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Fanime!
Still kinda worn out from the Marathon Con Weekend. Haven't downloaded the few pictures that I got yet, so those'll be in a separate post, but I thought I'd do a bit of a report.
It was hectic and busy and tiring but I had a GREAT time! Got to hang out with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tierfal and friend who's internet name I don't know (ack sorry!!) and also got to meet up with actionranger.
But first, the con itself:
Organization... could have been better. A lot better. I know it's all run by volunteers, but still. Part of it wasn't their fault; construction has eaten into a big chunk of the convention center, and so they had to move things like registration down to another hotel about 2 blocks away. But SIGNAGE. DIRECTIONS. Completely LACKING.
So it went like this: we got to the convention center on Friday and wandered into the main hall. Registration was obviously not there, so we asked someone, and were told it was over at the Fairmont Hotel. We got "turn this way and go that way" type of directions, promptly got lost, and decided to follow all the other people in costume.
We made it to the Fairmont and wandered around the front, wandered around the loby, went upstairs, and finally found a line of people. Were told that yes, this is registration, but they started outside. Okay. Back downstairs and back outside. We went into the courtyard and found this HUGE mass of people. They were vaguely organized into what might have been some long snaking lines, so we asked around until we found out which was pre-reg and which was at-con-reg, and asked until we found the end of the pre-reg line. No signs, nothing to tell you where you're supposed to be, nothing to distinguish the lines or route them in any way.
We stood in line for about 3 hours or more. First outside, then inside in a hallway, then in a room, then in another room. Then we stood in line again (thankfully shorter) to pick up the physical badge and booklet. At-con had it even worse, one person said they waited at least 5 hours. The early pickup Thursday night was even more of a nightmare - they didn't get the use of the room until late.
Okay, so I got the badge, and now I needed to get the artwork to Artist's Alley. So I open the booklet to the map, and ... Artist's Alley isn't listed. Anywhere. It's not on the map.
We asked at the info table, and the first person we talked to had no idea. The second person thankfully did, and told us it was in the big tent back behind the convention center this year. (We looked back at the map, and there's a note on the "street level" part that says "South Hall Artists" with an arrow that I guess you're supposed to know means "over that way down the street and past the parking garage.")
Which brings me to Artist's Alley itself. It was in this big blue and white tent structure about the size of an airplane hanger. Really big, really noisy, and with this negative air pressure that was really messing with my congestion and making me cough. I'm glad I didn't get a table this year because it probably would have given me a headache, both literally and figuratively. We initially thought they might have been kicked out of the convention center proper because of the construction, but the room they're usually in was practically empty. Now I suspect they wanted more space to put in more tables, because they make revenue off the table fee. Which I can understand, but the end result was not very pleasant.
Going back to the registration fiasco, by the way, they had apparently set up an express registration for anyone with an Artist's Alley table, which was a very smart idea considering that last year many of us got stuck in reg and had to scramble to get our tables set up. The problem is, they DIDN'T TELL everyone. They didn't send out a notice, and didn't announce it at the reg line. So most of the artists couldn't take advantage of it because they didn't know about it. Organization.
But I did get to the Art Gallery, and did get my pieces up. I was actually the first one there, so I got my choice of panels.
And, by the way, one of my pieces sold! The painting of Queen Serenity had a bid.
Otherwise, there strangely wasn't that many panels I was interested in this year. I went to a couple on EVA foam and prop construction that were interesting, and one on sewing leather that was very informative. It was a two-hour workshop but I would have gladly sat and listened to the guy for another couple hours, he was very knowledgeable and fun to listen to. The only other panel we saw was one on philosophy in anime, which was also very interesting, even if I did disagree slightly on their take on subjective vs. objective morality in FMA:B.
I didn't buy all that much. I got some really nice earrings and a cute ear cuff that says "smile" in Artist's Alley, and some stripy stockings from the dealer's room, but that was it. Not a lot of spare cash + not in the mood for merchandise. But it was a lot of fun, even if I was completely worn out by Monday.
Oh, and the skirt on the Lust costume died :(. I realized later that I'd never sat in a car in that costume before, and it pulled the seam out. If the clothing is keeping me from sitting properly, I'm afraid the clothing is going to be the thing to suffer. But now I know to take that into account next time I make a skirt. I had been wanting to remake that costume anyway, but it hadn't been high on the list.
