So You Want To Make Your Own Costumes?
We get it. You're creative, ambitious, and love cosplay.
The feeling is mutual, and as Chief Designer at Snakepit Studios, I know what it's like to want to start making your own costumes and not be sure of where to even start. The whole reason Snakepit Studios exists is because we are passionate about the characters we create costumes for, and passionate for the creation process. We want you to be successful in your costume creations too, so here are just a few tips and resources we've picked up along the way to help the beginners out.
For starters, we'd would like to say, there is no right or wrong way to make a costume. There are solutions for every budget and preference.
And almost everything you would ever need to know is online. Literally. All the techniques, and knowledge can be found if you are willing to dig a bit to find it. That being said, don’t expect it to be spoon fed to you. You have to do some hunting to find the really good stuff.
The RPF
The RPF is a forum full of great info if you dig for it. Fellow cosplayers and prop makers will post tips, tutorials, templates, and their own progress as they create costumes. You can post your progress and get some great feedback or tips that can really help you out as you continue your creations. Just a warning though - don't expect everyone on the RPF to be all rainbow and kittens about your work. There are some serious prop makers on here, and they will truthful, honest and sometimes pretty blunt. So grow some thick skin, and never give up. In the end, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks, you're doing this for you.
A great place for tutorials and some really great advice.
Smooth On
Smoothon.com is a raw materials vendor, but also has wonderful tutorials and helpful technical assitance.
eBooks
Katsumi cosplay, Punished Props, WMarmory and soon Volpin Props all have pretty great and cheap ebooks. Most of this info can be found for free somewhere on the net, but its well worth the five bucks to get these condensed and concise resources. Its also a great way to support some pretty cool artists.
"When will Snakepit make tutorials?" Or "Will you tell me how to make “x”?" We probably won’t. The reality is, we just don’t have the time. We are generally too busy making gear to write up proper tutorials. Keeping up with client emails alone is a major time suck. If you are on The RPF, you can find some of our old build threads. There are some tips and templates in these. Search “Shades” on the forum.
Until next time,
Good luck and happy crafting!
