interesting, though. I'd be concerned they would be too small to make a noticeable effect. The other thing I had considered was using strips of thin grey material hanging down the pack, with a fan inside and some red/orage LEDs - kind of like the old silk-and-light stage fire effect. Not sure it would work upsidedown though. Ashcans fucked around with this message at 17:19 on Oct 1, 2012 |
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Oct 1, 2012 17:12
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Oh I ruled out dry ice immediately. Lol I had friends suggest the water vaporizers that you can get in the winter. I was looking at G scale trains (they're the biggest ones) for the smoke maker. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BhH9HJiBRX4 Hopefully that works, I don't have good luck with links from the iPad transferring well. It's a video by qora01m and his G scale train.
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Oct 1, 2012 17:48
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That's an interesting option. Looking into it, though, it seems like those operate by heating up a coil of wire that basically burns off oil that is wither dripped onto them, or pulled up by a wick. They seem to be pretty effective, but the idea of walking around with a backpack full of hot oil and red-hot wire is a little disturbing. I mean if it went wrong and exploded I would be cosplay-famous forever, but its not how I want to go. However, this did lead me to looking at ultrasonic foggers, which do not involve red-hot wire or oil. Not sure if they would generate the right sort of fogging, though. Definitely options to look at here!
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Oct 1, 2012 22:40
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Ashcans posted:That's an interesting option. Looking into it, though, it seems like those operate by heating up a coil of wire that basically burns off oil that is wither dripped onto them, or pulled up by a wick. They seem to be pretty effective, but the idea of walking around with a backpack full of hot oil and red-hot wire is a little disturbing. I mean if it went wrong and exploded I would be cosplay-famous forever, but its not how I want to go. We tried ultrasonic foggers for Nightmare, the issues are that they have to be in water, plus they use outlets. We couldn't find a battery-powered one. McPantserton fucked around with this message at 03:48 on Oct 2, 2012 |
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Oct 1, 2012 22:42
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Could you make something with aerosol cans, like the cold spray they use on sports injuries? You'd probably have to be careful that you don't use it too much so it doesn't get too cold, but they do seem to create a fair amount of mist, and since it's pressurized you can aim it as you need.
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Oct 2, 2012 03:35
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Ashcans posted:Does anyone know a good way to do smoke effects? I'm feeling challenged because of the requirements it would need to meet. This is something people have been searching for 10 years or more for their Ghost Traps, and so far no one's found a safe solution. Any sufficiently theatrical effect is either toxic or a fire hazard, and everything else is unreliable or almost unnoticeable. If you find a way, tell us all so we can stuff it in our ghost traps.
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Oct 2, 2012 13:14
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McPantserton posted:We tried ultrasonic foggers for Nightmare, the issues are that they have to be in water, plus they use outlets. We couldn't find a battery-powered one. Oh well. I saw a couple that were listed as being 24V inputs, and was hoping that meant they were battery-able. I guess I could be an ElectroPunk Rocketeer and just be sure to stay near an outlet? dupersaurus posted:Could you make something with aerosol cans, like the cold spray they use on sports injuries? You'd probably have to be careful that you don't use it too much so it doesn't get too cold, but they do seem to create a fair amount of mist, and since it's pressurized you can aim it as you need. Well, the issue is that it would be something sitting in my backpack. So I am not sure how I would trigger an aerosol. I guess that there is probably some way to build a mechanical trigger I could use - maybe lodge a can somewhere in the pack and have some sort of lever (or even an actuator?) depress it? Cinnamon Bastard posted:This is something people have been searching for 10 years or more for their Ghost Traps, and so far no one's found a safe solution. Any sufficiently theatrical effect is either toxic or a fire hazard, and everything else is unreliable or almost unnoticeable. drat. Well, at least I can know that my problem is in shared company.  I guess I will keep working on it though; there isn't any sort of deadline for this, so I can just work on other pieces of the getup while I try to find a solution.
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Oct 2, 2012 15:04
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Scientific progress on this problem is being made by dedicated professionals. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcoO6bBh4eY
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Oct 2, 2012 23:49
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Hey all, I know I've seen lots of folks asking about the Mass Effect armor and such, I wanted to pass this info on for my friends. The N7 Elite group that was in the Dragon Con parade this year has started a forum where you can pick their brains, they are in the process of moving tutorials and such over, but if your interested you can sign up for the forums at n7elite.net Anyhow....I think I may be insane because I'm trying to make the ME weapons that will actually fold up. I spent 3 hours yesterday playing with paper pieces. Anyone an engineer? I might need some engineering help when it comes to some of these linkages.
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Oct 5, 2012 18:57
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For Halloween the family is going as characters from Labyrinth. I'll be Sarah, the baby will be Toby, my husband will be Jareth. We have the wig, tights are on the way, but the jacket is giving me trouble. I made many screenshots, I can make it, but I can't find a affordable leather jacket anywhere. I've checked all the thrift stores in our city. What else will work as leather but doesn't look fake?
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Oct 11, 2012 22:04
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You could always do one of Jareth's satin coats instead of the leather. Or the vest and frilly shirt costume. He wears a bunch of different outfits, and they're all pretty iconic.
