' The cosplay culture may be widespread across Japan, but just how popular is it in Australia? With events such as Supernova, EB Expo and next year’s PAX Australia, there are increasing opportunities for people to get involved with cosplay.

　　GameSpot AU spoke to experienced cosplayers Lucy Posner, Maddie Searle and Alastair Whyte about their thoughts on the hobby and what motivates them to do what they do. Every superhero has an origin story, and part one looked at how they came to be involved with cosplay. This time around, the process of building a costume is taken apart.

　　GameSpot AU: Tell us about the costume-making process.

　　Lucy Posner: For me, the first thing is gathering as many reference pictures as I can, from different angles, and getting shots of it in the game or in the anime--whatever source material it's from, so I can get a sense of how the costume will be made and what sort of materials to make it out of.

　　From there, I print them all off, go to the local hardware shop and the local fabric store, buy some materials. I think that looking around online as well is something that is definitely worth doing, because you never know when you will find people who have done something similar, who will use different techniques. Once I've compiled everything, I usually try to make a rough timeline of how long I think things will take me, so I can prioritise the harder elements first … [and] if they go wrong, I can start again. From there, it's just setting aside a little bit of time and effort every week, just to try and get through everything. I know a lot of people have different ways of doing it, but personally, I think that a little bit of time each week works the best for me.

　　Maddie Searle: There are different levels of cosplay. Somebody can buy a costume off the internet and go, and that's still considered to be cosplay. You don't have to make your own costume, but a lot of cosplayers think that it's better if you make your own costume. You get a lot of respect if you make your own.

　　There's a lot of research that goes into it. My first step is always to go onto cosplay.com and look through the costumes there, see what inspires me, and see if there's any tips that any other cosplayers from around the world have for making this costume. Making anything from scratch can always be very difficult. Then I have to figure out how much material I need. I usually make a list, I try to go around being organised about it. But for me, Spotlight's usually the last place I go. Usually, I buy my wig and contacts first, because I know that's going to take the longest to arrive. And then, construction comes last.

　　Some people may not go into as much detail as I do, or some other cosplayers. There's a lot of details that I consider, such as hair, make-up, nails, jewellery. I've spent an obscene amount of money buying wigs and contacts, just so that I can have the character truthfulness that I really want.

　　Alastair Whyte: I find the first part, and often the hardest, is actually choosing a character that I want to do and that I think I could do. Once I've figured that out, I normally do a bit of research to see if other people have done the character and what methods they used to come up with costume pieces and parts.

　　I try and find the most readily available materials for … clothing or armour that I can use. Normally, I spend time quite early in advance, and experiment with different materials and different processes. Often, it can take a few goes to get something that really works.

　　GameSpot AU: What happens with the costume after you've worn it once?

　　Maddie Searle: It goes into storage. I only wear them to conventions. They're very specific. It's very rare that I'll re-wear something more than two or three times.

　　Alastair Whyte: Normally, I try to put it in some kind of storage, but I also try to keep them in reasonably good condition so that I can use them again. Some people like to always have a new costume for things, but often, if I find one's really popular, or I particularly like the character, or I find the costume particularly comfortable to wear, I try to maintain them and keep them in reasonably good condition. Or I'll improve them so I can use them again.

　　GameSpot AU: Tell us about your favourite costume.

　　Lucy Posner: My favourite costume that I've made so far has to be Hsien-Ko from Darkstalkers. I wore it to the Gold Coast Supernova this year and I got a really positive response. I think it's my favourite costume for a lot of reasons. Usually, I do a lot of prop work, but this is the first time that I sat down and really made a costume from start to finish on my own. It's a nice big fun costume, everybody else seems to like it and I'm really proud of some of the props I've made for it, such as her giant claws.

　　Maddie Searle: Elizabeth is probably the favourite one I've worn. Not many people knew who she was because Bioshock Infinite isn't out yet. It was a nice change for me to wear a dress. It's quite a simple costume, but it was so comfortable to wear. I really enjoyed the process of making it and wearing it. It was just so different to the action heroes that I normally wear.

　　Alastair Whyte: My most recent one--Doctor Doom from Marvel comics. It was the first costume I ever made entirely from scratch, down to every last item. It was just a really satisfying process to get done, even though it took me a few goes to actually get it to work and look right. It was really fulfilling to be able to reach that point where I had made something myself that looked how I wanted it to, looked like the character, and was completely something that I built under my own power, and with my own techniques and materials.

　　GameSpot AU: Tell us about what you are preparing for this year's EB Expo?

　　Lucy Posner: Oh, yes! I decided that I was going to make a character from the Megaman series of games. In particular, plant man from Megaman 6. I have always liked the Megaman style of games and I was browsing around online, I found a picture of Plant Man and I thought "gosh, that's so flamboyant, I've got to cosplay as him".

　　It's been good, because it was a costume that I wanted to do, but it's also taught me a whole bunch of things that I've never done before. I've never tried to make helmets and armour before, so this was a big learning experience.

　　Maddie Searle: I loved Mortal Kombat. I used to play it all the time, and I always played Katana, who is Mileena's twin. I saw a video on how to do Mileena's crazy demon teeth, and it didn't seem that hard. I decided to make up my own costume for Mileena, because a lot of her costumes are revealing and I didn't want to wear any of them.

　　I did a bit of research, and I decided to combine some of her costumes from the '90s. I drew up a quick fashion drawing to see how it would look, and then I decided to go for it. I've had to improvise a bit; I've kind of collected all the details from all her different costumes and stuck them all together. It's going to be interesting!

　　Alastair Whyte: One of the costumes that I am considering is my Marvel vs. Capcom style Magneto costume that I've been working on. Another costume that I have used before, that I am considering sprucing up, is my costume of Ganondorf from the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

　　To find out more about this year's EB Expo, visit our EB Expo 2012 hub!.

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