#some are toony some are anime and others are realistic

[maximilliansblog]

How to build your first fursuit head for ~$100 USD (2023)

What’s good furries? I’m sure a lot of you have a fursona and want to make your first fursuit. I recommend starting with a partial just in case you mess up or fall out of the hobby. It’s also less expensive!

This tutorial will only cover the head. I haven’t made any of the other stuff and I’m probably going to buy it online premade because I’m lazy.

1.) Have a reference sheet for your fursona.

If you are an artist, draw (the best you can) a reference sheet of your fursona from the front, side, and back. I made a little turnaround animation for mine, but this is not necessary.

Not an artist? Don’t want to draw? Commission someone to do it for you. I recommend Etsy, but you can find furry artists with open commissions all over the internet.

No money for commissions? You might be out of luck. Ask a friend or draw it the best you can. Alternatively, you can edit someone else’s fursona reference sheet to make it look like your fursona. Yeah, it’s stealing. Just don’t post it and act like it’s yours 👍

You can also go into the Roblox game, Catalogue Avatar Creator, and assemble something that looks kind of like your fursona. Take a screenshot of it from the front, side, and back, then go into a photo editor (I recommend IbisPaint or MediBang Paint, they are both free) and add in your special details.

I recommend not making your first fursuit super complicated or some kind of rare species. But you do you. It will just be really hard.

Also determine what style of fursuit you want. Toony? Kemono? Realistic? (I don’t recommend realistic for your first fursuit but you do you). This will be important later.

2.) Find Shit to Build It With

Once again, I recommend Etsy. You’ll need:

+ all the fur colors you need (try 2-3)

+ eye mesh

+ 3D printed mask

+ hot glue gun and hot glue sticks (dollar store)

+ needle and thread (dollar store or Walmart)

+ balaclava

+ styrofoam head

+ fabric scissors

+ extra foam pieces for ears or horns

Assemble all of that. It should be around $80-120 USD.

Your 3D printed mask is the most important thing. Another reason to get a relatively common species. Mine was a dragon. Remember the fursuit style you picked earlier? Search on etsy “3d printed [style] [species] furry mask” and you should be able to find one. You can also get pre-made foam heads. I don’t recommend trying to make your own head base, because A) it’s hard and B) those materials cost more money.

This shit will take a while to come in so don’t get too excited about it. My mask took like a month because it came from Germany.

3.) Mark the Color Spots on your Head Base

Basically just take a sharpie and outline the different color regions on your headbase. You can also use a pencil if you’re a pussy /j

4.) Uhhhh Eyeball That Fabric Pattern and Hot Glue the Pieces to Your Headbase

Some people use duct tape to make a pattern. That did not work for me! So I eyeballed it. Made some mistakes. That’s okay.

5.) Trim Down the Fur Length

Most people use clippers for this but I didn’t want to buy any and I didn’t know how to use them so I did it VERY CAREFULLY with scissors.

6.) Fill in the Cracks Between Your Hot Glue Seams With Loose Fur

Look at all this damn fur on the floor! If only there was something to do with it!

Put hot glue between the super visible seams where you hotglued different pieces of fabric next to each other, then pack in some of that loose fur. Cut it down if it’s too long. The seams will be less visible.

7.) Hot Glue the Eye Mesh Behind the Eye Holes

VERY CAREFULLY hot glue this so your character isn’t cross-eyed. You can try follow-me eyes but I didn’t do that with mine.

8.) Add Your Extra Details

You know like whiskers or plastic teeth or a tongue or anything else you want to put on there.

Now you’re done with the mask part.

9.) CAREFULLY Hot Glue Your Balaclava to the Inside of the Mask

The eye hole should be where your eye mesh is so that you can see out. Also make sure some of the balaclava is glued to the top of the mask.

10.) Weigh Down Your Styrofoam Head With a Heavy Rock

Or put it on a stand. Or hot glue it to the table. Whatever works.

