My Builds: planning a costume end to end

My Builds is the project side of the Cosplay Realm. The Workshop is where you make the pieces; a build is where you decide what the pieces are, what they cost, and whether you will finish before the con.

What a build holds

1. Components, with a budget

   Break the costume into the things you actually have to make or buy — helmet, chest, pauldrons, undersuit, boots, wig — and put a cost against each. The total is the honest answer to “what is this going to cost me”, which is easier to face early.

2. A timeline to your con date

   Set the date you need it by and lay the tasks out backwards from it. A costume is rarely late because one thing took too long; it is late because six things each took a little longer and nothing showed that until the week before.

3. References

   Keep the reference art and photos with the build rather than in a folder somewhere. What you are matching should be next to what you are making.

4. A photo log

   Add progress shots as you work. They accumulate into the log for that build, and they are what fills your WIP Gallery.

Finishing a build

Mark a build finished and public and it becomes a portfolio piece automatically — no separate upload step. It shows in your Cosplay Portfolio and in the community view other members browse.