Hello, it's Skyler Ostler again, founder of The Build Guild and creator of The Cosplay
Apprentice which through YouTube and live events has empowered Millions to forge their
favorite fandoms.
Welcome to video #2 of my free workshop, The Foam Forge.
- Now in this video, I'm going to teach you
why EVA foam is the best material to start with and how to minimize your learning curve
and maximize your results as you learn new skills and techniques.
And more importantly, this will help you gain confidence in your ability to forge your favorite
fandoms.
So if you're new to cosplay, but you aren't but you aren't sure of the best materials
to get started with, or you're an experienced cosplayer looking to implement techniques,
you'll discover how Cosplayers like you and me can grow your skill set as quickly
as possible - and why it's critical you focus on this right now.
- In video #1, we talked about a process for
creating costumes and props quickly and easily.
I shared how this is going to immediately help you organize the chaos in your builds.
So if you haven't seen that video, go back and watch it now - and then come back to this
one.
And if you are watching this on YouTube or Facebook make sure to click the link to enroll
for free in the full Foam Forge Workshop to get access to all the pdfs and resources that
are available.
- Today I'm going to build on what we discussed
by sharing the #1 thing you must master if you want to minimize your learning curve.
Think of this as your "first step" towards making this happen.
This is an entirely new way of thinking about Cosplay so you'll want to pay close attention.
I'm also going to share with you just how easy it can be to get started with foam.
When you know how to do this, you'll know exactly where to start your journey to Cosplay
mastery.
The goal is to break you free of stagnation.
This way, you'll never again be asking yourself "where do I even start?" and "how can
I learn it all?" which means you'll gain confidence in your ability to forge your favorite
fandoms.
We've got a lot to cover today, so be sure to have your pen and paper ready to take notes
as you follow along.
- Any time you're trying to learn something,
it's inevitable you'll hit roadblocks.
You might've experienced some of them already.
Things like the overwhelming number of techniques and materials to learn, the daunting price
tag on some tools and materials, and even sometimes the lack of instructional options
on a given subject.
Well, here's what I know to be true: if any of this sounds familiar, it's totally
normal.
But if you simply accept this at face value, you'll never get better.
And I know where you're coming from.
I get that it feels like some this is out of your hands.
It's frustrating to come up against these things - again and again.
I've been there myself, and I've seen other Cosplayers go through the same thing.
And it's especially stressful because you know that getting past these challenges are
key in becoming the successful, confident cosplayer you want to be.
So in this video, I'm going to make it easy for you.
I'll help you avoid these usual headaches by showing you the simple steps I follow to
minimize the learning curve of learning any new technique, which will save you lots of
time, frustration, and even a bit of money.
- However, before we go any further, it's
important I bring your attention to something that often gets overlooked as you begin to
see this on a practical level.
And ignoring this virtually guarantees you'll have a tough time trying to grow your Cosplay
skills.
It's easy to think that you have to be a rockstar cosplayer right off the bat in order
to be accepted and feel good about your Cosplay.
This is a dangerous assumption to make, and I don't want you falling into this trap.
But at some point, most of us believe this is true - myself included!
And this big assumption is why so many Cosplayers are struggling.
Coming up, I'll reveal the truth behind the old belief that that you have to be amazing
from the get go.
And more importantly, I'll share with you what you need to know instead.
- So let's get into the meat and potatoes
of today's video starting with Why FOAM!!?!!…
So, you wanna know why foam is the best place to start?
Well, Lemme tell you!
What is it that every beginner cosplayer is looking for when trying to figure out what
materials they should learn and begin using?
A material that is inexpensive but can produce high quality results, a material that doesn't
require a ton of tools especially expensive power tools, something that is versatile and
can achieve a plethora of different textures and material looks, and something that is
easy to work with and can be done even in an apartment.
Would you believe me if I told you that the answer to everyone of those qualifications
is found in Foam?
It is literally a dream material for beginner and advanced cosplayers alike!
It is inexpensive and readily available.
You can get a whole roll of it online for $12 or pick some up at most any hardware store
or craft store.
You have probably seen the professional level quality it can create.
All of these are made out of foam.
I think one of the best aspects of foam, especially for beginners is that all it requires to work
with it is literally 3 things: An X-Acto knife, a Heat Gun, and a Cutting mat.
