epiic (SpookyElectric)

Mikomicon Cosplay & Concert Pictures are up. Only one month delayed.
Slideshow mode was broken for some browsers. That should be fixed now.

Too busy to write up much - go check out the gallery, there's some cool stuff in there.
Con Summary: Con was good, but hot. Wish I woke up earlier and could stay later to beat the heat. Still, got a lot of good photo time in, just had to deal with 90-some degree heat.
Also, CVS Fails: They cross processed a roll of E-6 35mm film as C-41, which for some Holga shots, worked nicely. But for my SLR ones that I wanted correct colors, I had to fiddle with curves to revert the effect - one such image.



Fanime... shortly after Yaoicon probably. Gotta work on cosplay.

Anime Expo 2009 Cosplay Photos

( Misc. Highlights )

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Next will probably be Mikomicon then Fanime.

I read about an outdoor movie night this Friday in Little Tokyo from super_no_1. I'm not so into Leiji Matsumoto, but may go an an excuse to grab dinner around there. Anyone want to grab something to eat together before hand?

Hey...remember that con a few weeks ago in San Jose? I have more pictures!

( more Neo Angelique... )
Next set to get through will be wintressrain as Lilith from Anima Mundi

This past Saturday was a pretty lousy day, where something that was supposed to be less than 2hrs, ended up taking essentially the entire day due to everything imaginable not working right and then some. Sunday however was an excellent day. tsuzusushi came by for a late breakfast. We hung out a bit after. She was looking for pictures, so I took some. (the one I thought cutest, and a few others to the left / on flickr) Then yoshikochan came over, we had lunch, worked on cosplay (mostly electric waves girl from Furuba for her, Nyx for me), had dinner. Made decent headway I think for the time I spent on it. Though I probably should have spent more time.

This is partially a note to myself, but several of you may find it useful as well.

Exploring the FD today, I found a really expansive zipper store. They sell other fasteners and trimmings too, but they are primarily zipper oriented. Personally, this is exciting, because I was missing a place to rival NYC's Active Trimming Co (website, seems to be timing out... my catalog from them says 250 W39th, but google search says 247 W38th... so I guess one of those if they're still in business).

The LA place is Zip-Up Zipper: 829 Wall St., LA CA 90014 / http://zipupzipper.com

So, you you're looking for zippers with say a more unique pull to match Range Murata's designs or something, that seems to be the place to go in LA.

Unrelated, Pika Pika Light Painting Experiments. (discovered by a recent post from digikoomi)

tweetychick630 completed a successful chimera.

Shana (Jessica) is now part moose.

SoCal Cosplay Spring Pictures

Picnic was fun. Arrived with wintressrain and dramaelf. Spent most of the time with them, tsuzusushi, krispy_kream, chiharu_octavia, legally_scarlet, hyper_sam, daoutlaw, and Jared/Erudito. And not nearly enough time with everyone else. And I think some people I managed to completely miss. (Sorry)

I wore my Last Exile mechanic uniform. Mostly since I felt everything else I had worn too much. And with that one I could get a tiny bit more sleep by skipping shaving. I'm amazed how many people recognized it. I think more than when I wore it to cons (~2003-2004).

Being a little burnt out from work, I wasn't feeling too inspired photography wise. So very few pictures. (Despite having three cameras) The cat is dramaelf's.

Trip back was a bit of an unwanted adventure. Plan to take the train kinda failed due to getting the train in the wrong direction. Thankfully wintressrain saved me by giving me a ride back. (Since there were no more trains North from where I got stuck.)

Next up - UCLA cosplay picnic tomorrow, and then something in San Jose all too soon.

ALA

I have no set scheduled plans. Cosplay will include Suigintou, Cross, and hopefully Shigure. DGM meet is Friday, but I like to wear that outfit for a full day due to the time needed for the goatee. Since I may not get there until late Friday afternoon, I may do Cross on Saturday instead. I'll probably drop by the Air Gear, Steampunk, and Code Geass gatherings on Saturday.
For photoshoots as photographer, I will be looking for tenshiyaki as Edel, inuashley813 as Lulu(ashford+Suzaku) (Any chance you might bring some chess pieces), Kanda(v3+Lavi), Sebastian(+Ciel) (tea cups maybe?), itsukayume+konishii as Maka+Soul(?) (Fri/Sat), Shiro+Genta(?) (Fri/Sat) (I have some ideas in my head for this one. Acrobatics may be involved... XD), and Sakura+Syaoran(?) (Sun) (guessing on konishii's outfits). Hopefully _shiya_wind's Sakura too if she isn't paparazzi'd too much, and some of UCLA's Shugo Chara (what day will you be doing this?) and Soul Eater cosplayers. I think all of you have my #.
For photoshoots as cosplayer, hopefully I can find someone to photograph the Furuba group with tsuzusushi, krispy_kream, and me on Sunday. (if not, we'll pass around my camera)

End of the Year

I was considering a lengthy year-in-review thing. But I'm not going to. Basic summary: 2008 was much better than 2007. Mostly because LA >> Tucson, and animalboything. I feel I didn't get anywhere near enough done though, despite a lot happening (~700 svn "commits" for work stuff, 8 cons, 8 other cosplay events, 5 photographers meets, 5 trips involving air travel, met a lot of people, reconnected with some past friends.).

For 2009: get my company's service done enough to be launched publicly. (Unfortunately there is no such thing as completely done.) Complete more than two costumes over the course of the year (Pretty much every year since I've started cosplaying, I've made two per year. And every year have hoped to get more than that done. Hopefully I finish one tonight, another before Katsu, and a 3rd before summer cons, ideally Fanime, but more realistically, AX).

