GENERAL: The Cosplayer Annual is intended to grow the community and inspire others. Each cosplayer will be allotted two spreads (four pages). Three pages will be for photos from the shoot, the forth one will be for your write up about your cosplay. Alternatively, if you have a lot you want to write about your cosplay you can replace one of the photo pages with another written one. See the two examples below.

The photos will be processed during September. Written content will need to be submitted by the end of the month. Work on the layouts will begin in October and will be posted on @thecosplayerannual and the project page on this site as they are completed. The printed annual will be finished in November.

The digital Annual will be uploaded on this site, instagram, facebook, and behance.

The printed Annual will be publicly available to purchase through blurb.com (see PRINTED EDITION).

A link to reserve your time slot for the shoot will be available on the main Annual page.

LOCATION: The shoots will take place outside the main entrance of the convention. I will be using the large grey walls of the front or side of the building as a minimal backdrop. Initial meeting place will be outside near the main convention entrance at the little raised shaded grove of trees (left of the entrance to the Marriott when facing it, not photographer’s alley).

THE SHOOT: A low key, quick mini-shoot. Expected length is 5-15 minutes long. It will consist of three types of shots/compositions: a full length, a mid-length, and a headshot. Please have two poses for each type of shot. See examples of the three types below:

I may make a suggestion or two, but how you pose will be mainly up to you and having them prepared before the shoot will be much appreciated:) If you need help with posing, please let me know at least a week in advance before the con and I can try to do some prep to work out some ideas.

Shots not used for the Annual will be posted on my main instagram account, @b.nishimoto as part of the regular cosplayer set for the convention.

Once the photos are processed they will be available to download from the site and are yours to use for any non-commercial purpose! I only ask that you credit the project, @thecosplayerannual and me as the photographer, @b.nishimoto.

PHOTO SHOOT TIME SLOT: On the main page under reserve your time slot, copy and paste link in a regular browser (unfortunately the scheduling app won’t work in instagram’s browser). Select the date and time you wish to reserve, click continue, and follow the instructions on the proceeding page.

WRITTEN CONTENT: This is your chance to tell the reader about your cosplay. Why did you choose the character, what went into the build, what’s your favorite part, etc. Whatever you want. How you approach this section is entirely up to you! Examples can be found in the Fanime Annual mockup. The word limit for one page is roughly 239 words and for two pages it’s a little over twice that amount. The written content can be submitted via email (thecosplayerannual@gmail.com) or instagram dm (@thecosplayerannual). Please have the content sent by the end of September.

PRINTED EDITION: The printed version will be publicly available to purchase through blurb.com. It will be priced at cost (priced for the cost of printing only, no additional profit is made). Blurb’s base price for a magazine is $5.99 for 20 pages and $0.20 for each additional page, so the final price will vary depending on the length of each Annual. Non-commercial distribution permitted only.

DEADLINE: Written content will need to be received by the end of September if you wish to be included in the Annual.