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I'm going to get myself into something I can't handle, aren't I? Here goes.  I've attended A-Kon for the past 2 years and have always cosplayed, but only really simple stuff... I've never really made something unique. Well, I've decided I desperately need to do a full-fledged League of Legends cosplay. There's over 100 champions, so there's plenty to choose from. I've decided my #1 would be Syndra, an evil bitch whose immense magical potential leads her to want to beat the poo poo out of people every day, now and forever! LoL isn't famous for its well-written lore. Regardless, I love playing her, and I've yet to see many out there. A lot of the other female characters have plenty of solid cosplayers already. If I do this, I'm putting myself in a tough position. I'm going into my senior capstone next semester, which ends in early May. A-Kon starts at the beginning of June. That leaves me with precious few weeks over the next 6 months to put it together without interfering with my portfolio work. My main skills are beginning sewing, design, drawing, and MacGyver-style craft projects (taking what I can find and makin' it work, fast). My mom is an experienced tailor on retirement, who loves to hear about and help with my nerdy pastimes whenever I swing into town. Aside from that, I've got Michael's, Hobby Lobby, Home Depot, and art supplies all over my house. All that said, does anyone have tips for a beginning-ish cosplayer looking to use cheap/non-fancy crafting materials for this outfit? There's a lot of yellow-gold metallic pieces, and I think the only way for me to pull it off is carving foam and painting it all. I know there's loads of tutorials to look at, but I was hoping to get some goon guidance. I trust you guys before I trust the rest of the internet (maybe I'm misguided... naaah). For example, the helmet/mask horrifies me. I don't even know where to start! Feel free to tell me to just check out tutorials. I just thought I'd run it by you guys. Thanks for posting all those neat pictures, too. It's been fabulous checking out all the work you guys have done. I can only describe it as  Official splash art:  Some quick snapshots I took of her model in action: 
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Dec 3, 2012 09:23
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Thanks to everyone!  Sweet advice on the foam and sealants, especially... Lots of options out there. LadyRavenWaves, don't expect a whole lot out of me. If this semester turns out to be even harder than expected, I'm going to show up in my last ditch cosplay. Regardless, I'd love to meet up and chat! That goes for any A-Kon goons that come through here.EDIT: In http://www.firelilycosplay.com/craftfoam.html it says, "...you can also iron the foam to seal the surface without coating it in glue!" Has anyone tried this or heard this? If it's true, that'd be a dream come true. I have a feeling it'd only work for small things, though... broken pixel fucked around with this message at 00:54 on Dec 4, 2012 |
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Dec 4, 2012 00:40
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As I thought, I'm too short for time and money to do anything fancy for A-Kon. I can't believe it's less than a month away now. I'm planning on tackling another League champion, Spellthief Lux, even though she's been cosplayed to death. I think I can bring it a step above the masses by doing some detailing and bringing it to life. I have a few questions before I get going on it! I have references below. Test tubes: Does anyone have a good resource for some of those, preferably plastic/hard to break ones? It looks like the tubes are glowing in her official art. I've looked up a few individual submersible LEDs, but most of them are too big (1" or more wide). Are there any smaller ones I could use, submersible or not? Staff: I think a bigger, bright LED would be best for the staff; I see people using orbs on the end but I think it's just supposed to glow. I'm thinking for the rest of the staff, I'll have to use paper mache or something to shape the ends and paper to cover the staff. Cloak: My mom and I are going to work together to shape the edging, but I was curious what you guys would recommend for the decoration. I could hand stitch it, but I'm more of a drawing type than sewing. I'm afraid fabric paint would look cheesy and come off too easily. I'm looking for a decent cloak pattern currently, so if anyone knows of one, I'd love to take a look.  My favorite cosplay of this look I've seen, since it includes the edging details. 3D model from the game
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May 11, 2013 23:16
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Have I ever mentioned how amazing you guys are at cosplay?  wheatpuppy posted:You can order plastic test tubes cheap from Amazon, or if you have any medical supply stores or university book/supply stores in your area it's a good bet you can find them there. I've heard of people cracking open glow sticks to use the innards for glowing props (Arkham Asylum Scarecrow), but I've never done it myself. I don't know how long the glow lasts, or visible it would be in a brightly-lit environment. Killer_Frost posted:For the test tubes you could just use regular led's then use some fabric, or paper, or something to diffuse the light so it looks like its liquid. The bigger LEDs are more visible in daylight. Same thing for the staff. I know I'm late replying, but I still want to say thanks! I might forego the test tube glow all together, but we'll see how my "painting the inside of tiny glass tubes" adventure goes. As for the robe, the pattern is great! We're going to work on it tonight, hopefully. I think I'm going to use fabric paint over fabric chalk lines and work my way carefully around the hood. It might not be perfect, but I think I can do it. I'm coming back to ask for advice on my staff again. Of the supplies I have laying around, I've got a sturdy cardboard tube at the size I want, brown fabric that's pretty light/has minimal texture, acrylics, Mod Podge (because I'm too lazy to mix my own glue  ), and all sorts of random other materials. I want the "claws" at both ends to look like branches, but I think I'll have to make them structured unless someone has a good suggestion. I could use cardboard, paper, fabric, and any other number of materials I have laying around, but I don't know what would be sturdy enough to withstand ~3 days of use. Once that's all done, I've decided to mount a clear orb on both ends... I guess my question is what materials are best for achieving this? I'm scared it's all going to crumble if I use hot glue or something. There must be a way.