Minimal tools and so easy to work with you can work with it on the floor in your apartment,
on your kitchen table, or even in a 3ftx3ft closet if your really wanted to and if you
don't get claustrophobic.
Lastly, it can take on a variety of textures, patterns, and be painted to look like almost
any material you can imagine from Leather to Wood to Metal and more!
So, you can take my word for it that it is super easy to work with and is the absolute
best material to learn first and is the best place to start your Cosplay Journey.
But that's all just talk, and talk is cheap (not as cheap as foam is but still cheap)
I'm not going to just tell you it is awesome, that ain't how I roll, so instead, in a
few moments I am going to SHOW YOU how awesome it is.
But first there are a few very important things that I want to cover with you that are going
to make a huge difference in your ability to learn all the techniques involved in forging
with foam and help your confront any fear you may have of failure.
First, let's talk about something we have all likely struggled with and that many of
us here, right now are currently struggling with and allowing it to keep us from becoming
who we want to be and from doing what we want to do.
That's right, you know what I am talking about.
I'm talking about the fear of failing.
Who among us hasn't had the thoughts "What if I can't do my favorite character justice?",
"What if my cosplay is an epic failure and people make fun of me?", or even "I don't
want to try that because I don't think I'll be good enough at it."
If you have had these thoughts or if the fear of failure has held you back from pursuing
your dreams, you are not alone, but right now is where we all team up together and we
look that fear right in the eyes and we say "no more", together we are going to stand
up to this fear of failure and flip it on its head, we will no longer be held back by
it, but rather make it serve us and help us become our best selves.
Failure is going to be our new best friend.
What are you talking about Skyler?
Failure our best friend?
What kinda nonsense is this?
It will all make sense in just a minute so stick with me.
As you take the plunge and start to learn different foam techniques and skills involved
in making wicked sweet cosplays it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that you
have to be or should be super good at all of it right away.
As awesome as YouTube and online tutorials can be, we don't live in the Matrix and
unfortunately we can't just have Tank download Cosplay Mastery to our brains.
But luckily, there a few tricks that we can use to help minimize our learning curve and
maximize our results!
Trick number one is Implementation: The number one thing you can do to minimize
your learning curve and perfect any given skill or technique that you learn comes back
to the age old adage of "practice makes perfect."
While it may seem obvious, it is easy to fall into the couch cosplayer slump where you watch
tutorial after tutorial learning different techniques but never implementing or acting
on what you learned.
One of the best things you can do to help you avoid this pitfall is to try and find
instructors or tutorials that don't just teach the technique but give you some kind
of assignment or action item that you can do to immediately act on what you learned
and implement the technique.
If you are having troubles finding tutorials on specific techniques that provide you with
action items try to make one up for yourself.
After each new technique you learn, grab a scrap piece of foam and practice that technique
'til you are feeling more comfortable with it.
The Second Trick is to make Failure work FOR you Using the FFFOFF method:
Immediately implementing techniques after you learn them really helps you to build up
the muscle memory and turns the techniques into tools in your tool belt but you can't
always just keep practicing those skills on scrap pieces of foam, you need to implement
them on actual pieces of armor or parts of your real cosplays.
A lot of times, no matter how much you practiced a specific technique, once you try to apply
it to an actual piece it still may not come out how you were wanting or hoping to begin
with.
You can either let that idea and fear of failure hold you back or you can make failure work
for you using the FFFOFF method.
FFFOFF stands for Fail Fast, Fail Often, and Fail Forward.
To quote probably the wisest person we all know "The Greatest Teacher Failure Is".
As we learned from Yoda in the Last Jedi and from not as cool non-fiction people like Edison
or Space X. Failure can be the quickest way to learn something and the lessons you learn
from it are not soon forgotten.
I know this sounds really counter intuitive and I felt that way at first too, but I promise
you that if you can change your mindset and view failure as a great teacher rather than
"failure is not an option" then you will be amazed at how quickly you will see your
skills improve and how good you can get in a short amount of time.
So Fail Fast, the faster that you jump in and just start making stuff, the sooner you
will fail and the sooner you will grow and the faster you will get better.
Fail Often, every new technique you learn is another opportunity to try it out and use
it, the more times you use a technique the more do's and don'ts you learn and the faster
you will improve.
