Mercurial Morpheus

Oh quit your whining, you. Why not commision some yourself with that posting power? Here, have a Minmay. She's pretty much what they draw. There's Millia art out there. Here's some american line art And woodart There's even more Misa out there, like this one and this one: Okay, maybe not that last one. So don't complain, look harder and DO something about it. On another note, is mecha art okay in small doses? I though this looked pretty badass: Let's end it on a WTF

LOL, that's awesome. But then, I've heard stories about how "costumers" tend to hate "cosplayers". Some cosplayers even use the other term to distance themselves from the elitism that sometimes happens. Though what's in a label? It's the exact same thing in the end - people making Halloween costumes for something other than Halloween, with photos and comments the candy. I'm grateful that I've never seen elitism in person. I've been ignored sure, but never really met a primadonna. Maybe I just have lower/kinder standards coming from my own just above entry level skill and years of experience. All I care about is if they put the effort in and give a damn usually. It's pretty easy to tell. Though attitude goes a long way.

You're simply describing girl-gawking. No different from checking out a redhead passing you in the street. Nothing wrong with that, but if you don't care about the costume, might as well stick to the redhead. If that's all we want, why bother making it a costume thread? Make a "Photos of hot girls" thread instead, less pretentious. Give credit where credit is due, especially if the thread is about costumes. An amazing costume is an amazing costume. Besides, most of these girls are the exception, not the rule, and a lot of them are helped along by "creative" camera work and photoshop. The camera lies like a dog. Ho-hum. End of discussion. Let's not start again please. (though I hear the real viciousness is in some of the hobbyists themselves. So many elitists according to my friends. Everything from skill to personal beauty to "I claim that character because i do it better/did it first" is judged. I thought this was suppose to be fun?) Ahh, politics. Cosplay politics are among the most fearsome indeed. Reminds me of Gillian Anderson's quip upon being informed of cosplay: "Is that a fetish?" Back to cosplay photos, please. Here's that last one after a quick auto-level in the GIMP

Me too, but you've got to take what's out there. Frontier's the new Macross flavor of the month, so it get's dished out more. The Alice parody is great. Ranka makes a cute Alice. Not sure about Klan as the White Rabbit, but whatever. Grace could still be the Red Queen. The Sheryl coming out of a VF-25 is quite odd, yet i saved it anyway. I find it amusing that Sheryl looks more like Oscar than Utena in that one. Does that make Alto Marie? Any decent Cathy pics out there? I still need one for my avy. I've found a few.

Hence why it's called ENDLESS Eight.

Nice. I suppose there's one vote for not going back to just Millia as it was before. Not all of thems there. I still need to add a decent pic of Cathy, but there's not much fanart of her. I'm sure putting Nora and perhaps Sara in wouldn't hurt either, I just haven't watched Zero in a while. Maybe Myung and Sharon. I don't know. There's still plenty of overhead on it. Minmay and Misa need expansion too, it's way too Frontier-y considering my preferences. Though chances are it'll just be Cathy to avoid mass reorganizing. Or I'll just leave it be. Nice costumes, but so much overdone photography. Nanase's glowing.

Google's owned Youtube for some time now. I've heard of this movie. Seems...interesting.

Yeah, this isn't Cats on Mars... Actually, didn't this whole thread start out of discussing building a Shin costume?

