/cgl/ - Cosplay & EGL

>>10140384
K. You start.

So, like, desu, I like that it's more accessible and even nobodies can share their hobby with their friends. Gone are the days of shitty flash photos in your friend's messy living room, and waiting a week for them to develop after the con only to be a little disappointed and having to make copies to show anyone. <3

>>10140393
Sorry I keep forgetting that things change to desu these days.crazy ids.

>>10140384
It sucks. The hobby's been diluted. I like that it gives people a place to show their work, and it's obviously become a lot more accessible, but my favourite part of cosplay in the old days was that even if it was SHIT, everyone appreciated everyone else's work so much more, because we were all making them ourselves, and we did it out of pure love for the characters. It was a place of learning, and it inspired me to be a seamstress.

This is going to sound really bitter, but I swear it's state of the community I have an issue with, not the person. I can spend 100s of hours on a single costume getting it up to quality (I mostly do shoujo stuff like Sailor Moon, so still fairly popular). I have just under 1k, which I don't mind. Would it be nice to have recognition for my work? Of course. But I don't mind using IG as a place to connect with other makers who value what I do. I have a friend who has almost 20k, but all she does is throw on wigs & tshirts and do stuff like Voltron and BNHA AUs. I have several friends with <10k who do this as well. Just makes me feel a bit sad that some of my favourite cosmakers, who put their heart and soul into the most beautiful garments, get stuck around 2-4k.

I made a SINGLE bikini-eqsue costume last year, and I got 3x the likes on every picture I posted. That's another thing that bothers me, is that cosplay has become SO much about sex appeal now, and the audience is people who aren't even a part of the community. It makes me not want to post the bikini cos pics anymore, even though none of them are remotely provocative, because even though I worked hard to learn new skills to make it, I feel like the craftsmanship is thrown out the window there and I'm being valued for something I'm uncomfortable with (sex appeal) to an audience totally disconnected with the hobby.

I hope this doesn't come across as bitter, and I wouldn't ever vocalize this to my cosplay friends. Just something that's been in the back of my mind.

>>10140411
This pretty much.

Back in the day, you dressed up because you really loved a character or series and wanted to show off that love, and you got to nerd out with other people who loved it too. Gatherings were a bunch of nerds who were just excited to meet other people who liked the same series and almost everyone looked terrible, but it was fun. There was no competition over who was the best ___ and people were just friendlier in general.

Now I'm afraid to talk to someone at a con based on what they're cosplaying because half the time they have no idea about the series and are just cosplaying what's popular. It's a bit better at some cosplay gatherings because you can usually tell who's a fan and who's trying to get attention, but there's always a few who show up and try to make it all about them.

I don't think instagram contributed so much as paywalls did. Now every thot is throwing on lingerie and a wig and calling it cosplay and trying to rake it in on Patreon. I'm pretty sure at least 80% of these girls wouldn't be cosplaying/going to cons if there wasn't money in it.

TLDR: Thots get out, it was better when it was just the real fans.

>>10140384
What's wrong? Don't like big tiddy e-thots?

>>10140411
This.

When I was 9, 10, 11 years old and had really discovered cosplay as an art form, the days of Cosplay.com were already fading, and I think I found myself between DeviantArt and Tumblr when I began to put work and what little talent I have into cosplaying.

Now that I'm in my late teens, I'm starting to feel immense pressure to force sex appeal into my cosplays, and I also feel very disappointed when I see what gets the most recognition.

Don't get me wrong, the people who put on layers of contour and meticulous face paint while completing their look with a tight-fitting t-shirt and a wig are fantastic at what they do. "Non-canon pool party/beach skin" cosplayers are wonderful, too, and I'm glad they're confident enough to strut their creativity in so little clothing.

All the same, when I put hundreds of hours, hot glue burns, sewing-needle pricks, and dye-stained hands into a cosplay, I want it to be appreciated by as many others as I can reach. I feel embarrassed when I see that fellow fans are much more drawn to unnecessary and sometimes toxic sex appeal.

Cosplay when Instagram seems like a major platform for artistic display is frustrating.

It brings to light this weird, ironic notion that if your cosplay is not edited from the canon design to be more slim-fitting, sexier, more intensely feminine, then you end up feeling like a nerdy outsider in an immaculate costume with special attention to detail. It's so weird to me that I feel like a shameful, outcast nerd in cosplay, where I should be able to flaunt my nerdiness through cosplay.