It was hectic and busy and tiring but I had a GREAT time! Got to hang out with
tierfal and friend who's internet name I don't know (ack sorry!!) and also got to meet up with actionranger.But first, the con itself:
Organization... could have been better. A lot better. I know it's all run by volunteers, but still. Part of it wasn't their fault; construction has eaten into a big chunk of the convention center, and so they had to move things like registration down to another hotel about 2 blocks away. But SIGNAGE. DIRECTIONS. Completely LACKING.
So it went like this: we got to the convention center on Friday and wandered into the main hall. Registration was obviously not there, so we asked someone, and were told it was over at the Fairmont Hotel. We got "turn this way and go that way" type of directions, promptly got lost, and decided to follow all the other people in costume.
We made it to the Fairmont and wandered around the front, wandered around the loby, went upstairs, and finally found a line of people. Were told that yes, this is registration, but they started outside. Okay. Back downstairs and back outside. We went into the courtyard and found this HUGE mass of people. They were vaguely organized into what might have been some long snaking lines, so we asked around until we found out which was pre-reg and which was at-con-reg, and asked until we found the end of the pre-reg line. No signs, nothing to tell you where you're supposed to be, nothing to distinguish the lines or route them in any way.
We stood in line for about 3 hours or more. First outside, then inside in a hallway, then in a room, then in another room. Then we stood in line again (thankfully shorter) to pick up the physical badge and booklet. At-con had it even worse, one person said they waited at least 5 hours. The early pickup Thursday night was even more of a nightmare - they didn't get the use of the room until late.
Okay, so I got the badge, and now I needed to get the artwork to Artist's Alley. So I open the booklet to the map, and ... Artist's Alley isn't listed. Anywhere. It's not on the map.
We asked at the info table, and the first person we talked to had no idea. The second person thankfully did, and told us it was in the big tent back behind the convention center this year. (We looked back at the map, and there's a note on the "street level" part that says "South Hall Artists" with an arrow that I guess you're supposed to know means "over that way down the street and past the parking garage.")
Which brings me to Artist's Alley itself. It was in this big blue and white tent structure about the size of an airplane hanger. Really big, really noisy, and with this negative air pressure that was really messing with my congestion and making me cough. I'm glad I didn't get a table this year because it probably would have given me a headache, both literally and figuratively. We initially thought they might have been kicked out of the convention center proper because of the construction, but the room they're usually in was practically empty. Now I suspect they wanted more space to put in more tables, because they make revenue off the table fee. Which I can understand, but the end result was not very pleasant.
Going back to the registration fiasco, by the way, they had apparently set up an express registration for anyone with an Artist's Alley table, which was a very smart idea considering that last year many of us got stuck in reg and had to scramble to get our tables set up. The problem is, they DIDN'T TELL everyone. They didn't send out a notice, and didn't announce it at the reg line. So most of the artists couldn't take advantage of it because they didn't know about it. Organization.
But I did get to the Art Gallery, and did get my pieces up. I was actually the first one there, so I got my choice of panels.
And, by the way, one of my pieces sold! The painting of Queen Serenity had a bid.
Otherwise, there strangely wasn't that many panels I was interested in this year. I went to a couple on EVA foam and prop construction that were interesting, and one on sewing leather that was very informative. It was a two-hour workshop but I would have gladly sat and listened to the guy for another couple hours, he was very knowledgeable and fun to listen to. The only other panel we saw was one on philosophy in anime, which was also very interesting, even if I did disagree slightly on their take on subjective vs. objective morality in FMA:B.
I didn't buy all that much. I got some really nice earrings and a cute ear cuff that says "smile" in Artist's Alley, and some stripy stockings from the dealer's room, but that was it. Not a lot of spare cash + not in the mood for merchandise. But it was a lot of fun, even if I was completely worn out by Monday.
Oh, and the skirt on the Lust costume died :(. I realized later that I'd never sat in a car in that costume before, and it pulled the seam out. If the clothing is keeping me from sitting properly, I'm afraid the clothing is going to be the thing to suffer. But now I know to take that into account next time I make a skirt. I had been wanting to remake that costume anyway, but it hadn't been high on the list.