Sorta tagged by themarchingoboe. So the me me rules are "for 8 days you have to post something that made you happy that day. Tag 8 people to do the same." But I'm just doing one post (encompassing 8 days), and tagging one person: animalboything, and re-tagging yoshikochan because she didn't finish hers. Oh, and maybe tsuzusushi should do this too...
( 8 days )
I'm planning on heading to fashion district for last minute ALA supplies tomorrow (tuesday), and plan on having dinner downtown somewhere (probably Little Tokyo). Anyone else going to be in the area & interested in meeting?

• What sort of paint do you guys recommend for using on fabric / where do I get it? (JoAnn's? Fashion District? Internet?) Something that will flex well with the material, and that I can get fairly crisp edges with. And that isn't puffy.
• What about hat materials? I've used cardboard and multi-layers of interfacing, but I guess buckram is the correct material. yoshikochan was mentioning this place. (I assume she already placed her order?) Are there any local or good online alternatives? The hat to be made is the conductor's hat from Baccano, so it's sort of a pill-box type hat, but with a brim.
• I went with vi.sualize.us for my image bookmarks
• I like to ski. Maybe some of the people I've gotten to know more recently in SoCal do? Or want to try it out? (I suck at snowboarding, so if going with beginners, I could do that so we're on a more even plane.) My destination of choice is Mt. Tremblant, but I don't think that's practical for me at the moment. I guess Big Bear is the more local destination of choice?

Photo from heli-skiing at Whistler. (I'm not proposing a heli-skiing trip - just regular with chairlifts and such.)

muzek's pics of my Katsushiro from last weekend are up on flickr. Cool stuff (thanks, Muze) This one is my favorite:


I'm feeling kinda tempted to maybe bring Alex Row (Last Exile) to that Knapp's Castle thing. But I feel like I'd have to redo a lot, especially since it's falling apart.

Also, since Yoshiko somehow hasn't seen Firefly yet, we were talking about getting together for that / general geek-out day. Looks like current plan is Dec 13, though that's not completely set. Anyone interested in joining? Location will be my place in West LA.

PMX Cosplay Pictures (includes some pretty cool stuff)

One week after the last con I attended, I went to another one, though just for one day. ( more on that... ) Basically it was a slow day but enjoyable.

Many pictures posts from people recently. Here's mine.

Full Mikomicon Cosplay Gallery Here

( Con Report / Select Pictures )

Most productive work day in awhile. But missed LA Strobist Happy Hour meet as a result :( (was just socializing, not a meet for actual shooting, so I don't know that I missed that much)

Event Plans

• Tomorrow (later today) I'll be going to Mikomicon tomorrow. Maybe Saturday too depending upon how tomorrow goes. Still not sure what I'm wearing. It's supposed to be 92 degrees today, and my most suitable ready outfit is Yoneda, which is too hot. And due to bus schedules, I can only be there a few hours anyway. So I'll be going Saturday only, when the weather will be better and I can spend more time. Might wear Tamaki, since there seems to be some Ouran stuff going on, and it's cool temperature-wise.
• I'm considering the ALA Oct 11 Picnic if I can get a ride. (Kinda tempted to dress as Katsushiro if the weather is friendly)
• Autumn Dream (aka Animagic) Oct 18-19 - Anyone able to offer a ride? (I'm in West LA) or at least a car/hotel room to store stuff at during the con? (Probably Suigintou + Cross)

Who's going to what? Also, more distant: ALA too. Katsucon almost certainly. Looks like things will be slow in Nov/Dec though.

And I was talking to tsuzusushi about a cosplay work day at one of our places at some point after Yaoicon. Hope that happens. I really need to get back to working on stuff. And so many recent temptations to add to the list. Notably Macross Frontier (Michael is what I was leaning towards, but Ozma Lee is another consideration - basically I want to make the SMS uniform jacket. Jetpack thingy would be cool too, but just a dream.) and Code Geass R2 (Schneizel, End credits style). But first I have to get my Baccano cosplay done. And need to fix Suigintou's sword, and build Cross' gun. Waahhh... so much...

Cosplay Pictures from Otakon 2008
( Stories. Tons of text. Some Pictures. )

( Suigintou critique )
( Next costumes: Another F->M adaptation? )
Snapp's Figure of Saber from Fate/Stay Night that I bought at AX. (full size / setup)
Any of the artists out there want to try your hand at designing a male version of her?

Click for full set of SpookyElectric's Fanime 2008 Cosplay Pictures

Average quality is not so great but there are some pretty cool ones in there.
( Some highlights below the cut )

( ...and two pictures by other photographers )
TeniPuri Omake "comics" in another post in a few days maybe.

I was going to post this before I left, but didn't have a chance... I was planning to have my male Suigintou done to wear today. I couldn't get it done enough in time.
( Picture of almost done except collar and lining isn't complete )
( My voracious sewing machine. )

EDIT/PS (2008 May 26): Fanime pics/report will not be posted for at least one week, probably two. I didn't take a lot of pictures, though there are a few very nice ones.
EDIT/PS (2008 May 27): Um... so actually I took over 1,000 exposures, which I'd guess translates to about 200 pictures. A lot to sort through, so maybe 2+ weeks.

Last weekend I did some cosplay work. I made a vest. That's what I spent the WHOLE weekend on. I have no idea how.
( More WIP Shots )

Earlier today (yesterday), UCLA's anime club had a sort of cosplay event in the second half of their meeting. The idea was to introduce people to cosplay. So those of us who do cosplay were invited to bring costumes for others to try out. I brought Katsushiro and Yoneda... and my cameras.

Full gallery here. This one has an experimental slideshow feature setup, that may make navigating nicer.
( More on that... )