>Back in the day you could be a chubby nerd and wear a bad cosplay but still get compliments and have a good time
>Now you need to have 6 pack abs and a model-tier face to be taken seriously

>>10140446
>underage b&

>>10140384
I'm gonna be the odd one out, and say that aside from losing the ability to group and sort my photos by gallery/type/character, instagram has let me connect in a way I couldn't before. I've made friends around the world, some I can speak the same language as, and some not, and maybe 'friends' is a word I'm using too lightly, but I enjoy the interaction regardless. When I first started cosplaying, there were some international users on cosplay.com, but not to the degree that you can interact on twitter and instagram. I am grateful for that gap being easily bridged, where before it felt like we were fans but couldn't share our love of the series as easily. I've also found so many more wonderful people to follow thanks to hashtags and tagging.

It sucks, with the algorithm, because I hate that part that it's hard to be seen. But I can't hate it completely because of the above.

>>10140411
This has been an issue that's been rising slowly since about the mid to late 00's, back when cosplay and anime was becoming a little more mainstream and easier to access.

It started to become more or less "what character can I pull off?" and less about picking a character or series you really love and recreating their costume. When this started to become a thing on coscom, we'd tell the person the opposite. Pick someone you like within your skill level.

As outsiders learned more about cosplay, you'd see images reposted to other forums, websites or people started making shitty memes. The costume wasn't regarded, and the comments were normally about the wearer's appearance (good or bad) and whether they physically looked like them enough. Busty enough, having the face to "pull it off" or "their nose just throws the whole thing off"

This wasn't even the attitude of snark communities pre-dating /cgl/ (catsonmars, cosplay fucks). We were still all about craftsmanship and in general really didn't care about appearance as long as you had good hygiene weren't a frothing at the mouth assburger, and made costumes that fit to the best of your ability.

Somehow this mentality gradually seeped into the general mindset of the hobby, probably just as social media beyond myspace started to take off.

I'm not even in cosplay anymore for likes or attention. Just hanging out with friends, mostly ones I've had from the good old days and occasional new people I meet through the hobby. I just sort of ignore social media, post pictures for myself, and continue on like it's 2003 and likes and thots aren't even on the radar.

>>10140455
that girl in op's image is ugly af and wouldn't have shit if not for her high bmi tits and meitu

>>10140585
If you work it out she averages 60 likes and change per post, hardly big numbers. I'm under 1200 followers and I get more than that.

>>10140603
you probs look better (not hard, she looks like the average american midwesterner imo)

>>10140606
idk about that, I have bad acne but I sure put a lot more effort into my costumes than a wig and a generic swimsuit

Instagram is for hardcore attention whores who cares only about how many likes they have.

The whole point of Instagram is e-thotting whether in cosplay or not

If you use it for "real" cosplay you are doing it wrong

>>10140455

Cosplay is full of tons of fat girls who are hugely popular and making mad money

Unless you are a guy in which case you are SOL

>>10140641
What are the standards for male cosplayers compared to those for female cosplayers?

>>10140647

You need to look like this to get any attention as a male

Women can look like anything really, fat, thin, big boobs, small boobs, tall, short etc. you can still be successful if you work what you have

as a guy that got into cosplay because i'm a huge nerd and i like making things (so sewing was a natural fit for a hobby to pickup), it's pretty terrible. I pictured it to be full of beginner-to-advanced crafters and makers, but its 90% of people that buy their cosplays and craft little to nothing. Yet, they have a massive following because they slut it up/look pretty/know how to work social media/are followed by thirsty neckbeards.

I'll be the first to admit, I'm jealous they get attention for doing so little and I don't for being so meticulous, but at this point the attention I get on the con-floor matters more. Either way, the average normie doesn't really see the difference between bought and not-bought; it takes a crafter's eye to actually see it. When I do see people make their stuff, even if they're not particularly good, my heart sings for them.

Don't get me wrong, if you're a total noob to cosplay and you buy a nardo suit, you're fine. It's cool. It's the people that brand themselves as "cosplayers" and have an insta, patreon, or social media that still consistently buy cosplays that irk me. They're not really showing off craftsmanship or attention to detail, they're more of a B-tier model.

