Glossary

GLOSSARYOF TERMS

Armor

• Generally means any robot part, though it's usually used in reference to surface pieces

Articulation

• The ability to move, or articulate, in a costume
• The extent to which one has retained flexibility while in costume

Automotive Spray Paint

• A special kind of spray paint that mimics car finish
• See Spray Paint

Body Suit

• A garment, or several garments, that are form fitting; usually black and worn under a costume, though it can be different colors and used as part of the costume itself

Bondo

• A polyester resin product that when mixed with a hardener (an organic peroxide), or catalyst, turns into a putty which then sets and becomes rock-hard
• Can be sanded, primed, and painted
• See Fiberglass

Cardboard

• A heavy-duty paper-based product sometimes made by pasting together two or more layers of paper
• See Gumtape

Card Stock

• A paper stock that is thicker and more durable than normal writing or printing paper, but thinner and more flexible than other forms of paperboard
• Usually used to make patterns and mock-ups
• See Mock-up

Chassis

• Usually refers to a robot's or vehicle's body as a whole

Chipboard

• A type of paperboard generally made from reclaimed paper stock

Chrome

• A bright mirror finish used to give the impression of polished metal

Closed Cell

• A type of foam used in making armor pieces

Cod

• The armor covering the anterior and posterior of a robot
• The armor covering the entire hip region of a robot

Cold Cathode

• Thin glass tubes encased in acrylic that emit a very bright light when a current is passed through them; useful for incorporating into optics and other light accents
• Comes in varying colors and lengths; they are high efficiency, long life, and do not produce noticeable heat
• Full term is "cold cathode florescent lamp", or "CCFL"

Coroplast

• A corrugated plastic, similar in construction to thick cardboard. Can be used as a base of construction, or as a finished material. It is light, durable, inexpensive, and easy to use. Comes in a rainbow of colors.

Craft Foam

• See Polyurethane

Dekorgummi

• See Polyurethane

Dremel

• Catch-all term for a type of hand held rotary cutter, similar to the pneumatic die grinders used in the metalworking industry by tool or moldmakers
• An appropriate bit (or burr) can be inserted to perform drilling, grinding, sharpening, cutting, cleaning, polishing, sanding, routing, carving and engraving

EL

• Short for Electroluminescent
• Source of cool, low-power light without glare; they are very thin and can be produced in a variety of colors

Elastane

• See Spandex

Fiberglass

• Used as a reinforcing agent for many polymer products, predominantly epoxy or polyester resin
• Can be sanded and painted

Foamcore

• Very strong, lightweight and easily cut material used for the mounting of photographic prints, backing in picture framing, in 3D design, and in painting
• Consists of three layers: inner layer of polystyrene clad with outer facing of either a white claycoated paper or plain black paper

Foamies

• See Minicel

Foam Board

• See Foamcore

Foam Rubber

• See Polurethane

Fun Foam

• See Minicel

Funky Foam

• See Minicel

Gloss

• A shiny surface finish; resembles plastic more than metal

Greebles

• Superficial surface details that provide no structural support to a costume
• Wikipedia article

Gum Tape

• Made from starch or sometimes animal glue (gelatine) based adhesive on a paper backing
• Predominantly used for closing and sealing boxes and casings

Harness

• Generally used to provide support for particularly heavy or oversized armor pieces

Helmet

• The part of the armor that covers the head and/or face

Human TF

• A non-robot cosplay of a robot character; usually incorporates appropriately colored clothing, accessories, and choice armor pieces

Humanformer

• See Human TF

Joint

• Usually refers to an enclosed joint of the robot body, whether or not the wearer's actual joint is inside

Junk rig

• A costume made from household odds and ends, or "junk"

Kibble

• Pieces of a robot's alt mode that are visible in their robot mode

Lame

• Tissue fabric with a distinctive metallic sheen that is useful for making optics or other "bright" costume parts in place of electronic set-ups
• Pronounced "luh-MAY"

LED

• An electronic light source that can be powered with battery packs; they have many uses in mecha cosplay: accent lighting, weapons, optics, etc.
• Short for "light-emitting diode"

Lycra

• See Spandex

Magnet

• May have use in cosplay as closures, fasteners, or for the superficial attachment of kibble/greebles to armor pieces
• See Kibble

Matte

• A flat, non-reflective finish

Metallic

• A shiny, metal-like finish; usually with a slight sparkle effect

Minicel

• A lightweight foam used in costume making. Comes in many colors, densities, and sheet sizes. Has soft and pliable properties, however is resilient and will hold shape.

