It's still hot! We need Hoth!

The weather didn't change much after my last post and I, if it's in any way avoidable, will not work in these circumstances. But now there are some signs in the air, that next week would be more bearable and I have few days off, so there is costume progress ahead of us... At last... Again...


To make this hiatus acceptable I can reveal what I have done in two weeks time. No, I haven't just sat on my behind, I have gone trough dozens of plastic bags and organized fabrics and other supplies. When we actually start to make something, we don't need to fight with serious mess. I also took a closer look on the things and details we need to redo for Snowtroopers. Even if we need to upgrade Yoki's costume and construct mine, we are more than half way there. All the clothes have been made and we can use the old molds for the armor after we fix them up a bit.


Last weekend we put on our rubber boots and went to the countryside. We were looking nice places where we could have a photoshoot for Joxter and Muddler. The scenery has already been seen on our Snufkin vid, but this time we will widen the view. As we hiked on the fields and forest we made a draft of the script. We might need some extras if we are going to follow the first version. Gladly our metal expert Esa has promised to make a cameo if needed!

All together, next month will be a busy one. We have planned a second part for Akatsuki interview and if we manage, we will film it next week. Joxter and Muddler we will shoot later, because we need to wait for the apples to ripen. Then of course the Snowtrooper costumes needs to be finished. And then... Yoki will move to study and leave me! Okay, it's only three hours by train, but still... So in the future, Yoki being busy with her studies it will be more me and less her, if it is in anyway possible. But let's work hard before that!

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WCS 2010: Live stream!!!

Much thanks to the folks at World-Cosplay-Summit (Deviantart Group) for the information. Apparently WCS organisers this year is FINALLY opening up their media coverage to the non Japanese demographics! Smart move imho :D

Anyway, we can watch the Osu Parade Live here at Ustream tomorrow!!! How awesome is that xD?



While you're at WCS's Ustream Channel, also check out the interview videos of the representatives !

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World Cosplay Summit: Representative’s performance

OMG! WCS 2010 Kicks off this Sunday!!! How time lies! Before we anticipate the final battle of the nations, let’s have a recap of their preliminary performance!

A little rant first, seriously tell me, am i the only one who finds the official WCS website somewhat annoying and slow in reflecting updates? Singapore and Thailand’s representatives have been selected for near a month before it has been officially stated on their website.

Anyway, because I was annoyed with the official website, I decided to do an entry for people like me, who are keen to poke more into the happenings of the World Cosplay Summit, but aren’t keen to stalk the blog or website everyday.

Last year they had some awesome video coverage of the entire event with exclusive interviews with each representatives. But they choose to restrict the video to a speciifc Japanese flash player. And none of us could watch the video despite installing the plugin multiple tiimes @_@ Was very annoyed.

Picture by ~alsquall.

Most people I’m sure, are like me, just wanna know who was selected, what were they cosplaying as and how entertaining were their skit. Simple.

So I’ve searched high and low to put together this video compilation entry that has skit performance of all the countries I can find. I’m lacking links to Korea, Italy and China. Does anyone know if there’s any videos of their performance online?  Without further ado, scroll down for the alphabetically organised videos =)

 

Australia

Brazil

 

China

 

Denmark 

 

Germany

 

 Finland

France   

 

Mexico

Singapore

Spain

Thailand

United States of America 

 

 

*Phew* Hope you guys enjoyed the performance, was pretty troublesome to gather these videos ^^;;;

As I mentioned, World Cosplay Summit kicks off this weekend.  Go to the official website for the full event schedule and guides. Also check out fan groups like World-Cosplay-Summit on deviantart for eye candies!

World Cosplay Championship 2010
August 1(sun),2010
Open Gate 16:00 / Start 19:00 , Area Map (PDF)
Official Website: http://www.tv-aichi.co.jp/wcs/2010/e/event/index.php

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Hatsune Miku - Rolling Girl (COSPLAY PV) - VOCALOID

FINALLY Cvy and Knansaiii's Rolling Girl Cosplay PV is out!!!I'm so proud and jealous of Cvy's professional editing here! The poor girl was literally working her weekends away.

There were other commitments, but completion still took longer than I predicted,
dare not say I underestimated the amount of animation, transitions and effects
in the original, but it was genuinely.. time-consuming.

I mentioned that
the video will not be the same but I was so compelled to finish it ended up
looking about the same. BUT, even though some of the scenes look identical, the
entire movie was made from scratch. Even the lyrics, Kansaiii traced them all
individually! So thankful for her help, she was the only person who gave me
endless support too!