Idk, I got into cosplay maybe 3 years ago because I got a sewing machine as a gift and wanted to make shit I liked. I guess I expected the hobby to be different from what it is. It's not the wondrous "people making shit and goofing around in character and acting a bit autistic, and then talking about methods and how they made their stuff" like I thought it would be. Every day I tell myself I'll stop making cosplays, but goddamnit i'm too much of a nerd to stop.

>>10140650
That’s not really true. If you want to get attention as a male cosplayer, just cosplay the popular husbandos that have as close to your body type as possible. To use Hero Academia as an example: consider Aizawa if you’re not an All Might, or Hawks if you’re a manlet.

>>10140675
this, i see a bunch of ugly and very vaguely fit guys cosplaying bakugou and get wildly popular for it

>>10140384
...I know this girl inrl. Went to school with her. WoAh

>>10140650
What is about really really good-looking trap guys?

>>10140411
I agree so much with all of this, which is why I've started labeling everything I do with Foamsmith or CosplayMaker. There are still makers in the community but most of them aren't known and the ones that are had to fight tooth and nail to get there.

Most of those likes and follows are coming from outside of the cosplay community. There's a lot more thirsty men or teens who like looking at pretty faces than people who actually cosplay. Someone who posts popular or sexy cosplay that appeals to the general population is going to get way more attention than someone whose posts are only appealing to a certain subset.

It really does just come down to the fact that craftsmanship and amazing sewing are only going to appreciated by a small niche group of people. Meanwhile, anything sexy appeals to basically anyone? I feel like it’s easy to forget that the con & cosplay community is bigger than it was, but still small. Most costhot’s followers are 30% con & cosplayers and 70% ppl who followed bc they’re hot.

>>10140863
Totally, I've been following tags like cosmaker too, but even that's often full of people in wigs and bikinis.

Adding onto what I was saying in >>10140411 , even if you ARE able to gather an audience, it still doesn't result in appreciation for your work. I have a friend at 300 freaking k, and she alternates between doing boudoir, and super big, intricate builds. Her builds get probably 1/4 to 1/2 of the likes and comments compared to pics of her in lingerie. It pays the bills, which is why she keeps at it, but it sucks seeing her frustration there, and makes me frustrated too that her followers so blatantly only care about her tits.

Normies started cosplaying. That's all.

>>10140923
True, the modern cosplay scene is now full with normies.

>>10140919
Unfortunately that's the audience she gathered by posting so much sexy cosplay. A guy who followed her for softcore porn isn't going to be interested in anything she posts that isn't that. If she only wants followers who care about the quality of her work and if she wants to stop perpetuating the expectation that famous cosplayers must be sexy, she needs to bite the bullet and stop pandering to male thirst. Your friend is part of the problem.

>>10141110
No, she doesn’t mind doing the sexy photos. It pays super well, and she likes to model, so it’s nothing she feels like changing. It’s just that she likes the cosplay builds more, and it makes her (and me) sad that’s it’s clearly so undervalued.

>>10141128
Different anon here. It's not about minding it or not, because it's pretty clear there's a correlation between "liking to model" and "being paid well". Other anon is right. You shouldn't be sad that something is undervalued when your friend is continuing to engage her horny audience and push out content that they want. She's not doing it because she really enjoys doing softcore porn (otherwise she wouldn't be trying to make actual cosplay) - she's doing it for the money. I think both of you have to take a good hard look at yourselves and digest that.

The other issue is exactly that. People want to make this a gig to score some easy cash - by doing this, they inevitably brought about the loss of value for cosplayers that invest much more effort and resources for what they're doing.

I read something interesting a semi-famous cosplayer (not relevant enough for me to remember but not the point) said when she was being interviewed for her work. She explained that she was only able to do everything she could because she was a stay-at-home wife whose husband provided the initial startup. She openly admitted that she does not view cosplay as something that you're supposed to make a living out of (unless you're god-tier and get sponsorships and such). Then cosplay got mainstream and people all wanted to be the next hot (presumably rich) cosplayer. To me, that's when I feel like the dip in quality and enjoyment occurred - social media only made it that much more competitive and worse. I don't blame social media - I blame the commercialization and people like above for allowing themselves to become sellouts.