Thanks VTR!F for giving a detailed reply. For the record guys, I'm not the uptight prude I'm sure you think me of. I'm just someone who's seen way more than his fair share of "cosplay" threads that weren't about cosplay. Thanks for getting the joke. Oh, I understand that. Like i said, I have no problem with complimenting her beauty. It's just that seeing an entire page of it just really doesn't come off as appreciation for the costume. The sarcastic repliers also seem to miss this as I did write that it was "all in good fun" too. Of course it's drooling over girls is part of it (isn't it always), but as someone who's experienced it all firsthand several times in person, it gets a toucvh creepy when people make no effort to hide it. Shouldn't that be "Macrossnald's Feast?" Pete Oh, I agree on the part about there being few ugly girls. I was merely responding to Max's quip. I'm saying that I believe that a good part of looking at cosplay is/should be costume appreciation. My point being that a great costume is a great costume, and deserves praise no matter who's wearing it. Saying prettier cosplayers deserve more is like praising them for winning some sort of genetic lottery, as it's not just a case of simply keeping yourself in shape. Sure they're to be commended for making the effort to stay fit, but I thought the costume was the point here, not the gym. Anime characters are annorexic, sculpted demigods that few actually resemble. Of course it's awesome to find people that pull it off, and I go gaga over them myself as anyone, but i simply believe that it's shouldn't be a requirement for success . Where's the fun in that? It's like saying you can't be who you want to be because you don't look the part. That's one thing in a play, but this isn't a play. I understand your theatre analogy quite well, as I've been in a few plays, and I fully understand how and why typecasting works. It's fine there, as an illusion is being crafted to meet expectations. However, cosplay is not a job like theatre, it's a hobby. There are indeed many philosophies as to why it's done, and who you do. I have noticed a lot of people that subscribe to your thinking and only attempt characters that fit their looks. Which is fine I guess. It's the reason so many Altos are girls. Usually the best ones. Still others only go with popular characters, as even my sister won't do certain character simply because of getting no recognition. I can partly understand this. A lot of early costumes of mine were simple street clothes (Jigan, Kaji, etc) and I rarely got noticed. I once made an effort to get a Sagara Sousuke recognized with toy guns, a Mithril bag and so on, and even a guy in an FMP shirt didn't notice. It sucks even more when you put in the effort from scratch. However, I'd argue that there's few things more rewarding in the hobby than getting that one guy or girl to say "OMG, are you...?" or seeing someone else play your favorite obscure character. As I said, my philosophy is that you do it because you love the character or show, and that nobody actually looks like their character. I also have a sister that refuses to cosplay characters she enjoys because she's heavier than them. My point being that someone shouldn't have to cosplay Nanase just because she'd make a better Nanase when her favorite is Sheryl or Ranka. That's like saying I shouldn't wear my Alto costume because I make a better Ozma. That may be so, but if I want to wear Alto, I shouldn't have to be self concious of it just because I'm not a pretty boy like him. Why typecast a hobby? If I cosplayed only the characters I looked like, I'd be Global instead of Max, Wilder and Ozma instead of Alto (though I do cosplay Ozma), and basically any other average, stocky bearded guy or guy with long hair. I actually do cosplay or want to cosplay some of these characters, but not because I look like them. Half the fun is dressing like someone you love that dresses how you normally wouldn't, getting to play the part no director would cast you in for love of the role. Some of the most incredible costumes I've seen were by people making an outfit work for them. It's a difference in philoshy I guess. I think I have it as I appear to be the only active cosplayer commenting and got into it for different reasons. "I've...seen things..you people wouldn't believe." And yeah, we haven't fully crosed the line, which is why I was joking that we were starting to look it though. Carry on fellas.

