Cosplay Podcast-20131208

Cosplay Sharing-20131201

If you are crazy about video game, you must know Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy is a media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi, and is developed and owned by Square Enix. 

The Final Fantasy series are role-playing video games, which we called RPGs. This series includes motion pictures, anime, printed media, and other merchandise. The first game of this series was published in 1987. Now there are 31 games in this series, from Final Fantasy 1 to 15, and 16 unofficial episodes.
One of my favorite is Final Fantasy 13 (FF13). This game is for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It released in Japan in December 2009 and worldwide in March 2010.

The game takes place in the fictional floating world of Cocoon, whose government, the Sanctum, is ordering a purge of civilians who have supposedly come into contact with Pulse, the much-feared world below. The former soldier Lightning begins her fight against the government in order to save her sister who has been branded as an unwilling servant to a god-like being from Pulse, making her an enemy of Cocoon. Lightning is soon joined by a band of allies, and together the group also becomes marked by the same Pulse creature. They rally against the Sanctum while trying to discover their assigned task and whether they can avoid being turned into monsters or crystals at the completion.


Lightning is my favorite character in this game. Lightning is a young woman with long, light pink hair, and pale aqua-colored eyes. Lightning is determined, concentrated and independent. Initially, she is cold and standoffish, distancing herself from her companions. She does everything to rescue her little sister Serah. 

Here’s a cosplay work of Lightning. I have to say it’s amazing. Myself also did cosplay of Lightning. Which one do you think is better :)?

Cosplay Industry-20131201

The first Cosplayer is Nobuyuki Takahashi. He attended the world science fiction convention in Los Angeles in 1983. At that time people just thought cosplay is a bunch of geeks dress in wired costumes. 

Why does Cosplay become a pop culture in recent years? It’s not only because people notice cosplay more, and find that this is a great way to be entertained and relaxed, but also because cosplay make a lot of money. 
For example, this year, San Diego’s comic cons and cosplay events are worth 180 million dollars. Among that, 67.8 million dollars are directly spending by the attendees.


Firstly, the Cosplayers would like to buy the comic books, DVDs or video games, So that they can study their characters before cosplay. Sometimes, Cosplayers buy all the versions of one work just because they want to figure out the exactly look of the outfit. If the character has more than one look, the Cosplayers might spend much more money to see all the costumes.

Second, some Cosplayers buy costumes because they don’t know how to make clothes. For other Cosplayers, they might buy some materials to make their clothes or armors.

Third, the characters from fictional world always have colorful hair and eyes. That requires the Cosplayers to buy wigs and contacts. A friend of mine has an online store selling wigs and contacts. Her monthly income is around 3,000 dollars. She also sells some costumes.

Cosplay products have become an industry already. That’s the main reason why everyone wants to take a bite of cosplay. 

Cosplay Facts-20131122

I have shown you cosplay makeups, photography skills, and photos, but I didn’t tell you the history of cosplay. Today I will tell you some history and facts of cosplay. 

Cosplay culture has originated in japan, since it is one of the most developed places for manga and anime. The estimated yearly economic impact is 230 trillion YEN. Thousands of manga and animations are published each year. Cosplayers do cosplay for those manga and animations. In japan, tons of people put away their shyness only when they dress up. Then the cosplay phenomenon spread to China, America and Europe.


Let us explore further, cosplay in its basic form was here even before Christ. The Greeks performed cosplay when they were doing sacrifices. They dressed up as their gods and pretended that they had godlike powers.

Cosplay culture became a solid part of pop culture throughout the recent couple of years. We can find Cosplayers in the comic conventions and in all kinds of cosplay events. Nowadays there are more than 46 big conventions and about 100 small ones happening all around the world every year. And the number is growing by each year.

In United States, the greatest convention is San Diego’s comic-con. In its premiere in august 1970, there were only 145 attendees. Today, the number of attendees is 136,000. The attendance of New York comic convention was around 33,000 people in 2006. But in 2013, the number of attendees has jumped to 133,000.






Currently are 14 big comic conventions in United States 
every year. 

On the other hand, cosplay became a pop culture not only because people notice cosplay more, but also it is a great way to be entertained and relaxed. When people dress in costumes, they pretend that they are characters from fictional worlds. This is how people can get rid of pressure and stress for a while.

Do you have a favorite fictional character? Do you still have a wonderland dream? Maybe it is time for you to do some cosplay now. So whom are you dressing up as?

Cosplay Class-20131103

Last time I showed you some lighting examples in dark situations. Today I will show you more lighting skills in bright locations. Never think that you have enough light. You will always lose light. But sometimes only reflectors will provide you enough lights during day time. Also, you can provide extra lighting, mount your camera on a tripod and use a longer exposure, or paint with light (leave the shutter of a tripod-mounted camera open in a time exposure while you illuminate the subject with repeated electronic flash bursts, a flashlight, or some other light source).

Now it’s time to see our examples. One of them is taken at night but there are a lot of street lights. Others are taken in day time.  