>>10140455
I know the feel, I think the reason I get a bit of compliments because I have huge tits....other than that I'm a chubby tall cosplayer.

is it bad that I only started cosplaying in 2016? Like I've always been to anime since I was 3 (watching dragon ball z, sailormoon and Pokemon) but I never really knew about conventions until 2012 and I wanted to cosplay since 2014 but was too scared about getting backlash for not looking like the character...

When I finally had confidence I joined one of the most toxic anime series cosplay group to get a better understanding of the cosplay community which ended up with me hearing and dealing with drama... luckily in 2017/2018 I discovered that there's conventions other than mainstream ones, I don't have to go to cons in my country and that I don't need to be part of a group to cosplay something I like. I kinda wish I got into cosplaying back when I first got into going to conventions (though I was 15 when I went to my first con and when I got into cosplaying I was 18/19)

Anyways I mainly connected with people through facebook and use Instagram to see what cosplay trends are happening and what people are doing for cons I'm attending. I noticed that that the most popular people on Instagram are people who cosplay Voltron, Steven Universe, MHA, and Marvel, do sexy cosplays or people who throw anything on and do side by side character posts.

>>10141271
Why would it be bad? Everyone starts at some point, if only people who got started in like 2008 were allowed to cosplay the hobby would be dead already. I also started in 2016 (technically 2015 but I didn't complete a costume until 2016).
>>10141144
On the other hand I don't see a problem with doing something to pay the bills that you wouldn't necessarily do for free. You gotta eat, pay rent, and pay for materials for your passion projects. To me it's no different than working retail in that aspect, and you probably get less abuse from shitty customers doing lingerie shoots. If it works, good for her.

>>10141271

Did you feel any pressure to do sexy cosplay?

I always cringe when I see these young girls doing "lewdz" because their idol J-Nig did it.

>>10141265
>tall
>chubby
>huge tits

um, do you mind posting your insta?

>>10141422
You're part of the problem, man.

>>10140675
>Tfw I am sleep-deprived, lanky and easily grow stubble
>Aizawa isn't even hard

>>10141128
>Craftsmanship is undervalued because everyone only gives attention/money to sexy cosplays
>Friend perpetuates cycle by posting sexy cosplays and taking money from it
>Friend is sad when her craftsmanship isn't valued

Surely you have to see the flaw in logic here?

Your friend has 300,000 followers and could probably make a splash in the community if she and the other famous costhots chose to. She could call her porn business something other than regular cosplay, like modeling or cosplay modeling. She could promote smaller craftsmanship-based cosplayers. She could stop taking money for porn and slapping the label "cosplay" on it because it's what rakes in the cash, or if it REALLY bothered her she could stop posting porn all together.

>>10140650
wrong
you need to look like THIS

>>10141471
She doesn't call it cosplay. She calls it boudoir. She doesn't associate it with the cosplay she does. Maybe you're right and she is part of the problem. But like I said, I don't have a problem with sexy cosplayers. I have a problem with it being valued over craftsmanship. I don't think it's a thing that shouldn't exist, I just wish quality cosplay could be raised up to that same level. She likes doing the boudoir stuff, it makes good money (though it's not her primary job, it's just to go to savings), and she has no intention in stopping. She just wishes her cosplay was valued equally. That's all.

>>10141514
Another anon already pointed out why the scale is uneven and that’s because sexy shit caters to normies, who outnumber the cos community in general. A normie isn’t going to put a cosplay made out of foam and google eyes on the same level as the sexy chick with her tits out. Crafters are going to have to majorly outnumber thots if you want any change in the amount of attention each type of cosplayer receives.

>>10141509
True! I'm a guy and traps turns me on. It seems I'm bisexual now.

>>10141514
Unfortunately there's only two options to raise up the value of non-boudoir cosplay. Either the supply chain to thirsty normies needs to be cut off, or the cosplay community needs to rally behind the type of cosplay we want to see. I think there's definitely been a push toward requesting quality cosplay guests and donating to craftspeople in the last year or two, but even within the cosplay community most people still obsessing over hot yaois and cute girls.

>>10141271
>I joined one of the most toxic anime series cosplay group
Which one? There's a laundry list to chose from.