There is one part where you see me 'rolling', I was
very reluctant to have it because to be honest, it look extremely comical, but
when the song itself is titled Rolling Girl, I don't think I should challenge
that. My favourite scene would have to be 1:59-2:09 of Miku and the guy
conversing and eventually coming down to screaming at the top of their lungs. It
expresses one of the conflicting emotions she is bearing and him trying to talk
her out. This Miku is rather headstrong ;)

It may not be picture-perfect
but we put our heart into every bit, hope you appreciate our work ^^

Note: No videography involved, everything was made mostly with stop
motion and some burst shots.

+++

Movie made by Cvy
[cvy.deviantart.com]
Lyrics traced by Kanasai* [kanasaiii.deviantart.com]
Photos taken by Songster [songster69.deviantart.com]

Hatsune Miku:
Cvy
Guy/Savior: Kanasai*
Schooler boy: Xiaobai [xiaobai.deviantart.com]
Schooler girl: Kaika [www.youtube.com/user/elpheal]

Thanks to the
schoolers too who helped so much during the shoot and Adrian with his smallest
photography workspace! I should put up behind-the-scenes.

+++

Original PV credits:
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm9989443
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMDxKR...
Lyrics: wowaka
composition:
wowaka
arrangement: wowaka
Voice: Hatsune Miku
Illustration:
akiakane
Movie: yama_ko
Font: fub-koubou

Originally produced by
Genjitsutouhi-P in 14th Feb 2010

I am SO impressed by all those special effects and crazy lyrics animations! You can totally tell where the time went to >.<

Watching the final product brings back so much memories of the filming production XD How Cvy had to jump and rolled (yeah, you heard me right) and we had to throw her hair in the air to get the 'animated' feeling.

Am already looking forward to the "Making of" Video for this by Cvy! Click on the video and go to the Youtube page to leave a comment there and support the creator !

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WWCPJ: Cosplays in Chile!!!

In line with the Worldwide Cosplayer Photo Journey Project, I will do an entry to spotlight on the representing countries of the participating cosplayers ^_^ !
And as we all know, our first recipient is Asakura Haruto from Chile! So this is my short tribute entry about Chile and the cosplayers within it =) Much thanks to Asakura for providing me with the many links and photographs! 

Below is a short entry about Chile the country. Summarized from Wikipedia =) 

 

Chile (traditional English pronunciation /ˈtʃɪli/,^[5] also pronounced /ˈtʃiːleɪ/ ( listen)), officially the Republic of Chile (Spanish: República de Chile [reˈpuβlika ðe ˈtʃile] ( listen)), is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west.

The port of San Antonio

Chile is one of South America's most stable and prosperous nations.^[7] It leads Latin American nations in human development, competitiveness, quality of life, political stability, globalization, economic freedom, low perception of corruption and comparatively low poverty rates.^[9] It also ranks high regionally in freedom of the press and democratic development.
Their official language is Spanish. German is also widely used.  
 
Crudos, a Chilean meal made of raw minced beef on sour-dough corn bread topped with lemon juice, chopped onions and a sauce made of yogurt, mayonnaise and shellfish.
 
Rodeo is a traditional sport in Chile. It was declared the national sport in 1962.  In Chilean rodeo, a team (called a collera) consisting of two riders (called Huasos) and two horses rides laps around an arena trying to stop a calf, pinning him against massive cushions. Points are earned for every time the steer is properly driven around the corral, with deductions for faults. Rodeos are conducted in a crescent-shaped corral called a medialuna.
The sport, in its modern form, is strictly regulated. Chilean Horses are used exclusively and riders are required to wear traditional huaso garb. The sport has become so popular that in 2004, more spectators attended rodeo events than professional football matches.






Chile also have many natural scenery for tourists to admire and enjoy. I’ve never knew Chile was SO BEAUTIFUL!!! This totally makes me wanna travel to Chile in the future T_T!!! 

And Asakura Haruto is from Antofagasta. Antofagasta  is a port city in northern Chile, about 700 miles (1,130 km) north of Santiago. It is the capital of both Antofagasta Province and Antofagasta Region.

The city's name comes from either a Quechua or Aymara word for "town of the great saltpeter bed."

And here comes the Cosplays! Text below are what information I have summarised from what Asakura Haruto have kindly provided for me. If I make any mistake in naming the cons, please do excuse me >.<
Over at Arica (a city near Antofagasta) , the biggest event of the year would be COTAKUNÓ. Many people from the norths side and other countries, like Peru congregates there every year on February.According to Asakura Haruto, getting cosplay materials over there are difficult too. Especially wigs as those can cost quite a fair bit. There are many big events in Chile with very good prizes.
Below are some Events photos and videos.

Above Photos by DjCyberia

Photo by ~ RicharD MagnuS ~

Photo by Diego Martin™

 
Photo by Diego Martin™

 
Photo by [Press for music]

 
Photo by i won't talk at all but I'll go for a ride

    Photo by .:Camilo:.

         Ending with some links !