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In this photo, the photographer set a flash light that oppose to the model. As I said before, if the light is straightly to the model’s face, there will be no shadow on her face. In case to make the light softer, the photographer put a silver umbrella reflector in front of the light. Light falloff can be used to vary the relationship between the light on your subject and your background. If you place a light close to your subject, the falloff from the subject to the background will be more pronounced. Move the light farther from your subject, and the background will be relatively brighter. Since the lights on the street and cable car are bright enough to hold the background, we set the light a little bit closer to our model. The same holds true for side lighting: With a light close to the side of your subject, the falloff of light across the frame will be more pronounced than if the light is farther away.

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This photo was taken at dusk. But we already lose lots of natural light. The photographer set a light with diffuser in the left front of the model. Diffusion scatters light, essentially making the light source broader and therefore softer. When clouds drift in front of the sun, shadows get less distinct. Add fog, and the shadows disappear. In the nature, clouds, overcast skies, and fog act as diffusion—something that scatters the light in many directions. In case to show the background, the photographer also set a 135mm flash light behind the model.

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This photo was taken between two buildings. The environment is bright, but when you shoot her you will find that she looks flat. So we have to set a light with silver reflector umbrella in the right front of our model. Front lighting de-emphasizes texture; lighting from the side, above, or below emphasizes it. A portraitist may want to keep the light source close to the axis of the lens to suppress skin wrinkles, while a landscapist may want side lighting to emphasize the texture of rocks, sand, and foliage. Generally, the greater the angle at which the light is positioned to the subject, the more texture is revealed.

So, today I’ve shown you three more ways to set your lights when taking photos during daytime. Please have a try by yourselves. I hope you will have pretty photos(●′ω`●).

Cosplay Sharing-20131101

Today I have the honor to interview a famous Cosplay photographer Bunny Tuan.

http://bunnytuan.deviantart.com/ this is her deviant art site. She posts her works here.

Cosplayer: Moji    Photographer: Bunny Tuan

Q: What drives you to do Cosplay photography?

A: I’m a cosplayer. At the early time when my friends and I did cosplay, we don’t have professional photographer. That’s why I decided to learn photography. My mother has a photography studio, so I ask her to teach me. At first, I just shoot my friends. They posted the photos online and people saw them. They asked who the photographer is, and my friends introduce me to others. Since that, more and more people ask me to shoot them.

Q: How long have you been doing this?

A: I started from my first year in college. That was 7 years ago.

Q: So you’ve been keeping doing this for all those years?

A: Yes. I cannot count how many cosplayers I’ve been worked with.

Q: Could you tell me something happened that really touched you?

A: Let me think. I remember that 2 months ago, a cosplayer from Oakland contacted me and ask me to take pictures for him. He said that was his first time doing cosplay. He felt so nervous. I told him to relax and be himself. Before shooting, he read the comic book again and again. He also practiced posing for days. I think for most people, cosplay is just a hobby and not so serious. But this guy worked very hard.

Q: How was cosplay photography changed you?

A: I was a shy person, really. After I become a cosplay photographer, I went to conventions or comic fairs to meet new people. I forced myself to communicate with others. Doing this makes me more open.

Q: What’s the largest benefit of doing this?

A: I’m not making money by doing this. First I think doing cosplay photography let me make a lot of new friends. Second it is my hobby, doing this gives me a rest from daily hard works. 

Cosplay Class-20131018

Let me start this with a question, “What do you see first when you’re looking at someone?” I guess the answer is EYES for most people, not include some male(=￣ω￣=). That’s why in Cosplay makeups, eye makeups are the most important. 

The characters from comics and animations have a common feature – big eyes. Their eyes are much bigger than us in the real world. Let’s do a quick tutorial first.

Starting with a clean eye and wear your contacts. Normally I don’t suggest contacts bigger than Φ14mm because they might hurt your eyes. And then use concealer to lightly cover the brows. The fictional characters always have thin and beautiful brows. 

Remember using powder to set the tone after concealer layer. Now choose a color brow pencil – the color will depend on your character – to draw the brows. Please do not follow where your natural brow goes. Now it’s time to “reproduce” your eyes. Using eye shadow primer before everything starts. In case your face don’t look like a flat board, use some colors that we called them “the ground tone” – because they are brown colors that are two or three tone darker than your face, and look like the ground. 

You need to shade the nose bridge and darken the crease with ground tone color. This will create a deep sunken eyelid, which looks like the western people. That will make your face deeper. Please keep the eyeshadow in the shape of flat straight. 

Tapping on any bright color on the lids will emphasize your eyes. Now it’s time to line your eyes. You should slightly create a wing liner. Also line the bottom waterline half-way. If you want to make your eyes look bigger, you might use a white or skin tone pencil. If you want your eyes look strong and powerful, try a black liner pencil. The second last step is put on false lashes. Sometimes the false lashes will stretch your eyes and make you look great. 

Finally, depends on your character, use different colors of eye shadow to lightly dust along your bottom eyelid. 

That’s all for what I always do eye makeup for cosplay. I know you will always have a better idea. If you have seen other great tutorial, please feel free to write them done or paste the links below. I will be really appreciate.

