What is cosplay?
Cosplay is the abbreviation of Costume Play in English and コスプレ in Japanese. It refers to the use of costumes, accessories, props, and makeup to play the roles of characters from anime works, games, and ancient times. People who play cosplay are generally called cosplayers.
Cosplay is narrowly interpreted as imitating and dressing up characters in the virtual world, and is also known as role-playing. It has taken on a new meaning on the Internet, where it is often used to describe "a person who pretends to be a certain type of person".
Origin of cosplay:
When it comes to the origin of cosplay, it is generally agreed that the birthplace of cosplay is Japan, which is true if it is based on the idea of cosplay in the current era.
But if you look at it from a broader perspective, the true birthplace of animated cosplay is definitely the United States in the Western Hemisphere, and even if you really want to explore the original form of cosplay, I can tell you without hesitation that the earliest emergence of cosplay was in the centuries before the first year of the AD!
Because whether it was the Greek priests who dressed up around 1000 B.C., or the great bards of the 8th century B.C. who wrote the two great Greek epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, he or she was actually playing someone else's role.
The former cited as prophets and seers of later times, successfully cosplaying the existence of the apostles of the gods, while the latter, like the originators of today's stage dramas, cosplayed the exploits of those singable heroes with great aplomb.
In fact, the meaning of cosplay includes and dresses up not only means a kind of visualization on the outside, but more importantly to cosplay the human heart. Well, let's get back to the topic. Let's move on to talk about the true birthplace of cosplay, the United States.
Expanded Information:
Process of Cos Characters:
Many newcomers to Cosplay have an empty love for Cosplay, but they can't get started with Cos. In fact, if you want to Cos a character you love, it's nothing more than the following 6 steps, which will allow you to truly embark on the road of Cosplayer!
Doing basic homework
To get a role in addition to simply like the role is far from enough, first of all, we must do a full range of understanding of the role of the Cos, such as the character's personality traits, inner thoughts and activities, often physical action, expression and demeanor of the changes, and even with the surrounding characters of the character relationship and so on, to be a very good understanding of the role of the Cos is a very important step, but also the role of the Cos is not the only thing that you can do to help you. This is a very important step, and it is also the foundation of a good character.
The importance of design drawings
In the process of preparing costumes and props, it is necessary to set out a complete set of procedures to help production, and this is where design drawings play an important role.
You can copy the important elements related to the character from the original manga, animation images, and character original drawings, or you can collect and download the images and print them out, and if you are interested and capable, you can also draw your own setup diagrams, which should show the characteristics and details of the character's clothing in a complete way, and after that, you can refer to the design diagrams to prepare, produce, and perfect the costumes.
Clothing production
Referring to the design, you can go to the mall or clothing store to purchase clothing materials, accessories, and ornaments, etc. Different clothes need different materials, according to the material of the clothing to choose close to the character's clothing fabric, capable of their own sewing, the hand is not strong enough to ask the master tailor, or to let the seamstress to make their own desired clothes.
Making clothes is one of the most important aspects of cosplay, and you'll get a greater sense of accomplishment if you sew your own clothes.
Making props
For characters who need props to play their roles, the props on display need to be made and perfected on the basis of the design drawings, and more readily available props like guns can be found in toy stores.
If there is no ideal props in line with the original work that you have to make their own hands, you can go to the network to search for information about the production of props and models, according to the intelligence to prepare the materials, general props with various types of paper, plastic plastic, wood, latex, acrylic paints, paints and so on.
Wigs, Styling Tools and Cosmetics
Wigs, hairpieces, styling tools, and cosmetics are essential for hair styling and character modeling.
The choice of wigs can be found in stores or online stores, now there are many stores specializing in the sale of cosplay wigs, in which you can find suitable wigs, when you can not find the same hairstyle as the character, you can go to the custom-made, or according to the drawings of the styling tools with their own DIY, with the character's make-up made up with a good make-up with the wig will be a great success.
Go cosplay
Finally, get ready, put on your makeup, put on your wig, put on your costume, pick up your props, dress up, and try to mimic your character's expressions and movements in front of the mirror, and add your own lines, so that when the main character of your dreams appears in front of you, you're the main character, which is going to be a great feeling!
At this point, you can go to cosplay events and share your stories and anecdotes with everyone, and make lots of friends!
Reference:
Baidu Encyclopedia - Cosplay