This is the 1st year AGF kicked off at Suntec Convention, organised by Singapore's events company Magika, in partnership with Singapore’s Cybersports & Online Gaming Association (SCOGA) and Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL). Recent years we have seen the rise of E-Sports, (which I'm still having a hard time accepting), and over the weekend from 9-10 June, there were lots of games tournament and immersive gaming booths to challenge and entertain ticket holders.

That's right, ticket holders, which unfortunately excluded me... It's not often you can brag about attending a con at the entrance. But I'm not paying $15 to take a spin around Hall 402 N exit with zero merchandise. Since my laptop's hard drive fried from overindulging in DOTA 5 years ago, I've stopped seeing myself as a gamer, although I still occasionally dream about being Shadow Priest or Puck... Damn it was fun being support.

Unless you count visual novels, which I've subscribed as a permanent member until a 4D Prince comes along and distracts me long enough... However, it could hardly qualify as an e-sport with no competitions or live community interactions involved.

While I'm unable to provide a coverage of the actual festival, I'll be reporting on what went on outside. Judging by the number of international cosplayer guests they have invited, I was expecting enough cosplayers to turn up to warrant my visit. Thankfully, my 2 hours of camping like a stalker by the entrance proved to be fruitful.

Unfortunately I was still too weak to approach every single cosplayer, and to those who kindly posed for me, thank you once again, you guys R amazing.

&you didn't cheat and wear shoes from our world-



Za grand entrance to the exhibition that I was denied entry

They should have named themselves Game Festival Asia (GFA) then it'll sound like Anime Festival Asia (AFA)~

Memorable for the hanging bells by the hem of her top

&I thought she was Miku until I saw the bob @.@ 

If anyone knows who she's cosplaying as pls lemme know

Is this Marine Captain MIku, or did I get it wrong again @.@@@@@

Love the converging effect from the overhead lights and floor tiles

Look at her sparkly smile...! (Ok ok I failed as a pseudo-reporter for not getting their character names and series)

From that gambling anime, Kakegurui: Yumeko & Mary 

(they were the only pair I rmb to ask for their characters...)

I tried googling green uniform anime girl with photo frame, but I guess that's too broad

Hey, my friend says you have a nice body

Hi Kylo Ren

Captain Gorgeous

Hands down prettiest kimono lady

Ah I miss my Lolita obsession days

Begins: badass gals series

#1 Gun girl (I missed using the 0.38...)

Badass girl #2

Fate/Grand Order: Saber Alter Causal

On point facial expression... How could she made such a simple costume so bloody cool

Badass girl #3
Fate/Grand order: Jeanne d'Arc
Another breathtaking cosplayer... Perfection from tip to toe

Badass couple from FF XV: Cindy Aurum & Prompto Argentum

They look legit straight out of the game...

This Midoriya (Tall Ver.) has officially melted my aging heart with that messy bed hair & cute smile

...& the costume reminds me of Lee from Naruto

Last but certainly not least... A man/sword from the game that caught the Internet ladies unguarded... Now manifested as flesh & bone & melting more hearts: Mitsutada from Touken Ranbu

P.S.: I think your interpretation of Mitsutada is better than Numacchi da yo~

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It has been fun yet challenging capturing live subjects (compared to figure photography), since I have only this many frames & time to get the best shot. Hopefully I'll see you guys at the upcoming Cosfest too! Looking forward to ya future projects N good luck!

xoxo

Today's entry works on Photograph as the graphic design theme and photo-in-text masking as the motif. It is my first attempt at completely relinquishing the use of diorama in favour of digital background. This was challenging and completely out of my comfort zone of editing and touching up photographs. I think I spent more time brainstorming for design ideas than I did for building backgrounds...

By now my lovely Itachi, today's model from Naruto, should be no stranger to my fellow visitors. S.H. Figuarts is a line of posable action figures manufactured by the giant conglomerate Bandai, and my 1st Itachi action figure. Personally, any given day it's definitely scale over action figures, because the joints are seriously ugly. Plus it comes loaded with tons of exchangeable parts, and I'm usually satisfied with the default pose & outfit that came in the box, so those would be additional empty bucks I paid to sit inside. Or, are they?

Turns out, they're pretty fun, once you get over how hard you have to pull at certain joints and stop fretting over how you might break/ lose a hand or leg. They're especially an asset when it comes to figure photography, or headache depending on your perspective. Because of the million possible poses, it's mainly the latter for me.

He came with 3 face plates - deadpan, mouth agape-angry, and a death smile, and I would mostly be working on the 1st and 3rd (the 2nd one sucked, like, he only showed his wrath ONCE and it was just an illusion & TOTALLY not representative of my gentle Itachi pls zzz)

This shoot was carried out against a blank white styrofoam board - again at the comfort of my doorstep - and then painstakingly cropped out to be transferred to different coloured backgrounds. Since I have been editing this series of photographs over the week, even my mother couldn't resist speaking out what has been in my mind, "Aren't you sick of staring at the same thing already?"

I am.

Between searching for internships, falling sick, and figuring out the direction of my career/future, figure photography has become more of a temporary escape from reality than a pure hobby. I was feeling so sorry for myself that I might have unconsciously projected it into the images - although I was following the context and designing according to the anime (I'm referring to all the sorries, you'll see it soon). The lack of fresh inspirations means I had to extricate myself from staring at the blinking cursor and pull a pre-mature conclusion to this project.

Alas, I've certainly became more sensitive to colour combinations & rethink about the value of typography beyond delivering meanings.

I had no idea how hard it was the find the appropriate comma to represent the great Uchiha's sharingan ~.~

& this kinda looks like a name card eh

-inserts name at blank space-

F-O-R give me... You're supposed to gradually fall forward till F-O-R-G-I-V-E is spelt out...

Who tore my imag-

Glass font - prolly my favourite typography texture

Who says mugshot needs to be black & white

The iconic pose where he first appeared in the manga.

The context was: So I the hottest male in Konoha causally showed up in my village some years after slaughtering my entire clan but please don't mind my arm I'm just causally resting it on my criminal organisation's cloak because it's getting warm in za billow sleeves-

Keeping up with the polaroid design

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OK after a final review of the images I daresay I was thankful for persisting through. Even though the images ended up not wholly connected & pretty random in terms of thematic design, I decided to embrace them as different iterations for a single product. I also tried to limit my colour palette to mustard, khaki green, maroon, & purple, although in some instances I carved in & borrowed some beiges & browns. 

If I were to name my favourite, I kinda like the R image with the peeling wallpaper effect.

What about you, lovely stranger?

xoxo