1. http://www.cosplayelite.cl


2. http://akibafestival.com/


3. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1277794&op=2&o=global&view=global&subj=1016883503&id=1181040579&ref=pf#!/album.php?id=1181040579&aid=61241&s=120&hash=b283ee97d5b69a3d238397009749f54f


4. Anime Events in Santiago (Galleries)http://www.cosplayelite.cl/foroce/index.php?board=3.0


5. http://www.flickr.com/groups/cosplay-chile/

According to Asakura, there are many other cosplay events in Chile. Namely,  Salones de Anime, X Revolution, Summer Cosplay Party, Antofacon, Anime Weekend.

The main and important events in Santiago are: Anime Festival, Akiba Festival, Urban Japan Fest, Anime Expo. I would really like to link to them but again…I can’t seem to find them on Google T_T I bet its the language barrier….


I’m sorry I can’t be more insightful with this entry as the language barrier was too big for me to overcome. But I hope this little entry here will help spread a little love for cosplayers in Chile and let everyone else knows a little more about them =)!  Hope you guys enjoyed this entry, because this took me very long X_X


Banzai \o/ !!

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Video tutorial on coloured eyebrows!

Someone requested and I thought it would be fun to do a video of it so here it is!
In this video, I demonstrates how I do the eyeshadow technique that I mentioned in my previous post. Read the post here or just scroll down.

By the way, I have finally gotten around to buying a domain name for TCC! Now, TCC finally has a dot com! Yes, you guys can now access the blog with www.thecosplaychronicles.COM !!!!!!!

Oh, comment and let me know if you guys like the video =) So I'll know if I should do more in the future D:

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JBF Cosplay PV ranked 20th on Niconico!

Oh.My.God….Can’t believe this. Lenneth just told me a big news! Apparently the JBF cosplay video  I did with reiko, Adrian, Shiroin, Maria and Peggy got into some Best Vocaloid Videos for first half of 2010 !!!

And we were ranked 20th out of all the niconico videos O_O!!!!! I must admit, I was a bit slow in feeling excited and Lenneth was totally telling me “ You don’t sound very excited” LOL. Sorry, I’m always a little retarded in this like that @_@

But I soon realised the impact of it and got around to doing a short mobile vlog xD!

Thank you thank you and thank you to everyone who liked our JBF Cosplay PV. I swear none of us had thought of this when we filmed it. Its weird how good things always happened when you least expected it. It’s such a nice gift and compliment to be ranked top 20.

Even though, none of the good stuffs are coming to reiko and I because the video uploaded on Niconico was not by us (someone we don’t know ripped it off youtube and posted on Niconico). It is still exciting to be so officially praised and honoured T_T.

*hugs reiko and cries*

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Random Cosplay Tips #7: Multi-purpose eyeshadow

Other than the iconic big eyes seen in our beloved Anime characters, they have another iconic feature no cosplayers should miss. Their crazily coloured hair.

Of course, you can get wigs to pull off the crazy colours but don't forget your eyebrows too! Here's sharing a small tip to save a few bucks. Instead of buying crazy coloured eye pencil which you'll only use a few times, you can rely on eyeshadows instead! Most of us probably already have a palette of eyeshadow with a dozens of colours but all you ever use is brown.

Now is a good time to use up the rest of the colors by using them as a eyebrow colour.  The key to making this eyeshadow method work is to first get a good base and finding ways to make the eyeshadow stick onto the brows.

 

There are professional products one can get to cover over eyebrows entirely. But I usually just use a fairly thick amount of concealer to dab over my brows and call it done =X. After that, use a sponge applicator or angled brush to dab eyeshadow on. I believe cotton swabs could do the work too but I've never tried it myself.

Usually the concealer would stick the eyeshadow well enough. But if it doesn't, you could try applying a bit of vaseline or lip balm. Or you can wet the brush/sponge/cotton swab before you pick up the eyeshadow to get a more concentrated colour. Other than eyeshadow, the same can be used with your Blusher and Lipsticks. Seriously, I've tried it xD.

In fact, this is what I do for my Megurine Luka, Shakugan no Shana , Kagamine Rin, Himura Kenshin and Mogami Kyoko cosplays.

I have naturally thick and well angled eyebrows *grins* so just layering colours on this way works very well for me. As a disclaimer, I prefer to look 'natural' and 'adolescent' (as required by the characters I cosplay) so no plucked and overly angled eyebrows for me. Which is just as well.

I've never really had thin eyebrows so I don't know how this method would turn out for thin brows. Let me know how it works for you =)!

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Cosfest 2010, Day 2: Photo Pimps 2 !!

And the photo pimps continues! Apologies for the delay and enjoy!

Start off with a camwhores of fugly me with kawaii Ariki xD

  Sakana and Xrystal as Parasite Eve?

Xrystal’s fingers were bendable xD!!!!

  

With the very elegant and pretty Lovecraft xD I think our colour combination is really….sweet xD. Much thanks to Sour_cheese for helping me take this!

