It’s been a while since I made a special feature on my blog, now that Christmas is near, I think it’s high time that I feature another gamer celebrity on the spotlight. For Philippine Ragnarok Online and other Level Up gamers, she’s known as the RF Online Cora cosplayer from Level Up Live 2007. For the Pinoy cosplay community, she’s considered as one of the most prolific veteran cosplayers.

A professional artist, designer and gamer, ladies and gentlemen, I now put the spotlight on cosplayer babe Jac Ting Lim! More after the jump!

Master Diwa: Greetings Miss Jac! Please tell me something about yourself.
Jac Ting Lim: I’m Jac Ting Lim, born May 12, 1979 (do the math ;), and I work as a Senior Artist for a game developing company while I do sideline jobs like comics, portraits, commissioned artwork, skin art, modelling and making/renting out costumes.

MD: Cool! But why cosplay?
JTL: I used to design and make costumes, props and backdrops for my school theatres since I was a kid. Since cosplay started here in the country I thought I’d try applying my skills to myself, for a change.

MD: How long have you been cosplaying?
JTL: Since 2003. It was for a C3con

Photo by Erving Go. Additional editing by Master Diwa.

MD: That’s quite a long time already. How did you start becoming a cosplayer?
JTL: My college (Yay CAFA!) friend Wilson Tortosa was pencilling for Battle of the Planets at the time and he asked me to cosplay Princess. I was honored, of course, so I gladly obliged.

MD: How do you conceptualize a costume before you have one made?
JTL: So far I practically choose my costumes by accident! One of my friends would come up to me suggesting I cosplay this or that character, then I check out the look of the character as well as the construction of the costume. If I feel it would make a good (and ok, feasible) cosplay for me, I go for it. ^^

MD: What are the favorite costumes that you’ve worn?
JTL: Top on my list would be the Cora Mystic Lvl45 from RF Online! It hurts like heck though everytime I wear it XD I learned to design the constructions of my costumes better next time to include comfort into consideration!

MD: What was the most memorable cosplay moment you’ve had?
JTL: When I won Best Female Cosplay with my favorite costume at ToyCon 2007. It almost made up for having my sister’s bag stolen (I believe in Karma! Yarr!) and I gave the prize money to her so she can spend it to buy goodies for her babies.

MD: How much did you spend for your most recent costume?
JTL: Hmmmm, seifuku=P1000, violet contacts=P680, borrowed pink wigs from Ampao=free, cosplaying as Lucky Star’s Miyuki=PRICELESS

Photo by Mau Duque. Additional editing by Master Diwa.

MD: What was the most expensive costume you ever made?
JTL: Still the Cora Mystic, because of the suit and the armor and staff. It’s my first ‘major’ cosplay, and I have learned to pinch pennies since. :3

MD: What costume you had was the hardest to make? How come?
JTL: Tigerlily of the comics Kabuki by David Mack. Because for the first time I really had no choice but to rely on my friends to help me. My thanks to my ‘girlfriend’ Beany for the gorgeous Noh tattoo she did on my back! <3

MD: What are the awards / recognitions you’ve won as a cosplayer?
JTL: Best Female Cosplay of ToyCon 2007 as Cora Mystic Lvl45 from RF Online.
Runner-Up for Cosplay Resume Contest of Cosplay.PH as Aya from Oneechanbara Vol61.
Finalist for Gamex Con 2007 as Ada Wong from Resident Evil 4.

MD: Has anyone ever made fun of you when you cosplay? How do you handle that?
JTL: I’m not sure if I would define it as ‘being made fun of’, but I *did* feel a tad uncomfortable at the way some of the gamers looked at me when I cosplayed the RF Online Cora last LU Live ><

MD: What can you say about the local cosplay community today?
JTL: I’d say it’s growing, and I hope that it would benefit all in a way that it would encourage us to keep wanting and trying our best to be better cosplayers ^^

MD: What do you think will be the shape of the Pinoy cosplay community five years from now?
JTL: Goodness I wouldn’t know lolz! I’m not the type to predict stuff, I just take things as they come
MD: Hahaha, well yeah I agree if you put it that way. Aside from cosplaying, what are your other interests in life?
JTL: Comics, internet, games, movies, tabletop RPG and freebies lol!

MD: What keeps you busy nowadays?
JTL: Day job and sidelines. And games XD I mean… *ahem*, it’s work related. Really
MD: Are there any viable career paths for cosplayers? What do you think are those? (if any)
JTL: In my case I got hired as a professional model/cosplayer, and I accepted commissions to make costumes and props for fellow cosplayers
MD: What do you believe cosplayers can do to uplift our country’s status?
JTL: Goodness, cosplayer or not, just try to be better people. That’s what makes a better country anyway >< and ultimately a better world :p

MD: What are your future cosplay plans?
JTL: My friends in the Antarctica/Kyoudo group are getting into Melty Blood and they wanted me to cosplay Aoko XD It’s easy enough, especially since kawaii Tessa-chan agreed to lend me her red wig. :3

MD: Are you also a gamer? What are your favorite games?
JTL: I work for a game development company X3 lol.

My all-time favorite was Front Mission 3. I finished Alisa’s story and is still hoping to finish Ema’s story. Another old game I’ve been struggling to finish is Final Fantasy 8 (because I want to complete ALL sidequests and collect ALL character cards. Yeah I’m crazy like that). One of the newer games I’m getting hooked on is the Phoenix Wright series. And I’m presently playing RAN Online, and plan to start on Granado Espada since it has been announced that it’s F2P. And I’m so happy I finally finished Cake Mania last night lolz! I have been checking out casual games because it’s interesting to study how some aspects of their game designs can be applied to arcade games, which is in my line of work.

MD: Can you tell me something about your artworks?
JTL: I’m more into girl power, I wanted to express how women can do so much, and be so much without waiting for someone else like some white knight to save them and make life better for them :9 I like seeing the beauty and good in every person, for I believe it’s always been there, whether they know about it or not. That it can be seen by anyone, if they would only care to look

Photo provided by Jac Ting Lim

MD: What are your inspirations in drawing?
JTL: Life. Emotions. Media
MD: What are your favorite subjects to draw and paint?
JTL: Grrrlz! And I like painting *on* girls too :3 heeheehee! (I can has yuri raep tiem nao?)

MD: Who do you consider as your influences in visual arts?
JTL: I don’t necessarily call them influences, but they more, like, inspire me. I like how they show people that you can express yourself in so many different ways. So David Mack certainly falls under that category XD as for drawing style I like the works of classic Scott Campbell and Frank Cho. Currrves <3

MD: What’s your latest visual arts project?
JTL: Pilya. It’s been a year since I last made a strip, so I thought I’d go back to creating more of its strips. And re-introduce them to new people who have expressed interest to the series.

MD: Anything you’d like to plug?
JTL: Hmmm I’m primarily maintaining my Multiply site. Secondary is my DeviantArt
MD: And lastly, what’s your message to the cosplayers out there?
JTL: Have fun in the constant movement to being better cosplayers every time!

Photo by Jun Marcelino. Additional editing by Master Diwa.

Thank you for your time miss Jac Ting Lim, I’m truly honored! And to everyone, if you want more info about the Pinoy cosplay community don’t hesitate to drop by www.cosplay.ph. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from The Master’s Den!