Mock-up

• A preliminary prototype or model of a costume piece, usually made from cardstock

Open Cell

• A type of foam used in making armor pieces

Parachute Buckle

• A kind of closure that is useful for making harnesses; it is small, low-profile, and easy to open and close

Pasteboard

• See Cardstock

Plastic

• A durable and oftentimes lightweight material used in costume building; comes in many weights, thicknesses, colors, and finishes; thin sheets can be cut with scissors and secured with super glue, but heavier varieties may require more specialized tools and treatments

Polyurethane

• A light, durable, and flexible foam that is ideally suited for rig-building
• Sheets come in many dimensions and colors, can be covered in a variety of fabrics and finishes, easy to cut and glue, reasonably priced when purchased from specialty stores

Prelims

• Preliminary drawings and designs

PVC Vinyl

• A layer of PVC plastic adhered to polyester fabric; comes in many colors, textures, and weights
• Certain kinds are useful in the vinyl over foam method of construction

Rig

• A full-body costume that is made from more solid materials: plastic, fiberglass, cardboard, closed-cell foams, etc.

Spray Paint

• Paint in an aerosol can that is released as a fine mist; if used properly, it can create a smooth, even coat of color on just about any surface

Softie

• A full-body costume that is made from soft materials: generally fabrics and/or soft foams

Spandex

• A very stretchy fabric that is either polyester or a polyester/cotton blend; comes in a myriad of colors
• Lycra is a brand name associated with this material

Styrene

• Short for Polystyrene
• It is a common thermoplastic that is white in color, and comes in many different thicknesses
• Useful for vacuu-forming and for covering armor pieces, among other things

Upholstery Foam

• An open-cell foam is a very soft foam used for padding armor pieces and creating softie costumes; it comes in many thicknesses and can be carved

Vaccu-form

• The process of heat forming a flat material, usually styrene, with a vacuum table to create hollow positive impressions from positive moulds. Most commonly used in the construction of Storm Trooper costumes.

Vinyl

• See PVC Vinyl

Vinyl Over Foam

• The method of armor-making that involves covering foam forms with PVC vinyl fabric to achieve a plastic or painted metal look. Most popular with Japanese mecha cosplayers.

VoF

• See Vinyl Over Foam

Volara



ANATOMY OF A COSTUME

Looks pretty good to me though I'd put human-former in as well as Human TF it seems to be a more common term. We can just refer one of the definitions to the other.

Coroplast...of which I am a huge fan of.

I'd replace Articulating with Articulation, just to keep it in line with the rest of the terms.

I take it this is just an in-group glossary, not Google bait?

Hmm... should the assorted materials be subclassified just under "materials", I wonder...

Do you want tool names, like Dremel, scissors, wire snips...?

I guess if we're going to be fancy, we could throw in things like headlights, LEDs, voice changers, sound effects, mechatronics etc.

Ooo, don't forget magnets in the materials list. There's a lot of stuff which can be done with point or strip magnets. For starters, they're great at holding panels firmly closed and guns to half-holsters. Combined with pingpong balls or smaller plastic spheres, they're also good for making panels and parts seek and lock into a particular position without manual assistance.

Springs of various kinds can help, too. Also fishing wire, very small pulleys or bits of teflon with holes in them, solenoids and other electronics, battery systems, cooling fans, ice packs and freezable gel packs, and assorted automotive sprays like paint, chrome, sealer etc. (For the appearance.)

We'll need to make sure that craft foam has all of its various names listed, even if afterwards it just says "See craft foam". So that's, L-600, Fun Foam, Funky Foam, and Dekorgummi I think are all the current names for it.

Other materials:
-Automotive spray paint (Notable for its insanely high level of durability)
-Body suit
-Lame (pronounced la-may, its the shiny loosely woven metallic fabric I like using for eyes).
-Sign maker's vinyl (aka sticky back vinyl)
-Volara

And we should probably name main methods of construction shouldn't we? So um...

Fabric Over Foam
Vinyl Over Foam
Plastic Base
Mascot
Vacuum Formed
Gumtape

Just so you guys know, I'm just compiling a list of words (materials, transformer terms, robot parts, car parts, and other stuff) and I'm gonna go and define them when I think I've got a good enough list.

Should we have an image with a body and different basic robot parts on it and mark them in different colors and write what they are called? Many tend to ask what is what when I talk about how I make my costumes and such, I think they find it rather confusing

I second this.

I like this idea though maybe we should make a "Materials Glossary" and a "Tools Glossary" and a "Construction Glossary" as well as a "General Terms Glossary" just to keep everything cleaner. Or we could just separate the main glossary into different parts.

Third-ed?

Alright so my idea for this was to briefly define each entry, link to the best tutorial/guide on said entry (or a better source if none exists on TCos already... probably would be doing this for most tools), and redirect duplicate entries to the most common term.

As for the diagram, sure. Anyone photoshop-savvy wanna do it?

Welp, I'm finally getting around to defining the terms.

Looking good so far.

A note on Automotive spray paint that seperates it from normal or Testor's, its stupidly durable, since its made for cars it can handle the extremes pretty well.

But otherwise, I think its going well so far.

You can add zip ties to that list. I don think i saw it there. if you make holes in two pieces and use zip ties to bind them tegether its very strong.

The zip ties are strong yes, but you have to make sure where you put the zip tie is strong as well. Its very easy to rip a still zipped tie out of a lot of things.