No kinder than calling everyone else's muddy, oversaturated and filtered to death. They all have a rather artificial look. If afk is harsh, Yuki and the others look like I'm watching through a lens filter. I'm also hoping Yuki has permission to use those subs, as otherwise that pretty much makes them bottom feeders. You don't fansub without a translator. Especially when the video quality is about par with, say, gleam, just a little less yellow. They're one of the better ones to be sure, particularly when you put translation into the equation. However the quality doesn't really justify 350megs an episode, and I am usually not one to question filesize. So they're "low quality" release might be the better option. Good luck grabbing that one though as most people stupidly think they're actually getting 720p here judging by the seeding ratios. Maybe there's a bigger gap in other episodes, but only afk really stood out as looking different. Gleam was smoothed and yellow. Perfect Blue was smoothed than sharpened to the hilt, giving it an also liquid appearence, Sushi was about the same, but with color correction and slang translation. Most just used the same pointless upscale, smoothed out the image, maybe bumped the color, added some sharpening and left it at that. Though I didn't check Mazui. Though I'll never understand why fansubbers will take disparaging names like that. Why give people the impression that you're awful? So they all look terrible, and even the non-afk releases still have blooming and washed out looks, they're just more saturated to compensate, sort of making the problem worse (the pool shots come to mind). So it just depends on if you like muddy, saturated smooth upscaled terrible that smothers the problem with what some might feel are more of its own at often twice the size or bright, washed out, hardsubbed terrible that doesn't try to hide the simple truth and doesn't bother with a pointless upscale, it's a crap RAW. Mr Togo obviously prefers the former, and that's the majority of the releases. I can see how it might seem better, especially without comparison Perfect Blue was the first I saw at home were I really noticed the filtering and started this whole quality issue. They're not too bad if that sort of thing doesn't bother you. Gleam sufferes a bit from a slight yellow cast that's uncompensated for [it's present in Yuki too, but not as bad] and some compression issues. I, while not really fond of either, am somewhat more inclined to the latter, as at least the size is justifiable, and it actually has colors that sort of look correct. It's pretty decent when you consider the codec and size. Though I might look more into it, as I'm hearing reports of audio problems in AFK (though Yuki's discussion is sadly mostly people bitching about the rating system). It really is divided between "afk" and "not-afk", and I'm not entirely sure which "not-afk" is the superior in straight terms of video. So I really would know which afk alternative to go with, though probably Yuki given their "barrowed" translator. I'm sort of curious about what the raw leans towards. Did afk brighten, or did everyone else saturate? So pick your poison. But make no mistake and don't kid yourself. No matter how much butt kissing in their respective threads, there's really no "best" out there in video. Not Yuki, not afk.

Nothing perse, lets just cut back on the creepy drooling. I'm swimming over here. That, and she does always need to be hot if well put together. Sheryl was quite ugly at times in the series. My sister even thought she looked downright mannish at times.

Most of the releases I've seen the video quality is poor. Some downright awful, with matching subs (like the slang in Sushi). Also not everything broadcast in HD is HD (hence why GG release Zetsubou Sensei and half of Frontier in 480). Though translation is more important to me than video anyway. I haven't seen Yuki or a.f.k. yet, though I did follow them for the first series, and they usually do good work. I'm surprised they're still around to be honest. Haven't heard from them since Lucky Star. EDIT, reading up comments from Live-Evil on anidb, Haruhi is indeed an upscale. So all the 720 versions are just bloated overencodes. That said, looking at four of them on episode three, AFK is a brighter, almost a touch washed out and harsh, but not as bloomed as some others or as yellow tinted. I think it's to combat the muddiness. It also appears to have a little bit more vertical information. It doesn't look great, but then, none of them do. It's sad that a high profile show from a high end studio is being shown looking this bad. SHAFTs stuff is fairly low budget, but Zetsubou Sensei looks great comparatively (Natsu no Arashi did look like Haruhi though). Basically, it's just a bunch of crappy raws. As for Yuki, they look pretty much like the others, filtered and upscaled. Though i think I figured out why they just caught up. I don't expect them to ever release before afk judging by their subs for 3. They're exactly the same. So it looks like one has a choice between filtered and upscaled with afk subs (Yuki), or the non upscaled, brightened release with afk subs (afk). If they both look like garbage, might as well go with the smaller file.

Hmm, it's been awhile, but it sort of did if memory serves. It could just be the still frames from the blu-ray comparison. It always looks worse not in motion. Though, as long as the trailer is the worst of it, I suppose I'll manage. Just not a fan of celshading.

Oh, I'm aware of that, it's just easy to separate them across different media. No one actively debates which is superior or all that other fandom nonsense (like how I almost skipped Rahxephon because so many Eva haters were touting it the superior Eva, it felt more in common with Macross with it's sound focus and I loved a Suncoast "review" that used the 'new Eva' argument as a pivot and was probably written by a guy who'd seen neither. Shame I botched getting my letter about it published in what became their last issue). So I meant more in line of two universes in anime. The new Star Trek still fits in existing canon, though my concern there is that they'll get all remake happy with this ridiculous Khan talk, but that's another thread. The movie TV difference never bothered me much when the movie is considered canon (I liked both actually). Wikipedia mildly finished off part of that spoiler, so I'm no longer driven nuts by it. Just a damn shame. I'm wondering if it has to do with assonance or if there isn't some deeper meaning yet to be revealed. Or maybe just their way of saying this is not the Asuka you've always loved/loathed. It sounds like they've made enough changes to reinforce that. I'd like to think they threw that monkey wrench into the works for a better reason than just making their names oddly rhyme. How'd the CGI look in the film? It was rather omnipresent in the trailers and quite the eyesore for the most part, looking very much in the "it's there because we can" mood of early GONZO stuff.

