Help getting in character?

[Josephine Jo]

So, good guild I joined for the sake of help and giving help and general conversations~.

Because of recent events (namely, one of my country's most famous cosplayers) deciding to air up a Cosplay Mini-series (going to a camping with a group, cosplaying (in character), it's basically already sounding fairly epic), I'm planning on making a cosplay of The Soldier from Team Fortress 2 to participate because it sounds like a ton of fun.

However, I've never acted in character.

And the Soldier is extremely loud.

Now, I have The Pyro as a back up (going to make him either way), who's a lot more quiet/muffled/face covered and helps me get past my shyness somewhat, but... I really want to do the Soldier.

His loud personality would fit perfectly into the series (Cosplay Apocalypse). And ever since I put on an army helmet just like his'... I fell in love.

Any hints on how to get into character, specifically into the one of The Soldier, of who there's only a few 'Meet the' series and in game mini-talk?  

[tokkitoria]

One thing to do is watch/read/study whatever you have as him until you've practically memorized it. You want to be able to think in your head exactly what he does, visually and auditory. Then, you can execute. Practice in real life, I'm constantly practicing at school with my friends to try and get into the mindset. The more I began doing it, the easier it was for me to get into it. Now I can almost instantly flip back and forth between me and certain characters.

I hope that helps sweatdrop  

[Josephine Jo]

Godess The Hyper Fangirl

One thing to do is watch/read/study whatever you have as him until you've practically memorized it. You want to be able to think in your head exactly what he does, visually and auditory. Then, you can execute. Practice in real life, I'm constantly practicing at school with my friends to try and get into the mindset. The more I began doing it, the easier it was for me to get into it. Now I can almost instantly flip back and forth between me and certain characters.

I hope that helps sweatdrop

The problem with the Soldier from Team Fortress 2 is that there isn't a lot of material to work with... ^^;;  

[Ashta Nightrayne]

Getting in to character, if your not use to it or really the first tie getting into it, then it is slightly difficult.

The hardest character I had trouble with was the Witch from L4D. You wouldn't think that because she just sits or walks around crying. She doesn't have a story why she is this way, leaving it to popular belief or my own imagination. Having used ideas from other and my own I figured out a sob story on why she cried and a reason as a zombie why she cried and none of the others could.

Another cosplay being in character. My fiance cosplays Francis from L4D, the thing he used to set his mind into character was a little story we made up, other then the known fact that he was a biker. He had a girlfriend, once the infection got to her, she tried to kill him, he cr0wned her and now he hate nearly everything.

Anyways...

Like she said above, research the character. If there is not
much known about the character's personal life, use what you can find and you could create possible stories on how they became that way.

Here is a helping start for you if you haven't been here yet.
http://teamfortress.wikia.com/wiki/Soldier

 

[Dymagox]

Be the character not yourself....Ok, this sounds rhoetoric, but what I am stating is when you have trouble with shyness, don't think of yourself as you but the soldier. so you think like him, act like him just because your mind is working like him.

It's kinda like learning a language, you have to make your mind think in the language, so in otherwords, you have to make your mind think like soldier.  

[Lady Cecilie]

I know for drama... even in the small parts(yet still important ones) we became the characters for two whole weeks. We created there hidden stories and stayed in character throughout the whole thing. This really helped and paramount studios said our production of High School Musical was better then the movie... except for the fact our Troy couldn't sing. Try it out and make you whole characters life based on all the facts you can find.  

[XxGin Ichimaru TaichouxX]

im busy practicing for my Chrona cosplay from Soul Eater, she (and thats just my opinion kk?) is alittle more difficult than Gin from Bleach that i've cosplayed, at Anime Detour this year (it was my first con ever), i wasnt in character as i should of been for Gin but i was trying to learn stuff about conventions and visit and know my way around, it was basically like that. but next time i go, im gonna try to be 100% accurate at both of them. I practice like crazy out in the living room with Chrona, im even trying to do somewhat of the crazy backbend but not too far. I've got Gin down splat, now not to be too shy to tease people and be creepy. and Chrona has to be sad, alittle mopey, a bit scared around people. This will be interesting lolol~