Good Cosplay Thread - pt3 - The Pros of Cons

@Morrigan - Nice! Although the closed-eyes pose makes her somehow... nicer than she's supposed to be. *grins*

@Mass Effect FemShep: I've seen a couple folks make up the N7 armor with that weave texture over the plating... any idea what it's made from? Or is it a standard textured fabric?
 

figmentPez

Staff member

figmentPez

Staff member
A little bit back I got some rep asking me how I find all these photos. It's no secret, I spend hours searching on Flickr for con names like: Animagic, Comic Con, Oni-Con, Dragon*Con, Wizard World, Wonder Con, etc. I also search for "cosplay". However, there are some difficulties doing this. The biggest is that Flickr search is broken, most notably in that it can't return more than 67 pages of results. That's 4,020 photos. Any more pages can't be shown. I usually search for a week-long chunk at a time, splitting down to individual days when the results get too long. For instance, a search for comic con, photos only, uploaded on Jul 25, 2010, returns 10,583 results. Even a search for comiccon (no space) results in 7,132.

So, I have to get creative for heavily uploaded cons (Dragoncon! Aaaaa! September is coming!). My usual strategy for searching with the term cosplay is to filter out all the other terms I've already searched for (so, cosplay -animagic -animefest -ayacon -etc) That works most days for such a generic term, but that doesn't help much with a specific con name. So I try combinations. I search for comiccon costume (1,190 results), then for comiccon -costume (5,936) and keep on adding/subtracting terms until I can finally get the number well under 4,000.

Photos I find interesting are bookmarked into a Cosplay folder, and when I'm done searching for the week I sort in categories (Unidentifed, DC Comics, Marvel, Comics & Animation, Video Games, Steampunk, Movies & TV, Books, LOL Wut?, Star Wars and sometimes special categories like Little Kids.) To make sorting go faster each bookmark gets a two letter tag for the category (UN, DC, ML, CA, VG, etc.), and sometimes an end tag for the sub-category. So cosplay of Tinkerbell ends up labeled "CA Tinkerbell - disney". After the general categories are sorted, I start grouping in sub-folders so it's easier to spot multiple pics of the same cosplayer.

After all the sorting I start pre-formatting posts. I start with a .txt file with:
PHP:
[img][/img]
[url=""][/url]
copied over and over. I select the best photo(s) I've found of each cosplay and then copy and paste into the form. It's faster that way, and allows me to work ahead (instead of working in fits and starts waiting for the 15 minutes I have to wait until my next post won't get joined with the last).

It's all very time consuming, but I enjoy it.
 
C

coolsteel



Well questionable Vampirella aside Bellechere does Lady Death like a champ
 
Z

Zarvox

I know the next fifteen posts are going to be calling me a filthy puritanical American prude, but this is just too much. Yes, I like t&a. And, yes, attractive female cosplayers make the world a better place. But c'mon. Kids go to these cons for crying out loud. That's not cosplay, that's a cry for more attention.
 
C

coolsteel

I know the next fifteen posts are going to be calling me a filthy puritanical American prude, but this is just too much. Yes, I like t&a. And, yes, attractive female cosplayers make the world a better place. But c'mon. Kids go to these cons for crying out loud. That's not cosplay, that's a cry for more attention.

While I always enjoy the "Think of the Children!!!!" argument thing is i've never seen a kid at a con freak out over a skimpy outfit. Usually goes one of two ways, they stop and someone takes their picture together or they just keep on walking off in their own little world.
 
I think parents should use their discretion when taking a child to a con. Especially since, the cosplayers are portraying a character that can easily be found in the comics at the con. As you can see, the Lady Death comic is there in plain sight. So, I think if a parent doesn't want to expose their child to that, they should go to the con first and decide for themselves. But that's just my opinion. =^^=.
 

Cajungal

Staff member
I see what you mean, but there are going to be comic books and possibly public viewings of shows with women who look like that as well. Parents have to accept that and decide whether or not their kid can handle it. Most conventions seem to be a 17,18-35 affair.

O, I just read Littlekag's post... coulda just said I concur, but yeah. If a parent doesn't want a kid to be exposed to that, that's their right. Find a babysitter or some blinders. :p ...OR a very tame and kid-friendly con.
 

Cajungal

Staff member
I remember being out with my mom and seeing someone in clothing that I'd call... I guess, not quite appropriate or at least not conventional. She'd just shrug and say that "some people just like to look different" and it would be up to me when I grew up to decide how I wanted to look in public. She wasn't necessarily negative towards the person. If she'd even taken me into an unusual environment like a convention, she'd have probably talked to me beforehand if she expected any shocking costumes. She'd have said it was all just for fun. I don't know about other parents, but I liked that my folks were very matter-of-fact like that. Whenever I saw something shocking, they didn't act disgusted or surprised; they just told me that's how things are.
 

Cajungal

Staff member
Thank you, I agree. :) I love em so much. My mom has pretty much been a reminder for me that there are Christians who still abide by "judge and be judged."
 

figmentPez

Staff member
There are worse things at Comic Con (and far worse at Dragon*Con) than I usually post in this thread. "Costumes" that are lingerie in the themes of various characters, girls wrapped in just enough yellow caution tape to cover and others using large stickers as pasties.

I'll admit that I'm sometimes conflicted about posting some of the skimpier costumes, but when I'm really impressed by the costuming and accurate or noteworthy representations of a character, that can outweigh other concerns.
 
I think parents should use their discretion when taking a child to a con. Especially since, the cosplayers are portraying a character that can easily be found in the comics at the con. As you can see, the Lady Death comic is there in plain sight. So, I think if a parent doesn't want to expose their child to that, they should go to the con first and decide for themselves. But that's just my opinion. =^^=.
That would also mean they would need to scope out a comic book store first before brining their kid in, and the super market, and the beach, and the swimming pool, and pending on where you live, right outside their very street.[/QUOTE]

You're so right! Thanks for pointing that out =^^=
 
I think parents should use their discretion when taking a child to a con. Especially since, the cosplayers are portraying a character that can easily be found in the comics at the con. As you can see, the Lady Death comic is there in plain sight. So, I think if a parent doesn't want to expose their child to that, they should go to the con first and decide for themselves. But that's just my opinion. =^^=.
That would also mean they would need to scope out a comic book store first before brining their kid in, and the super market, and the beach, and the swimming pool, and pending on where you live, right outside their very street.[/QUOTE]

You're so right! Thanks for pointing that out =^^=[/QUOTE]

[/QUOTE]

Haha, thats awesome! I was being sarcastic. And I still think that a parent should check out a con first before takin' their kids. A con is totally different then a supermarket. And still different then being at the beach. But like I said, it's just my opinion. You can have yours too.
 

figmentPez

Staff member
It's gonna take me a while to sift and sort through all the San Diego Comic Con pictures. So, to tide you over I'll just point you to I09.com The best cosplay of Comic-Con 2010. It's a sizeable gallery of 60+ pics. Here are some of the best that I'm not sure I already have better pics of:


Blade



Free Hugs



Loki and Thor



Aperture Science Test Subject - Portal



Lobo's Jacket



Baroness - G.I. Joe


To be continued...
 
There are worse things at Comic Con (and far worse at Dragon*Con) than I usually post in this thread. "Costumes" that are lingerie in the themes of various characters, girls wrapped in just enough yellow caution tape to cover and others using large stickers as pasties.

I'll admit that I'm sometimes conflicted about posting some of the skimpier costumes, but when I'm really impressed by the costuming and accurate or noteworthy representations of a character, that can outweigh other concerns.

so what I think you're saying is that there should be a NSFW cosplay thread?

I agree.
 
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