So Sheryl is the False Diva. Something about that just feels so right. Interesting title update. Danbooru works on tags. Putting it with a space causing it to look for the tages "Sheryl" and "Nome", which don't exist. It should be seperated by an underscore. So the proper search is "Sheryl_Nome". A little tip for you maniacs. And one a backtrack note, I want a "I (heart) Minmay" keychain. It'd go well with my signed Mari tour 2005 keychain.

I'm not saying she's sleazy. I agreed that her costumes are great, and she is rather pretty, probably not needing the assistance from the shoddy camera work and possibly airbrushing. I wasn't talking about her, I was talking about the gushing over her. I'm saying the thread went from a cosplay one to a "let's ogle hot girls who are in cosplay" one in feel that I've seen elsewhere. Not the first time too. There's been plenty of nice costume work barely commented on because it wasn't perfect or being worn by a goddess. It's not the costume that's sleazy, it's the absolute drooling that's going on just because a good looking women is portraying a popular character. Nothing wrong with that, of course a woman like that's going to get attention, but the last few posts before mine read like something out of your typical "Hot women" thread. This entire page was just comments on how gorgeous the girl was. Okay, we get it, she's hot. Don't switch on me and try to say it's the costumes' accuracy that's driving your appreciation now that I've called you on it. I hate lack of effort too, VRTR1, but none of this read as costume appreciation until I came in. I love hot women too, and agree that she's one of the sexier one, if not a little hookerish as Roy joked, but leave it for a thread about them. Here it's just creepy, as it looks like it the only reason were posting the pics. "Does this Sheryl 'do it' for you?" Do what? I think you miss the point, Max. I was joking around about the double standard of most cosplay photographers. Ie. They claim to be photographers of good cosplay, but in actuality, they're really photographers of cute girls, using cosplay as an excuse. Hence all these great costumes roll by with a few snaps, and suddenly a cute redhead in a fairly simple blue dress walks by and you can't count the flashes. Of course more attractive people get more pics. It's the definition of "attractive". It's not that the only good cosplayers are "fat, ugly ones" that love the show, it's that those fat, ugly ones can make good costumes too, but no one cares because the ones wearing them are, well, fat and ugly. Sheryl's attractive in the show, does that mean only attractive women make good Sheryl costumes and should portray her? That a great Sheryl costume on a hot woman is automatically superior to a great one on a average or *gasp* homely woman. A pot-bellied Sheryl might not be anime accurate or as pleasing to the eye, but credit most still be given if she did a good job regardless. It's that mentality that's the reason so many threads get started on Cosplay.com asking who they "look like". Basically, there's more focus on who's wearing the costume versus the costume itself. Understandable as it's human nature, but rather lame at times since I though we were discussing costumes, not how hot the Macross girl fandom is. Is this "Macross Cosplay" or "Hot Macross Cosplayers"? I've seen some well done Sheryl outfits get labeled "ok" just because the girl wearing it isn't the stuff wet dreams are made of. Nothing wrong going gaga over a hot Sheryl, just try to restrain yourselves, guys and not make it so obvious that that's the reason you're looking at the pics. People also cosplay for different reasons. Some just do it for fun, others like myself to celebrate a favorite character. Not everyone does it to scream "look at me." I forgot to add that given the number of costumes she has, I wasn't agreeing that she feel into that category, just that it does exist, so I'd edited my previous comment to reflect that. There's nothing wrong with it, but it is a different philosophy as to why they do it. I merely added the observation that a lot of the ones I've seen tend to stick to their body style. It really struck me at Fanime how all the Ranka's were petite, cutesy girls, while most of the Sheryls were tall, glamorous types. By comparison, this Ranka certainly doesn't fit the bill, but it's a great costume. It simply made me wonder if they were doing it because she's their favorite, or they simply liked the show and went with whomever. Sort of how when I'm in my SMS jacket, I'm effectively Ozma given my appearance. I know a Sheryl fan that cosplays Ranka (which, given the shipping wars hurt my brain for awhile). Nothing wrong either way, but an interesting observation. Though count me in as one that feels you should be familiar with what your cosplaying. Otherwise taking shots like that really feel like it's just for the appeal. Okay, I'm getting way too verbose here, but I just pained me a bit to see this thread look like a 4chan thread where all they do is ogle hot girls in costume. Admire all you want, she is sexy and I know it's mostly in jest, hence my all in good fun comment. Just remember that we're better than that.