Shota cosplays suits Shuki just as much as Moe character does >w<! I wanna kidnap her back!

 

 

Ringo and Envy as “Alice in Wonderland” version of Ciel and Grell(??!)

 

Anyone who needs introduction of the Anime Title needs to be slapped. Lols.
I really like how despite the simplicity of the costumes (except Gaara), they still look so put together and eye catching!

Very impressive details *_* I wonder if the Lightning did the sword herself D:

There was a pretty cool private studio set up behind the event hall. The female photographer even went as far as running towards Noshuu (Cloth Road) to invite her to the studio haha =)

While I am very impressed with the photographer’s equipment and enthusiasms, I do have my share of doubts.  I wonder if they will bother to send the cosplayers the photos they took. I know I might sound cynical but…. let’s just say I’ve experienced and heard my fair share of event photographers (meaning phototgraphers I don’t personally know but met at the events casually) who promised to send you photographers, took down your email and then you never heard from him again. Oh Wells.

Any awesome cosplayers who was snapped by them got sent your photos ?

 

There was some left over Wedding banquet tables behind the event hall too and as you can see, it’s pretty much Cosplayers parking grounds xD

I must say I kinda like the idea of the tables  even though it is not deliberate and prolly hogs up space =D. Honestly, who is with me that you would dearly like a space somewhere near the event hall for you to rest your tired legs, dump your bags (though no security sorry) or do your makeup/costume touchups?

Maybe this is a small logistic arrangement SCC can look into adding next year :D??  Comment and let the organisers hear your voice!

Yue from Cardcaptor Sakura *_*!
I was so excited when I spotted him , I pranced over. Though I was confused for a moment when I saw him hanging out with some Naruto Cosplayers xD

And this picture is perfect until you spot the pair of sexy legs behind him XD The cute vanille from pics above was helping him to hold his wings up. Very cutes xD

 

Ghost Busters! Really like how their equipment looked ;D

 

Yuanie and Hoshi as I FORGOT WHAT! ARGH!

EDIT: Thanks to Lili  for pointing out, Hoshi and Yuanie are cosplaying as characters from Muramasa Demon Blade. Yuanyuan was doing Kisuke and Hoshi was Momohime

I was lucky another DSLR holding photographer snapped his shutter almost the same time as him and thus resulted in this nicely lighted up photo. Might you it was already evening there and my PnS camera was starting to fail in low light conditions.

A pity Yuanie’s awesome paper mache Skullheads were kinda hidden here.

The rest of the photographs taken were like this T_T Dark and blurry. 

Something alarming to share though, was how someone actually took off with a part of Hoshi’s costume =_=. Yes you heard me right, Hoshi’s Obi dropped without her realising and some random guy TOOK IT . And how do I know it’s a guy? Noshuu and I SAW IT WITH OUR OWN EYES!

Sadly, we weren’t communicating with Yuanie and Hoshi that day (before this photo) and had thought that random guy was their personal friend thus helping Hoshi with her Obi. *palms forehead* I’m not sure what that guy did with the Obi but this incident has brought my attention to another logistic improvement for Cosplay Event organisers; a Lost-and-Found corner.

There are forever a tonne of left behind stuffs at events, especially Cosplay events where the attendees mostly lugs spilling bagages. Having an obvious and official Lost-And-Found corner would make life easier for everyone. Both to the one who dropped the stuff and the one who found it. And why do I say that?

Well most people who ‘picked’ up someone else’s lost item is usually not a thef.  Most take it because they believe if they don’t take it, someone else will. Mayyyyyybe a Lost-and-Found corner would help un-justify that reason? :D

 

The WCS contestants only  area after the competition xD

Our WCS Signapore representatives! Apologies that this sucky photo is the only one I got of the entire costume @_@;;

Video stills from my interview with the ACM Phillippine winner! She is very beautiful and nice in real life  and her Kos-Mos costume is OMFG LEDLIGHTSWOARGH!!!!  I’m very honoured and thankful she gave me the chance to interview her. Look forward to it okays??

The very pretty Jac cosplaying as a character from Kuroshitsuji? I was quite sure I’ve seen this character design before but can’t put a name to it

EDIT: Tha characer is RanMao. Thanks to Romeo The Artist for pointing out

 

 

 

 

Garion as Ryoga from Ranma 1/2
Very very surprised cosplay xD Love old school cosplays. Saw a kenshin too but was too tired to approach for a photo and was sure my PnS Camera won’t be able to get anything nice =\

She was cosplaying as the blonde guy from hakuouki the day before and on the second day, she morphed into a bishoujo! Alas! This is the power of cosplay!!!

‘

I had photos of him in my last entry but here is more.

 

Alright, hope you guys enjoyed all my photo pimpings ^_^! Will start on TGX 2010 event photos soon  *dies from overwork*

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