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[Ilafatyu]

How do you guys do it? Collect stillshots? Buy figurines? Take pictures of the manga? Do Google searches until you get to the strange depths of the Internet?

I'm collecting references right now and having the best time ever finding shots of the back, or something that shows below the knees in any sort of detail. Finding anything that's not a dramatic headshot is a hassle.

[Spiritman]

for me personally if there is a toy of the character thats my first go to, followed by watching whatever, tv or movie they are in and taking as many screen shots as possible

[dx7879]

Pretty much everything you listed lol. I'll go through some episodes of the anime and take some screen captures, buy a figure for reference, save manga images and google image search for more pictures

For harder pictures I would recommend just going through an episode of the show and doing screen captures yourself

[Ilafatyu]

Originally Posted by dx7879

For harder pictures I would recommend just going through an episode of the show and doing screen captures yourself

I would do that, but the character in question is from a video game. My camera doesn't like taking pictures of television screens, so I'm stuck with what people put online. I've half a mind to use cosplay pictures as references. xD

[piffle esque]

lol I don't really have enough money or space to buy the figures of the cosplays I wanna do, but I usually look them up on either google or ebay and save the photos. (They usually have photos of the figure(s) in every angle you need to see the costume.) Then I cross my fingers and do basic google searching. =)

[touchmon]

If I can't find enough pictures from search the internet, then I go screencap(if an anime). My camera can take pictures of a tv screen really well so I take pictures for video game references if I have to.

[Lithium Flower]

First I find a lot of images on google search or through fanart.

Make sure to have a lot of different angles, lighting shots, and sources from where ever you can get them. If the source is from say, a book, where there are no official images of the character it would be good to sketch out the design yourself or commission someone to do so if your not thrilled with your own artistic abilities. Just some rough sketches can suffice if you want to save money. Some artists might even take requests.

Then, once I found out everything about my character I skin them and use their flesh as a costume. Nothing beats that kind of accuracy.

[Ilafatyu]

Originally Posted by Lithium Flower

Then, once I found out everything about my character I skin them and use their flesh as a costume. Nothing beats that kind of accuracy.

That's dedication.

[Reily96]

Reference hunting can be tricky. For video games, I try to through as much official art as possible, resorting to screencaps when I want specific parts hat aren't shown in the artwork. I don't know how many times I did for Zelda - and boy was it a pain since often times I had to time things JUST right or else I wouldn't get my reference!

For anime and manga, I usually stick with shots from both. But sometimes, as I've recently found out, what you see in one and what you see in the other conflict. Tho I suppose that can be an issue in any medium, not just anime and manga. ^^;

[ShadowCharizard]

The #1 best-case scenario for me is to get my (digital) hands on the in-game model. Nothing beats the ability to manipulate the official character model that's literally pulled from the game.

In most cases, I do crazy hunts for pictures, though it's awesome when I have a figure lying around. If I really can't find anything useful, I'll take screenshots from (Youtube) videos.

I'm literally in the process of making Alex Mercer's blade as I type, and there are NO reliable pictures. I've had to dig deep on Google, take screenshots off Youtube, as well as take my own pictures and video of the game off my tv (I have a capture card, but it's a long story). The Mercer figure I own is pretty inaccurate, so it's no help. *sigh*

[Kell-chan]

For video games (so long as they aren't BRAND NEW), I can generally find the cut-scenes posted on youtube, or the "Let's Play" videos. In the past I literally played the game to get to specific scenes I wanted and took photos off my cell. Crappy quality, but it got the job done.

[SweeneyTodd]

I use Google searches, check the Costumer's Guide site (for live action costumes), screenshots (lots of screenshots), and Costuming Wiki sites (if available).

[CapsuleCorp]

Honestly, aside from the usual google, what I specifically look for with Japanese-sourced costumes is ARTBOOKS. Specifically, the character books that have the full costume breakdown of the characters down to cutaways, black and white line art, all side views, etc. It's easier to find them for anime, yes, but video games have them too. If it's not an ancient game (which is probably hard to use a capture device on anyway - for PS/PS2 games and such) then it probably has a pretty large artbook. We've got four pages of detail on costumes for the characters from Dynasty Warriors 7 - that's 4 pages per character! Full views, all four sides, details, design closeups, layers, even places that show how certain parts of the armor connect to each other!

Video games with dedicated fandoms and fansites/followings will have more resources. Don't just google the images, go to sites that look like they may have collections of pics or other information - sometimes not everything shows up in the search because google hates you. Or, they have artbook scans and renders in an area that doesn't come up in searches because you have to log in or it's zipped or something.

[HeartlessNobody]

It depends on what I'm searching for reference of.

If I'm looking for anime/manga/cartoon characters, I look for concept art, art book pictures, manga covers, look at figures if they exist. For the most part I just use Google or a wikia page if they have one.

If I'm looking for a live-action characters, I go for promotional images for the most part. I'll check the source of where the character is from if need be. Sometimes certain TV shows will have sites dedicated to them so I'll check those out. But again I just use Google and wikia.

[Noize]

Originally Posted by Ilafatyu

I would do that, but the character in question is from a video game. My camera doesn't like taking pictures of television screens, so I'm stuck with what people put online. I've half a mind to use cosplay pictures as references. xD

I do not know what computer/laptop you own but if you use a Windows computer, you can use the program "Snipping Tool" (Which should already be installed into your computer/laptop). Maybe if you watch cutscenes or walkthroughs of the video game on YouTube, you can use snipping tool to take pictures of the parts of the costume where pictures of that area is very rare to find on Google.
If you have a Mac, same concept but instead of snipping tool, you use the code: Command-Shift-3. (Hold all together in order)