Anime North Photos & Tips

Hello I’m back. Anime North was fantastic – made a ton of money in the nomi, spent saturday hanging out with friends and had a delicious breakfast every morning! Plus, fluffy fluffy pillows ❤ There were also a ton of amazing cosplays at the convention, I wish I could have pulled out my camera more!

This year (2011) at Anime North I decided to start a new tradition: instead of just taking photos I want to ask people how they did things and share it with you guys. I didn’t get to ask everyone for some tips, I didn’t ask people who were busy or who were getting photographer swarmed, but I asked when I could and I’ll share what I learned.

Are you in any of these photos? If you are and would like to share some more tips, have your name credited or even if you’d like your photo taken down, please let me know! You can contact me at admin @ cosplaytutorial.com or leave a comment here!.

Pics with Tips:

Not sure what series this was from but the arms are impressive! The flat parts were built with cardboard and the fingers were carved soft foam.

Not really visible in the picture but this Pegasus used double sided tape to attach the millenium eye. 

I asked the sora what they used for the keyblades, the answer was wood. Always a good choice for a solid prop!

I met this Zelda in the card game room, her armor was made with craft foam and cord was used for the raised designs. Then everything was painted gold. I also asked about the ribbons that wrapped around the hair; She had an elastic at the top and bottom of the ribbon to hold it in place. At the end of the hair there were some small decorative pieces, she made these with sculpey.

This Celty was adorable! Her helmet was a pre-existing helmet which was modded. I asked her if she had any tips for other cosplayers who might be working on the helmet. Her advice: Spraypaint is your best friend for this project, and pay attention to the ears!

I caught this Shinku by the water cooler, her flowers were fantastic and so I asked where she got them. She said she got them from ebay, which means they should be findable by anyone looking for detailed flowers for a project. I also asked about her dress which was made from a velvet material, she suggested being wary of fabrics that fray because she had a bit of a mess when working with the fabric.(Random protip: If fabric is fraying a lot whie you are working with it, you can add some glue to the edge and let it dry. )

This Lavi’s hammer was made from a pre-existing cylinder, the holes at the ends were filled with cardboard and the final piece was apraypainted. I don’t remember what the pole was, I believe it was wood (either a dowell or a broom end) although PVC pipe can also be used for large hammers.

This Snivy is fantastic! After grabbing this photo I asked about the head, which was made with wire and foam. Of particular interest was the tail which is holding itself up, in the full version you can see that there is actually clear thread (fishing line?) that holds the tail up. It’s a great way for the costume to look nice, and keep it from dragging along the ground. I also saw another person’s solution to tail-dragging, which was to attach the tail to a small board with wheels!

The crown was gorgeous. Apparently it was made of spare plastic, then covered in mosquito netting (which gave it a fabric look). Then decorations were added, the pearls were from a necklace. 

This was one of my favorite costumes from the weekend, this dark magician was fantastic! Similar to the methods I used on my dmg hat, this cosplayer used cardboard to build up the shape of the armor and the hat. The shoulders are made from thin rectangular strips.

And lastly, although I didn’t manage to get a picture to accompany this, I saw a lot of people who had armor made from fabric. Many of these costumes were commissioned but it was still a really good idea. If you are looking for lightweight and comfy armor, or are just not able to work with any armor making stuff (particularily if you don’t have the room, such as in a dorm or apartment) then this is a neat route to take. The results are pretty nice, although it doesn’t have the same look as armor generally has.

Anyway, onto the rest of the pictures!

My Con Faves:

Other Pics:

             

Me & Kev: