If you yourself are doing research to get into cosplay or follow a lot of cosplayers, you might have heard the term cosplan. If you’re new to the community, you might be feeling a little lost hearing that word. You may be sitting there wondering, what is a cosplan? Thankfully, we’re going to answer that question today! We’ll go over what it is, why you want to use one to help guide you on your journey of making cosplays.
The first question we have to discuss, is what is a cosplan? It’s essentially a plan you create to do a cosplay. The plan can be used for both people who purchase or make their own costumes. You typically will plan out the costume from beginning to end. It includes what needs to be purchased or made, where you will purchase from or how you will make pieces, how the costume will look and any planning for conventions, competitions or photoshoots. They can be made on regular paper, digitally or in a fancy cosplay planner. You might be wondering then, why you should spend time on making a cosplan.
Benefits of a Cosplan
Cosplans provide a lot of benefits to a cosplayer when trying to get a new costume put together. Here are some of the key ways a cosplan can be used that helps a cosplayer:
- Shopping lists – Whether you’re buying crafting supplies or the entire costume, it helps to have a shopping list. I’m sure you know how easy it can be to forget something even with a list sometimes. By mapping out everything that needs to be purchased in a cosplan, you can help try to avoid forgetting anything and ensure smooth transactions.
- Budgeting – Cosplaying isn’t cheap by any means, for crafters or shoppers. Mapping out the costume, shopping and a due date can help you budget what to purchase from where and when. So you don’t have to worry about going broke for one character.
- Visual goal – Sometimes, seeing really helps with goal setting. I personally need to see something in order to understand what I’m doing. So drawing out a cosplan helps to give you more of a visual goal.
- Goal setting – You can create an entire roadmap of goals and milestones you hope to achieve in your cosplan. Every little bit you complete comes from a goal you set. The goals don’t even have to be around the completion of the cosplay. Instead, it can be trying a new crafting medium or raising funds for the cosplay.
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