COSPLAY TECH - MUST HAVE TOOLS AND APPS

Cosplay is quickly becoming one of the most popular hobbies in the world with thousands of fans dressing up as their favorite characters for conventions and events. Cosplay is a worldwide fandom, and Find The Best reports that 12,000 people will be attending the World Cosplay Summit this year. As cosplay expands as a hobby, more and more cosplayers are using technology to enhance their experience and meet other fans.

Getting Together

If you've ever been to a convention, you've probably noticed that most cosplayers are friendly and love taking pictures with their smartphones. Cosplayers keep a tight online network, predominantly on social media sites. Steven Savage of MuseHack points out that cosplayers are often pros at promoting themselves through blogs, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. For cosplayers looking to make a living from their craft, they must keep up with or create the latest technology including mobile devices, apps and innovative costuming. This may be nearly as important as being able to sew.

Look Into the Light

Since lightsabers violate pretty much every law of physics, cosplayers have had to get creative when recreating fantastic weapons and gear that utilize light. Cosplayers have started integrating EL Wire for many pieces of sci-fi armor and gear, such as outfits from "TRON." EL Wire is a simple-to-use lighting system that is often powered by batteries and is available in kits from That's Cool Wire. It can recreate many light effects, and can be perfect if you are cosplaying as a character from "Mass Effect" or creating your own "Portal" gun. EL Wire can seem intimidating at first, but as you learn to use it, you will unlock countless costuming possibilities.

Isn't That Hot?

Anyone who has seen a truly impressive piece of cosplay armor has probably wondered how its creator doesn't have a stroke wandering around in it all day. Many armor designers incorporate battery-powered computer fans into helmets and armor pieces to suck in a little fresh air. CPU fans such as those found on NewEgg can be easily modified to run on a 9-volt battery. Build fans into your "Fallout" Brotherhood of Steel armor so you don't pass out from heat exhaustion in the middle of an event. No matter how great a costume looks, you won't enjoy wearing it if you end up dehydrated and woozy.

Costume Engineering

Sometimes, there is simply no easy way to create a realistic looking "Warhammer 40K" space marine bolt-gun that doesn't weigh 100 pounds. So, cosplayers have to get creative. If you need to create a realistic looking but lightweight gadget or weapon, consider creating a Bondo resin-enforced paper model. For many games, there are 3D models of characters and gear that could be disassembled in a software program, such as Blender. If you don't have a 3D printer, you could still print the parts as 2D flat sections onto cardstock, and fold it into the shape of armor or weapons. This lightweight solution takes some technical savvy, but creating to-scale Space Marine armor is well worth the effort.