Revisiting the cosplay database from a bit over a year ago! And it's been long enough that I can easily not think about sunk costs in the making of that version, and just re-make it, better! stronger! faster!

So: Cosplay Database 2.0!


It turns out that anime, manga, and videogames are made up almost entirely of edge cases, not that you didn't know that already. (Probably because people like to make characters visually distinct.) So ... need to work out what various things should be, and to do it in a way that uses multiple tables rather than the STUPID-ASS ONE table that I think I was doing last year for GOD ONLY KNOW WHAT REASON.

*ahem*

Anyway...so here's some possible breakdowns. Thoughts?

Costume's Gender: - What the costume appears to be, or what gender the character presents as while in this costume, as far as we can tell (Utena in duel uniform is still presenting as female; she doesn't appear to be deliberately taking a male gender). The first three apply to humanoid characters, the last one to non-humanoid characters (i.e. Black Hayate's gender doesn't really apply. Same with Kon from Bleach in his plushie form: while Kon identifies as male, the plushie form is genderless in essence.)

Checkboxes, so you could pick more than one option.

Female
Male
Another
Does not apply

Costumes that are the same for both male and female, as in a military uniform that does not have any gender distinctions (are there any?) could be checked off as both Male and Female.

Physical appearance

I was talking with Toby about this, and it occurred to me that I just need little drawings next to each option, for things like Muscularity, Skin Tone/Color, etc. Toby also mentioned a way of fuzzy searching for things like hair color -- imagine that color is a cube with 3 axes. Any particular color would be a point on that cube, and I'd just need to pick an arbitrary distance around that point to pull back in the search. And I could just put swatches down in the entry form and say: pick the one closest to the character's hair color, it doesn't matter if you're exact or not.

Also, if I want to put a thin<-->fat scale and a lean/wiry<-->muscular scale, what should I call them? Because a character that is big could be either fat or muscular: The Hulk is big and muscular while Juggernaut is big and fat. Size vs. Composition?



Database Tables:

Franchise (Final Fantasy VII, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Professor Layton, etc.)

Media - TV anime, OVA, movie, live-action TV, live-action movie, manga/comic

Character Incarnation (Utena in the movie, Utena in the manga, Utena in the TV anime)

Costume character physicality*: species (humanoid or non), hair color, hair length, hair style (simple to elaborate), skin tone (human-typical or atypical color), eye color, size, muscularity, glasses, gender presentation, height, hair texture, age appearance,

* because this can change between costumes - hair color, glasses, age, etc. Bruce Banner and the Hulk, while technically the same character, are markedly different in physicality

Character role: main-ness (main or supporting), hero-ness (protagonist, antagonist), ensemble-ness (loner or in team/group) TERMINOLOGY HELP DESPERATELY NEEDED

Costume characteristics: gender appearance, simplicity (simple to complex), comfort, coverage, construction (spectrum from can be bought with no or few alterations to must be completely constructed or ordered from specialty retailer), shoes (heels, boots, open shoes like sandals, closed shoes), tail, prosthetics, makeup (ranging from no or simple cosmetics to elements like gems, prosthetic scars, etc. that may need to be glued to skin), uniform type (if uniform, is it school, military, work, etc.)
 

...............................Mobility/ability appearance: This should go into the costume characteristics, I think, rather than the character, because while I can't think of any offhand, a character may be fully able in one appearance in a franchise, and partially or fully disabled in another appearance.  So:  appearance of physical mobility (as in fully mobile, partially able [requires simple mobility aid like cane], disabled  [requires complex mobility aid like a wheelchair] GAH I NEED BETTER TERMINOLOGY HERE (and other places)).  Emphasis on APPEARANCE because technically Edward Elric is disabled, since he's missing an arm and a leg, but as he's got highly functional prosthetic limbs, he looks fully mobile and able to an onlooker.
What am I missing? :)