Cosplay Class-20131011

Today I will show you some lighting skills. A good light setting can upgrade your photos, specifically when you are doing Cosplay photography. You can provide extra lighting, mount your camera on a tripod and use a longer exposure, or paint with light (leave the shutter of a tripod-mounted camera open in a time exposure while you illuminate the subject with repeated electronic flash bursts, a flashlight, or some other light source). 

Let’s see some examples. Most of the example photos were taken at night. There’s no natural light anymore, you have to use extra lights to build the scene. 

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In this photo, the photographer set a flash light that oppose to the model. If the light is straightly to the model’s face, there will be no shadow on his face. In case to make the light softer, the photographer put a silver umbrella reflector in front of the light. Also there are some traffic lights and street lights to brighten the background. 

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This photo was taken at dusk. The higher background (the sky) is still bright but the lower background (the city) is dark. The photographer set a light with diffuser in the left front of the model. The broader the light source, the softer the light. The narrower the source, the harder the light. A broad light source lessens shadows, reduces contrast, and suppresses texture. A narrow light source does the opposite. This is because, with a broad source, light rays hit your subject from more directions, which tends to fill in shadows and give more even illumination to the scene. 

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This beautiful bride’s photo only used a small light. But she still looked soft and bright. Like the first example, the photographer uses a oppose flash light and a silver reflective umbrella. That’s because the closer the light source, the softer the light; the farther the source, the harder the light. This stands to reason: Move a light closer, and you make it bigger—that is, broader—in relation to your model. Move it farther away, and you make it relatively smaller and therefore narrower.

So, today I’ve shown you three ways to set your lights when taking photos in a dark place. Next time, I’ll give you some examples in a brighter scene! See you(●′ω`●)!

Cosplay Event-20130929

Today we have this amazing event in Japan town. It’s J-pop (Japanese popular culture) and Anime Fair 2013! There are many cosplayers. Later in the afternoon, there will be a competition. The organizer invites three professional judges. They will choose the best cosplayer today!

Let’s go to wonderland!

Cosplay Class-20130926

Today I’m going to teach you how to take care of your wig. Wig is made of synthetic materials. It’s thinner than human hair. It‘s always a mess.


It’s necessary to learn how to take care of wigs. Let’s see this picture first. This is a 1M long wig for Hatsune Miku.

Step 1:

Set it still. Use your hand to comb the wig from the bottom to the top. Take your time, because it’s hard to make it smooth once.

Step 2:

Use a brush to comb the wig. Also start from the bottom to the top.

Step 3:

Use your hair straightener. Do not choose a temperature over 200°F. Now start from the very top to the end.

Step 4: 

You have a straight wig now. But it’s not smooth enough. Let’s get some warm water(95°F). Squeeze hair conditioner in the water. Put your wig in the water for 30mins. Take it out and repeat Step 2 again.

Step 5:

Open-air dry it.

Cosplay Sharing-20130920

What kind of cosplay is a good one for you? Which one is your favorite? It’s hard to tell, right?
There are so many famous comics and animations and movies in this world. Everyone has his likes. Today I’d like to separate those works into 4 types, which are make-up, costume, photography and tools/weapons making. In each photo, you can see the coser has done their work really well. 

Makeup.

Character: Lilith is from a comic called Trinity Blood. 

To be honest, this coser has a very original makeup. One thing that cosplay requires the most is being original. She use oil colors to draw the tattoos on her skin. In cosplay, we do not only use cosmetics to do the makeups, but use everything helps us to have an original look. 

Costume.

Character: LiuBei is from the game Dynasty Warriors.

In order to have the original look, cosers make their costumes by themselves or ask tailors for help. Cosers draw a rough image of the exploded view of the costume. Then the tailor will make clothes as the rough shows. There are always some graphics on the cloth and you will never find end product in the market. Cosers use paints that are especially for cloth to draw the graphics on cloth. 
In this photo, the tailor gives coser a green dress and the coser draws the image of the dragons by herself. 

Photography.

Character: Lightning is from a video game called Final Fantasy Xlll.

The photographer and coser choose a dark stairwell. The character in this photo is a girl who has both dark side and bright side. She does bad things to save her sister. So the photographer uses an infrared flash light behind the coser. 

Tools/Weapons Making.

Cosers have magic hands. They use all the materials they can image, like paper, PVC pipes, EVA, and metals and etc. 

After watch those pictures, do you have a new understanding of Cosplay(*。∀。)? Which part is the most you interested at(●′ω`●)?

Welcome To Alfa Cosplay!

Cosplay, short for "costume play", is an activity in which participants wear costumes and accessories to represent a specificcharacter or idea from a work of fiction. 

Cosplayers/Cosers often interact to create a subculture centered on role play. 

Character: Ruka is a Japanese singing synthesizer application with a humanoid persona.

A broader use of the term cosplayapplies to any costumed role play in venues apart from the stage, regardless of the cultural context.

Favorite sources include manga, anime, comic books, video games, and films. 

Character: XiangLing is from a popular Chinese PC game.

Any entity from the real or virtual world that lends itself to dramatic interpretation may be taken up as a subject.

In this blog, we are going to share experience of cosplay and show you some tutorials about making costumes, doing cosplay makeup, cos photogragh and post production.

Enjoy(●′ω`●)~