Cosplaying 101- Step 2: Research
Welcome back! You have made it to the second step in my series Cosplaying 101, a beginner's guide to the basics of cosplay. This step is all about researching for your cosplay. Below are all the steps in totality (reminds me of Mortal Combat. TOTALITY):
Cosplaying 101 Steps
2. Research (You are here)
3. Designing Your Cosplay/ Listing Materials
4. Reconnaissance/ Gathering Materials
5. Making Your Cosplay
6. Test Driving/ Revisions
7. Extras and Props
8. Posing
9. Wearing Your Cosplay
10. Cleaning and Storing Your Cosplays
Be sure to check out my YouTube video series that accompanies this blog (links are below). You know, for my friends who aren't fans of reading. Here is the companion video for this post:
So you've selected your character, kudos! Sometimes we can get really stuck on that first step. Now it's time to figure out how the fudge you are going to make that costume. There are 2 things you want to focus your research around.
1. Researching the character
2. Researching other cosplays.
Researching the Character
When you research the character you want to look up (we all know I mean Google) the following:
Background/ origin story. Knowing this will help you know the motivation behind your character's actions. It can help if you want to act like the character. Also, you will be able to know what aspects of their costume are most important. For example, when Lovebug and I were working on Harvey Dent/ Two Face, we looked at his origin story and realized that we really needed to focus on the coin and his obsession with it. Background information about your character can also help you select poses for step 8 of the Cosplay 101 series.
Basic/ most iconic costume. Knowing this could help you identify what colors to use for your costume. In some cases, just having the right colors and a few classic pieces will help more people recognize you.
Other versions of the character. This will give you more options (There's more than one way to cosplay a Catwoman!) Research the different versions of your character and choose one that fits your personality.
Source media. Go back to whatever you were watching or reading that made you decide you wanted to cosplay that character. You can also use the source media to learn more about their personality traits and quirks. This will help with developing the costume and coming up with poses. For example, I went back and started watching Justice League and discovered an awesome version of Hawkgirl's uniform that is perfect for me. I also learned more about Hawkgirl's impulsiveness and her love interests that I was completely unaware of.
*Tip I strongly suggest printing out images of their costume and props. Otherwise, your phone screen will keep timing out and drive you bat poop crazy. Also, you can write calculations and dimensions on the printout. Not so much on your phone.
Researching Other Cosplays
This is vital. Other cosplays can show you how other people turned a fictional character who often times has absurd or theoretically impossible physical traits (i.e.- hair that stands straight up in clumps, anime anyone? anyone?) into something real.
I suggest you focus on fining two things:
Images/videos/tutorials of people who have done the same cosplay as you. Outside of bringing anime hair to real life, they may have come up with an interesting way to pull off the costume
Images/videos/tutorials of pieces of the costume (for example, wings, capes, light up masks). These images/videos/whatever can be for a completely different cosplay than yours. The idea is, you may find a way to make a mask or a new design for a cape that you will want to incorporate into your design. It's important to get into this habit because you may not find a video you can use for making Thor's hammer, but you may find a video for making a wand and you can use the techniques from that tutorial to make Mjölnir (Thor's hammer).
*Remember Don't get too hung up on another person's cosplay. Look for ideas and inspiration, but don't get upset if their outfit looks way better/cooler/awesomer than yours. You don't know what their resources were/are, their experience level, or if they even made their own costume.
Alright peeps, that is what I have for step 2, research.
Thanks for reading and be sure to check out my companion video for this blog post (Cosplaying 101- Step 2: Research). I would also love if you head to my Facebook page and answer these questions for me...
What character has the best origin story?
Who is your favorite cosplayer?
(Don't have one? Well, get some research going and find one!)
If you have any questions or comment, please write them in the comments section below.
