Cosplay Is Not Only Dress-up

How many people think that cosplay is just wearing clothes for a character？ How many people think that cosplay is an activity which inseparable with the "show"？How many people think that cosplay is just a waste of time does not make any sense?

For these questions, cosplayers cannot just laugh. With the recent popular of cosplay activities , Comic-Con various cities and in various countries all over the world， misunderstanding of the popularity of cosplay for more and more , I think it is time to respond to those questioned.

Cosplay is not only just dress-up can be completed， at the beginning of a cosplay event, like shoot cosplay photos, participate in cosplay competitions , and so on. Before we start to those event, we need to prepare for long-term work , including an analysis of the role of personality , as well as decomposition Costumes props composition, selection of suitable fabrics and materials, researching the role of makeup and hairstyle(sometimes we wear the wigs, sometimes we use our ture hair), choose a suitable place to take photos and a suitable time ,and to prepare in advance to create an atmosphere of shooting tools ( for example, for night shooting we may need an external flash , flash color film , tripod and smoke cakes and some other things), coordinating groups of cosplayers’ time about when to take photos. If we need to prepare the cosplay competition, the props and clothing of cosplayer would be more sophisticated, in order to cope with emergency situations on stage, we have to consider what can be done large props lightweight and easy to damage, what kind of materials and pigments can show a better result with different stage lighting, make-up in the stage also are different form the make-up which we use to take photos, because the stage lighting is very strong, we have heavy make-up in order to show better results. Complete the visual effects interpretations, cosplayers will begin to consider auditory effects , we often say cosplay stage performances is a visual feast , so in order to complete the so-called audio-visual feast proper mission, we need to performances with the right music in the stage, if it necessary we will cut some of those music clips , making the stage effects become better and better.

For me, the basis of cosplay is for an anime or game works of love, this love drives us to produce the character whom we love deeply in the real life. When we love a character, we just want to cosplay him or her, that is the reason why we cosplay. Some people will ask us, what is the point which take you carry out this activity in the end? Can you become a famous people or can you make money? I want to say that there is no need to us to live so utilitarian, I think there would have been sufficient reason to love this , and we can count the number examples of active and successful cosplayers – the first person I want to talk about is Yaya Han, she is a famous cosplayer in the United States and one of the world 's most famous cosplayers , her make-up, clothing, and props almost createed by their(Yaya and her boyfriend) own hands. Through the TV show named cosplay heroes (I will have a post of this TV show in the future), we come to understand more clearly the cosplayer----Yaya’s excellent skills in her props and on the role of interpretation , we can deeply feel her love of the character and her understanding of the character . And Yaya now also has her own brand of her cosplay. Now, Yaya Han, as a veteran cosplayer, make the success of the development of her hobby became her job, I think it's very consistent with American values ​​- doing what they want.

Yaya's cosplay photo
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The second cosplayer is Xizhen, a female cosplayer from Taiwan China, she has entered the fourth decade of this year, as a teacher (She is working in Beijing now) , she used to work spare time , cosplay photo shoot will combine tourism and complete the many excellent cosplay works , and she also served as cosplay competition judges across China’s Comic-Con, each appearance , fans will be excited and shocked by the detailed of props and powerful gas field of Xizhen.

Xizhen's cosplay photo
Image from: http://photo.weibo.com/1910842591/talbum/detail/photo_id/3617936901857298?from=page_100505_home&wvr=5.1&mod=albumsingle#3617517261589727

After completing cosplay photos shoot , we will use Photoshop to make our photos better, such as changing the picture tone , remove the photo through the material ( through physical means should not appear in the photo among the buildings , people, and some do not meet the character traits things ) , changing the cosplayer facial details ( such as pupil color ) , fine adjustment . At the end of these processes, the photos which contain cosplayers’ love and brave are complete.

Thus, cosplay role than just wearing clothes, cosplayer cosplay a character not just wearing clothes and posing to let photographers taking many strange pictures. Cosplay starting point is love, our interpretation of a role in the real world in order to restore the role of our love life , our passion will always continue, we will deal with practical action to challenge outside of cosplay .