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Oct 12, 2012 04:33
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RazorBunny posted:You could always do one of Jareth's satin coats instead of the leather. Or the vest and frilly shirt costume. He wears a bunch of different outfits, and they're all pretty iconic. Yeah I made a satin coat last year that was pretty sweet and not too $$ Unfortunately I only have his cell phone shots of the coat and since I don't know him personally it is trickier to get better photos.  
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Oct 12, 2012 04:48
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I might see if I can do the ball velvet coat, I'll have to check with the hubs on what he'll wear. Last ditch effort will be the vest/pirate shirt ensamble. Or just any sort of jacket thing. Really, anybody will recognize gray pants and that wig, but I like doing things RIGHT, damnit. I was kinda counting on finding a leather coat to murder at the goodwill store for the "big rear end lapel only on one side" coat. 
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Oct 12, 2012 17:26
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Funhilde posted:Yeah I made a satin coat last year that was pretty sweet and not too $$ Oh man I want to do this next year. Do you have any of the resources you used to make it? I would love any sort of help so I can get started now (I like to plan ahead).
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Oct 12, 2012 19:49
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Chunk posted:Oh man I want to do this next year. Do you have any of the resources you used to make it? I would love any sort of help so I can get started now (I like to plan ahead).
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Oct 12, 2012 20:14
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 I enjoy making this stuff every halloween. It's pretty brutal smelling for a few days so you want to make it a week or so in advance to give some of the stuff used a chance to dissipate. Don't recommend using it directly on your skin either. It makes some pretty neat-o costume skin for whatever purpose you're looking for.. be it glossy flesh or scars n' stuff. Costs about $10 to make a 4x4' sheet of decent thickness. What I did was I took a paint bucket, squirted in a tube of silicone caulk, thinned it to hell and back with some mineral spirits, coloured the mixture to my liking with acrylic paint (Just put it into the thinned silicone) and then spread it out onto wax paper. The matte finish skin was from using plasticine (Harbutts, think it contains sulfur, might matter). Downsides are it's not super stretchy without breaking. To get details you need to have some sort of sculpted surface to lay it on (The stiches and scars was done using plasticine) Upshot is it's cheap, very cheap. Once again, I wouldn't recommend using this directly touching skin and I'd give it a very very long time for the silicone to fully cure and the mineral spirits to evaporate or else it will stink horribly.
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Oct 15, 2012 05:43
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Yay a Cosplay thread! My favorite thing. I've been doing this for a few years now, but I've never tried to construct any armor. I'm looking forward to making a Deedlit costume this year, and I'd like to know what maybe the best way to make her chest armor and shoulder pads would be?  My other proposed/planned cosplays to be completed by DragonCon 2013 are- Amy (Soul Calibur), Starfire (Adult Ver), Himeno as Plant Pretear (Pretear). I'm probably going to a Brak (Space Ghost) costume for my boyfriend, and was thinking on going ahead and making Brak's mother for me. I think it'd be a hit.  Here are some photos of my cosplays from this year. Crappy Cell phone pics, sorry.  Breakfast Princess from Adventure Time  Zatanna from Batman Animated
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Oct 15, 2012 18:40
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First time trying to make a costume for New York Comic-con. Came up pretty well - Wife and I as Alana and Marko from Saga:   Got called up to the front of a panel with Brian K Vaughan, so that was pretty cool. Only problem was I didn't test looking up and down with the horns on enough after it was all assembled, so I had to take them on and off to look through stuff on tables.
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Oct 15, 2012 19:10
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So I've been wanting to do my own variation on Heather Mason, since I'm not a skirt kind of girl, and figured I could make one of her unlockable jeans and tank top outits. Finding good/large source images for the various designs proved difficult, so I decided to make an original Lakeside Amusement Park souvenir shirt instead. I've never tried designing an image to go on a shirt before, so I'm wondering how big I need to make the file/image canvas. I've also looked at websites that offer custom screen printing, but all their packages seem to be for multiple shirt prints. Where do I turn if I just want one made? In the meantime, I have my half assed TWEWY Support Reaper costume to run around the local Halloween parties with. I'm probably going to add my own camo pattern to the bag, since I couldn't find anything that looked right. drat, I'm slowly going from half-assedly assembling things from store bought clothes, to actually making some effort. Cosplay is a disease.
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Oct 17, 2012 18:37
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Anoia posted:So I've been wanting to do my own variation on Heather Mason, since I'm not a skirt kind of girl, and figured I could make one of her unlockable jeans and tank top outits. Finding good/large source images for the various designs proved difficult, so I decided to make an original Lakeside Amusement Park souvenir shirt instead. I work at a t-shirt printing company and we barely ever do single orders. Do you have an idea of what the design will look like? If it's photographic you're probably looking at doing digital printing. My company mostly does vector-based printing. Anyway, I could give you better advice about how to make the file and where you could get it done if I knew more accurately what you want it to look like.
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Oct 17, 2012 18:42
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Nothing too complicated. I want it to look like a cheap souvenir shirt, so it'll be vector based and probably only use shades of pink, white, and maybe red on black. Think of old 70's shirts, only in tank top form: text up top, drawing of the lake in between, and Silent Hill centered under that. Ideally the whole image can fit high on the chest, but I'm also thinking of slapping a drawing of Robbie the Rabbit's head on the back near the neckline.
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Oct 17, 2012 18:59
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