Fail Forward, this is by far the most important part of this method because it reminds you
to not dwell on mistakes of the past but to remember them and avoid them in the future,
if you let failure keep you stuck then you are letting it win but if you use it to move
forward and grow and progress then you are making failure work for you!
Last Trick is the right Community: It is easy to say, don't be afraid of failing
and just get out there and do it, but it is another thing to actually do it, and that
is where surrounding yourself with the right community can be a huge help.
In order to embrace failure and use it as a tool to help you grow even faster you may
need to be part of an environment where you feel safe to be a little vulnerable, to be
part of a supportive, positive community that understands failure is a stepping stone and
celebrates wins and progress.
With the power of the internet there are many ways to find a great community of supportive
cosplayers.
Between Facebook Groups, Circles, Amino apps, and much more, but if you are having troubles
finding one you can always start a cosplay facebook group yourself and create that positive
environment for yourself and others!
:) A great community can help you grow and learn
from others, lift eachother up, and help one another implement techniques.
Alright, now that you have a game plan for overcoming your fear of failure, minimizing
your learning curve, and maximizing your results.
Enough with the Tell, let's jump into the Show, and show you how easy it can be to make
things with foam.
We are going to go through and build a vambrace together using the FORGE process so you can
see it in action and get your first taste of working with foam but before we dive in
we need to talk some quick safety tips: 1.
When cutting foam you will be working with sharp objects like razor blades and scissors,
be mindful and cautious to avoid cutting yourself.
2.
Anytime you heat things up they are likely to release vapors and gaseous chemicals.
Keep this in mind and anytime you are heating foam make sure you are in a well ventilated
space, and especially if you are adding details using any kind of burning tool that produces
a smoke protect yourself with a proper respirator.
3.
Working with a heat gun be mindful and take precautions to avoid burns
4.
Read and follow the safety labels on materials and items you use in your cosplays to make
sure you stay safe!
Just remember your health and safety is valuable and important not just to you but those around
you as well.
Alright with that, let's build a vambrace starting with F..
Find your Framework
Like I mentioned before, anytime you are able to leverage the awesome community of Cosplayers
out there and find an already existing pattern, it will save you tons of time and effort in
this stage and I recommend it especially, if you are a beginner.
In this instance the Framework portion of this build is going to be made super easy
because I am providing you with the entire framework.
It is a vambrace for a Sci-Fi character that I designed so there are no reference images
to gather together and you don't have to do the work of making your own pattern because
I am providing you with it.
You will need some 6mm foam, an Xacto knife, Heat Gun, and ideally a cutting mat for this
build.
Getting those supplies and tools ordered or buying them at the store would be part of
putting together your framework that you will use for your build.
Alright, so with your Framework down, let's move on to O.
Organize, in this step we will gather together all of the tools, materials, references, pattern,
etc.. and put them all together in one place.
So we have our foam pulled out, markers or pens to draw on the foam with, we have our
Xacto knife ready to go, our heat gun plugged in and ready to go, and most importantly our
pattern printed out and cut out.
In this step it is wise to quickly check the cut out pattern pieces against your body to
catch any overly large or small scaling issues before you get too far.
Once you feel your pattern is looking like it will work, you will also trace your pattern
onto your foam transferring all the labels and markings over to it and cut out the pieces
from your foam making sure to use the proper beveled or straight cuts according to the
pattern.
And with that we move into the next step.
Re-Visit, although we did a preliminary sizing test in the previous step, doing a test fit
at this stage of the process is critical for eliminating headaches later on.
Because foam is thicker than paper, sometimes even with careful planning our pattern could
come out being a little too tight or snug because of the extra thickness.
So I highly recommend taping your foam pieces together with some simple painters tape just
to get a rough test fit of whether the final glued piece will come together as anticipated.
Obviously, in this instance, where we are building a vambrace all out of 1 piece, we
can easily test it without much taping.
The next thing we want to do in this step is to revisit our work, double check that
we cut all of our pieces with the right bevels or straight edges.
A lot of times you will have a right and left half of an item like a helmet that are mirrors
of each other and so you will want to double check that you don't have 2 rights or 2
lefts instead of one of each.
With this vambrace if we were making both the right and left bracers at the same time
that would be something we would for sure want to check.
Lastly, we want to re-visit any details in the build that we might be able to add now,
while it is still flat and easy to work with so that we are not dealing with a 3D object
that makes it harder to get fine details.