Wow, this thread just took a huge nosedive into typical cosplay thread sleaziness. Nice one. Reminds me of the time I was in a cosplay parade just a few feet behind a cute girl. One could actually hear the cameras shutters triple in frequency once she was in range and slow again once she wasn't, despite many elaborate costumes behind her. Never before had I so clearly seen the real reason so many photographers are into it. It's a nice cosplay, but do we really need to outright destroy the already thinly vialed reason why most of you are looking at it. :roll: Might I also add to the list of "that photoshop" It definitely looks like "perfection" has been tweaked a bit. Nothing uncommon I suppose. Though all in good fun I suppose. Focker's right about some people being not familiar with what they do. Some just want to join in and pick some that looks good to them. Others merely stick to what they "pull off" despite favorite character. I've noticed a lot of Ranka's that would probably never "pull off" Sheryl and vice versa. I only know one person that's done both, and I didn't recognize her in her Sheryl outfit. Though judging by the number of costumes, I'd say she's a fan or knows someone who is. He's also right about how she mostly comes off as. Not that anyone is complaining.

Thanks for the info. It's the reason I've fallen behind on this, despite loving this series. I figure I'll do the same. Still rather shocked at catching it during Fanime's masquerade. That release was terrible.

Good to hear that the movie rocks. Though the abundant CGI in the trailers irks me a bit. Mari seems quite popular according to the pic dump sites. I'm all for them marketing the hell out of her provided I like the character. Though I still wish they'd make more Misato and Ritsuko stuff. On another note, Asuka should be able to speak English, being American and all. Unless they dropped that fact since no one remembers it any way (it's one of the reasons why the dub having her constantly swear in German seemed so overdoing it to me). I'm so tempted to read those spoilers, you wouldn't believe. So I'll probably check that cam, like I did with the first. Though like the first, I probably won't watch it. Wish I'd kept it though after all the changes. All I'll ask though is whether there's a good reason why they changed her name after 15 years. Simple yes or no will suffice. Though it should be a yes. I'm hoping they didn't kill anyone off they shouldn't have yet. No stuffing the fridge please. ;; EDIT: Fracking YouTube spoilers. Who writes that stuff under a promo trailer for a film that just came out. Now I've read something about that has me concerned. Thankfully, that's all I caught. Hopefully it doesn't play out the same. I', sticking to torrents for previews (though I've been burned by torrent comments before). Better stay away from image sites too in case. Though really, I hope this is the final version. The first film was pretty also, but I'm not sure how I'll like having two Eva universes. Sort of the same weird feeling with the new Star Trek.

Ranka looks the same, oddly enough. The Sheryl's kind of cute. Klan's sort of pointless since appearing half age is part of her character, and that figure is better endowed than the actuality. This isn't completest going by the costumes, it's fetish. Cute fetish. Moe to the extreme.

Good to know. Thanks for the information.

Seeing the images made me consider trying to realise some of my own. Though looking them over, they need some major touch up work, particularly 1. They were originally made quickly as concepts afterall. How the print quality? Is the image stiff and brittle, or more soft and malible with the fabric.

Loving the tiny Ranka. I've been meaning to build a diorama of my own, but have no Macross to build it around.

That is weird, especially since it doesn't really work outside of maybe Alto and Grace (and Grace is stretching it) I agree Michael should've been Kaji. Sheryl and Ranka are way off. I've seen the kimono pic a few times. It's one of the more calming images that reminds me that I like these characters.

I can definitely echo that question, having noticed that too. I swear some of Macross+ sounded influenced by Gustav Holst's "Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity". So a question about her influences in general would be good. She changes her style up with each project.