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May 21, 2013 20:15
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Killer_Frost posted:I was going to do an Indigo Lantern at one point, they have similar-ish staffs so I did a lot of research at the time. If you want to use what you have already using some wire/wire hanger to get the basic shape down then you could use paper mâché to built it up to the right final shape. If you want to buy stuff, you could use the same starting point and use sculpey to get the final shape. Once its baked its rock hard. It'd make it through the 3 days as long as you don't beat someone with it. four lean hounds posted:If I understand correctly, you're looking for a relatively sturdy/lightweight/cheap way to make claws for the ends of a staff? I would suggest using floral wire as a "skeleton" to help support the claws. The wire will hold a form, which you can then set with glue/paper mache/duct tape and will have more "give" than clay, so if you get nudged in a crowd it might not fall apart so easily. Thanks yet again. After some experimentation, I ended up making the skeleton yesterday using the cardboard tube, floral wire (two wires twisted together for extra strength), and duct tape. Now, I'm going to see if there's a way to use the fabric over it, but I might go straight to paper mache-ing it. It's great to be able to apply some of the techniques I learned in foundation art classes... I did wire sculptures for a while and really loved it. Crafting the claws with it made so much sense when I really thought about it more.
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May 23, 2013 02:16
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Hey LadyRavenWaves and any others! We should meet up at A-Kon. I'm almost there myself and should be around through early-mid Sunday afternoon. If anyone has PMs, feel free to send or request a phone number. Edit: If we meet today, I might ask for some finishing tips on my outfit. I'm close to being done but still have some details left to go. 
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May 30, 2013 18:35
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LadyRavenWaves posted:Awww drat I wish I had checked here before leaving I would have been so down. This weekend was nuts. My costume schedule got all kinds of mixed up after I had the scare that a tornado might be ripping up my house Friday afternoon. Sylvanas didn't even place in the game contest, some drunk guy in a dead pool costume dropped me on the ground, and I never got to drink... like at all. Man I totally botched this con. Ah well I had fun wearing my stuff and got to hang out with my Texas friends. So it wasn't a complete waist hopefully I will find some pics of full on Sylvanas so I can share, I think it was at least still pretty cool. It's not a problem at all! I completely sympathize with the tornado potentially ripping up your house thing... It always throws you for a loop. I can't believe you didn't place, and seriously, gently caress Deadpool #349 (how many were there?). I enjoyed myself, too, but some people seem really pissed about issues with the new hotel. I'll admit, they need to fix some things, but I understand it's not easy to make that transition. Hopefully they'll concede and mail our pre-registration passes next year. I had a lot of fun hanging out with other League of Legends cosplayers this year. I'll post a picture of my outfit and a group picture of all of us soon. I can't thank you guys enough for the tips and encouragement! It gave me the drive to do what little I could in a busy week.
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Jun 3, 2013 18:59
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LadyRavenWaves posted:Line con was full of lines but I mean other than there positioning of pre reg I think a big chunk of it was just trying to settle into the new hotel. Hopefully people will mellow and realize while it was a little confusing to find stuff at times that it will be better next year. I remember the first Akon at Adam's Mark/Sheraton was confusing too but people got it figured out after a bit. Thank you; you looked fantastic, yourself! I'd love to meet up sometime, of course, in less cumbersome/hot clothing. I found a decent shot of my outfit, so I thought I'd post it here. This is phase 1 of this outfit. I'd like to get better pants (tighter fit, thinner fabric), retouch the cape trim decoration, and some other minor things. Other than that, people who knew what I was seemed impressed with the overall look; I'm glad about that since it's a fairly subtle outfit. 
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Jun 5, 2013 01:47
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LadyRavenWaves posted:Honestly with a better camera/lighting it looks just fine I just like to dog on the costume because it is supposed to be super tacky. With all the detail stitching around the boning though I have dropped about 30-40 hours in hand stitching on this beast I am actually pretty proud of it. That's pretty cool! Will it be at any cons in our area? I'd love to check it out. I did a rough Panty cosplay once for fun, and I've considered doing the ~animu silky angel form~ before... I'd need a proper partner, though. It's a hard cosplay to solo.
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Mar 12, 2014 03:44
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Aaaah, life has been insane, and now it's crunch time! First off, to everyone who has posted recently, you guys are rad and great craftspeople. It makes me wish I was better and had actual advice to contribute rather than leeching advice from the thread. Now, A-Kon is next Friday and I need to make a hat--specifically, this hat: I've looked up some patterns and premades, but I can't decide what solution fits best. I don't have a sewing machine, but I can hand stitch if I need to. Does anyone have an idea/have a degree in hat-making? I'd really appreciate it
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Jun 1, 2014 05:03
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Thanks for the pattern help earlier in the thread.  It really did save my rear end on the hat. Here's a picture of me from a shoot (oh god, I really should've pulled the hat down before the shots here)! My next planned cosplay is Zelda from Skyward Sword, but I'm sorta leaning toward someone with a cute pixie cut or bob... Long wigs are a hell of a job. 7thBatallion posted:Hey! It did fade! It just took many, many hours...And it's barely noticeable. As mentioned, you pretty much have to repeat the process daily until you get the results you want. Good luck--I'm sure it'll come through soon!
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Jun 11, 2014 21:51
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Funky Bunch Wikia posted:Infinity Orb's done! drat. All the work you've posted is incredible, but I have to say, I would especially love to have myself a glowing rock (er, Infinity Orb) like that.
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Sep 16, 2014 22:26
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