Was active in the Instagram cosplay comm. It’s what drove me to quit cosplaying altogether. Constant cancerous post bumping/attention grabbing/fake friendships. Instagram has taken all that was nice about cosplay and threw it in the trash, pretty much. Nearly all of my under 18 friends started doing “lewds” by the time they turned 18 for e-bucks and only care about the attention. Hope to god that website shuts down someday.

>>10141686
Diff anon but I hate the idea of needing to donate to anyone, budoir, porn, or crafters. I can definitely say that I wouldn't give money to either, so there are probably also a subset of people just annoyed that others are asking for handouts when the rest of us use our disposable income like any other hobbyist. I guess for those that want to pay for supporting a thing like that, that's fine and it's their money... but plenty of us on the side of 'I wish cosplay craftsmanship were more valued' don't want it to become a skill contest either.

Not much to really be done about it but encourage each other with our words and shares, not our pockets.

More hot people are cosplaying now. The ugly nerds can no longer compete. Nobody even talks about "craftsmanship" anymore because it has nothing to do with how attractive you are and nobody cares.

It's funny to see previously "famous" cosplayers like Ginny or Pikminlink completely fall off the map because they're not good looking enough to even compare with all the sexy girls on Instagram

>>10142427
Many "hot cosplayers" have often less good or cheap costumes.

>>10142431
>Nobody even talks about "craftsmanship" anymore because it has nothing to do with how attractive you are and nobody cares.

You aren't listening.

>>10142183
i joined the love live cosplay group community filled with girls who like to stir drama and bitch about people as well as having boyfriend issues...

>>10142427
That buttcheek shoop, kek.

It’s both better and worse. On one hand it’s easier to get into and the quality has gone up overall. On the other hand people get too wrapped up in likes and forget that cosplay is supposed to be fun, and it’s more intimidating to start when you’re flooded with images of people who do it professionally and you’re trying to start on a shoestring budget.

So like all of life, ups and downs.

Fat fucks need to not cosplay until they lose that big jelly donut gut lmao

>>10142427
also pretty much most if not all body suits are printed.

>>10140637
So do you have any ideas where to share "real" cosplays? I decided to keep my insta for casual shit that bring me more likes and post my builds somewhere else.

>>10142891
Vero seems to be making a come-back

>>10142891
How about Cure WorldCosplay? Or Cosplay.com?

>>10143179
coscom is fucking dead dude

>>10143190
Even the site looks complete new now???

>>10142495
All Instagram photos are photoshopped. Might as well include the butt.

>>10143653
posted in bad makeup thread since they said shopp was okay

>>10142485
Oof. I would've guessed Voltron

I just wan a costhot to sit on me face is that so much to ask nyah >_<

>>10149147
Btw I'm a girl

>>10149147

join my $500 tier on patreon

>>10140411
It's Jessica Nigri's fault.

>>10151389
Naw, she just copied Miyu and took the throne when Miyu quit. And before Miyu there was FranDan. And before FranDan there was Alisachan. They’ve always been around.

Ig is both a blessing and a curse. It has allowed me to connect with and make friends with fellow cosplayers in my state who I used to just see in passing. It has also allowed me to post my cosplay pics more often without having a FB page, and it's so accessible. On the other hand, I hate that my friends talk about feeling bad for not having "content" (hate that word) I hate that I find myself thinking about cosplays I could make quickly for shoots, when before I would only make them for cons, I hate that more complicated cosplays are favoured over popular and sexy ones and hate that I can't completely not care about popularity. Instagram popularity means nothing. Literally nothing. It is not a measure of anyone's worth.

>>10141514
Her vault. Her followers are there because of her body, not her skills. It's like McDonalds suddenly cutting off beef and chicken and losing customers for going vegan.

>>10142958
No one cares Laboy

>>10140641
She'd make a really good Okusan.

>>10151435
It really is. Remember when she made this huge post about how she was going to change the community because she was a judge for this competition at an out of country con and no one cheered for these amazing armor cosplay but the opposite for the scantily clad cosplayers. She said something stupid like shes going to stop doing as many hyper sexual cosplays to change the stigma in the community. Where the hell is that, Jess?

>>10151435
I remember once I saw Alisachan at Animazement - she dropped her drink on the floor and like three guys rushed to clean it up while she just stood there. I thought "what an entitled bitch." Shortly after she posted that horribly shooped Asuka bikini picture.

>>10151804
who