So for the Vambrace here, we can score in all of this criss crossing details right now
before adding the shape to it.
With that, we are on to one of the most rewarding steps.
Glue, like I mentioned in the outline of the FORGE process G stands for Glue, but this
stage doesn't always mean we have to be using glue, it is more a representation of
the Assembly stage where our project starts taking shape and coming together.
So for our vambrace, we don't have any gluing to do unless you want to glue on some straps
or something but for this video we will just be give shape to our vambrace and seeing it
come to life from 2D to 3D.
Just apply heat to the foam using your heat gun, heat it evenly and then roll it into
shape.
You can reheat and reshape it till you feel it has the right curve you want to fit around
your arm.
Then Voila, just like magic you have a vambrace that has amazing detail and you are ready
to move onto the last stage, Embellish.
The Embellish step is where you give your item character and a sweet paint job.
To add character, you can add battle damage like knicks and gashes and really make it
come to life with the right paint.
Since painting could be a whole workshop and course of it's own I won't get into it
too much here.
I will have an entire extensive series of painting technique videos inside The Build
Guild but the basic idea is you can seal your foam using plasti-dip and then use either
spray paint, acrylics, or an airbrush to paint and add details like aging and weathering.
So there you go, easy peasy vambrace squeezy!
Now, what kind of instructor would I be if I didn't practice what I preach and give
you an action item based on what you saw here today?
I want you to take action and get set up with your beginners Foam Forging start kit.
Click the link below this video which will take you to a kit I put together of all the
best priced products that I have personally tested and recommend for you to get started.
In this kit you can simply hit buy all on amazon and that will get you your xacto knife,
heat gun, cutting mat, and a pack of 6mm foam sheets.
That way you will have all the tools you need to start your Foam Forging Journey.
- Let's do a quick review of what we covered
today.
First we saw a whole new way to think about failure.
You can use what you learned here today to immediately help you implement techniques
and make failure work for you.
Plus, you found out why foam is so amazing and how easy it is to use.
It's been a jam-packed video, so make sure you review your notes and put these things
into action right away.
If you have any questions about what we covered, or cosplaying with foam in general make sure
to submit them using question form on this side of your screen to get your questions
answered first in our live Q&A' session on the Cosplay Apprentice Facebook page Tomorrow
at 6pm PST.
- One more action item for you before we go
today, leave me a comment right below this video.
Tell me, what will life look like a year from now once you've applied all of this?
Changing your mindset around failure absolutely helps you gain confidence in your ability
to forge your favorite fandoms.
What does that look like to you?
Get clear about the impact it'll have on your life, the lives of your family, and those
around you.
So let me know in the comments below.
And if you found this video useful, please share it on Facebook, Twitter or even simply
share this link with a friend.
In the next video I'm going to show you the entire blueprint so you can know where
you are and what you need to focus on next.
It builds on everything we talked about today.
And most importantly, it outlines everything from just getting into working with foam to
advanced multi-medium integration.
I believe this is the most valuable training in the whole workshop.
You'll walk away with so much clarity about how everything fits together - and you'll
see the areas that are most important for you to look at right now.
So if you're new to cosplay, this will give you the exact track to run on to know where
you are and what you need to focus on next.
And if you're an experienced cosplayer, then you'll learn the specific steps you
can take right now to amplify the momentum you already have.
I'm even including a PDF download of the entire blueprint, so you can print this out
and use it as a roadmap to know where you are and what you need to focus on next.
The next video is all about equipping you for long-term success and giving you the big
picture strategy for making the progress you're after.
But for now, I'll leave you with this…
- Just by learning what we covered today, you're
one step closer to your ultimate goal.
You want to cosplay like a boss - and you and I both know it's SO much more than just
that.
Because it means you'll have the ability to bring the magic of your favorite fandoms
to life, and the confidence you need to put yourself out there and connect with others
that share a love for the same fandoms as you.
And that's what really matters.
So take what you've learned here today and start putting it into practice.
Maybe you're just in the beginning stages, or maybe you can apply it right away.
The key thing is to get moving!
You'll want to take these small steps which will get you where you want to be.
Next up, I'll share the blueprint which will help you cosplay like a boss.
I'm excited just knowing what a difference this will make!
I can't wait to see you in the next video.
Cosplay On My Friends!
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