Jeeeeeeeeeesus. You're really, really good at this - if you are not already, I would seriously consider doing some commissioned work as a seamstress catering to Cosplayers - Seriously, I imagine that's hardly a market with a glut of talented costume designers.
Thank you! Currently, I do commissions for people I know. I'm not comfortable enough with my level of work or my ways of doing things (very inefficiently, as I work without patterns and largely by trial-and-error) to sell to just anyone quite yet. I'm working my way towards being able to do open commissions, and having a strong portfolio is part of that. This was a major driving force behind me having three completely new costumes done for this convention, and having lots of nice photos done of everything I made. I even put one of my friends in my S.t.a.r.S Yoko costume in order to get some good pictures of it, and honestly, she rocked it.
I'm in school for Costume Design currently, so one day I'll be making awesome original costumes as well!
Wow, those look awesome! Great work, Anrild. I really like your fabric choices in particular. They all feel right and natural for the outfits. It bothers me when cosplayers use flimsy, cheap, or unrealistic fabrics because it looks so sloppy. But these are a cut above!
The costumes are super good! You should give the original photo files to a competent photo manipulator (not someone like me) and they'll make the photos look way classier. Here's my 5 minute rough blast while I'm sitting backstage (in Lightroom, not even Photoshop):
In the future you should also aim to get photos in RAW format, and ask the photographer to use a shallow depth of field to throw the background out of focus (the second two photos are good, but the top photo has the car outside in focus, and it really shouldn't be!). Also, with the shape of your face, the better photo will be where you turn your face to the side, and that way we also get to see the cool hair sets (see top photo compared to bottom two). I hope this helps you get more cool photos in the future.
Thanks everyone! Luke, I appreciate the tips. I know my face is better at a 3/4 or profile view, because of my wide jawline, but I also wanted to get good pictures of the way the front of my Yoko wig looks straight-on. I worked really hard to not just have flat, dead-looking bangs as so many Yoko cosplayers do, that I wanted to be sure it showed up. These are just a few preview shots so they are unprocessed, and my photographer will send me the finished photos after she processes all of them (she also already sends me raws in really high resolution, so I appreciate the tip but I'm already there in that respect). I'll put up a bunch on my cosplay.com profile as soon as I have good set of each, so I'll post a link when I get back final pictures and have them uploaded.
First photo looks great, second one: Wayway too much saturation in the red channel. It makes her skin look kind of orange and the hair is approaching 100% R.
The final shots show so much I want to improve upon, I'll be glad once I get my rifle done for Otakon so I'll have a prop for Yoko. She's kind of awkward without it.
PS: Tell me which ones you like the best so I know which I should be more inclined to use in my coscom albums/porfolio.
I haven't started it yet. My dad is helping me because I don't have the tools I need in my apartment, and he has pretty much all the power tools I'd need to make any prop ever. We're talking about using either chipboard or wood and PVC. I need to make it both light enough to carry around all day and for it to not get beat up easily. Thankfully we're driving up to Baltimore this year, so I don't have to be as concerned about what large, unwieldy, or sketchy looking props I take in my luggage. I had to leave my sword for Momohime at home last year because it wouldn't fit on my stuff to go on the train and I didn't want part of a sword sticking awkwardly out of my portfolio. I was bogged down enough trying to make sure my wings didn't get crushed.
Comments
I'm in school for Costume Design currently, so one day I'll be making awesome original costumes as well!
The costumes are super good! You should give the original photo files to a competent photo manipulator (not someone like me) and they'll make the photos look way classier. Here's my 5 minute rough blast while I'm sitting backstage (in Lightroom, not even Photoshop):
In the future you should also aim to get photos in RAW format, and ask the photographer to use a shallow depth of field to throw the background out of focus (the second two photos are good, but the top photo has the car outside in focus, and it really shouldn't be!). Also, with the shape of your face, the better photo will be where you turn your face to the side, and that way we also get to see the cool hair sets (see top photo compared to bottom two). I hope this helps you get more cool photos in the future.
First photo looks great, second one: Wayway too much saturation in the red channel. It makes her skin look kind of orange and the hair is approaching 100% R.
Good luck with future photos, and I can't wait to see the final versions of all the costumes and photos.
Gwendolyn - Odin Sphere - Mother's Gown
Yoko x Yoko - Gurren Lagann - Pre-Timeskip and S.t.a.r.S
Ranger and Alchemist (the Alchemist is my sister's work) - Ragnarok Online
The final shots show so much I want to improve upon, I'll be glad once I get my rifle done for Otakon so I'll have a prop for Yoko. She's kind of awkward without it.
PS: Tell me which ones you like the best so I know which I should be more inclined to use in my coscom albums/porfolio.
Also I'm being version two.