11.) Put the Balaclava that you Glued to the Mask on the Styrofoam Head

Pretty simple. The reason we weighed down the styrofoam head is because the front of your mask will be heavy and make it fall over while you’re trying to work.

12.) ????? Put Fur On the Balaclava

You’ll also need to like add some fur connecting the sides of the mask to the balaclava. Hard to explain. You’ll probably figure it out?

13.) Trim that Fur and Put the Trimmings in the Seams Like Before

14.) Take it off of the Styrofoam Head

You may need to cut a slit in the back of the neck of your fursuit head. Not only will it help get the styrofoam head out, now your head can get in and out too!

15.) Put it on

Edit it if something is wrong. It might feel crooked but it’s probably not.

16.) Enjoy!

Hopefully this was helpful! This is how made mine.

[jones-friend]

Making a (Fur)Sona

For no one in particular.

Great news! When you make a sona the only person you need to impress is yourself!

There are, virtually, no rules to making your own fursona. Typically it just needs to be some kind of anthropomorphic creature. And that’s not even the case every time! The only thing that matters is it makes you happy.

You don’t need to use realistic colors, you can make a mix of two or more animals you vibe with, you can use fantasy or copyrighted creatures, they can be toony or more realistic/monster-y, they can have super powers, they can be a regular ol dude, you can retain sizes of the creature like being palm sized or bus sized, there are no limits beyond find what makes you happy.

Which also includes this post! You could read this post and decide heck this I don’t need any of this info to make a sona. Hell yeah! That’s the spirit!

There’s a lot of ways people come about making a fursona and what they want it to mean.

For myself I wanted a kind of “mascot” or representation of myself for online spaces like discord and tumblr. I’d run other personas like Yeen, I vibed with alligators, and I like aqua/magenta as a color scheme.

Some people pick a creature they feel represents their personality. They go for the vibes. They do some soul searching and look at different creatures sifting through what they like and don’t until they find one that resonates with them.

Some people literally just pick their fave animal and call it a day. And that’s just as valid.

I know one person who loves mantises and realized that was the creature for them. And when they got told they could make a mantis sized sona they’ve been rotating a small mantis vers of themself in their head ever since.

You’ll find the reason people pick what they picked varies person to person. Just like how some people are more introspective vs some people are more excitable. If you aren’t sure where to start you can always ask others how they came about picking a sona. And some people change sonas over time as they change as people, you aren’t “stuck” with one forever. Its up to you!

And honestly, I thought my friends wouldn’t be as into it as I am, but they love Jones. They’re super cool about it. Its basically just a dnd character I can commission more often.

And if you already have a sona I’d love if it you inboxed your own decision making process and what you thought/felt!

[crizztelcb]

I'm pretty sure many of you in the ml fandom have no idea what I'm talking about so will show some examples.

1 - a toony is the most common found on the internet is the classic image of furry and you probably saw it somewhere.

2 - kemono is inspired by Japanese media and is becoming more popular world wide, they have short muzzles and big eyes, most don't have fully functional hand paws.

3 - realistic fursuits are way less common, they follow the animal anatomy as it is in real life as much as they can.

4 - semi-realistic is like the one above but using some toony or even kemono (sometimes things totally outside of those two) mixed with realistic animal anatomy.

There's some more out there, like inside those there's even more to search on! But will focus on the main ones first. I know it sounds weird to ask that especially since the furry side of ml is so small but as a furry I got curious over what style fits him best maybe I might even finally make a fursuit of him! For now I just want to know your guys choice.

[yourgamemasterthewhiterabbit]

All that said I think it'd be cool to do a live action thing with another plane of existence involved where they just use traditional animation for it, instead of CG...

Like heaven and hell are animated, and when there's an unsettling interaction between what doesn't belong in concrete reality and that reality you get this surreal 'Cool world'/'who framed roger rabbit' except not 'toony' vibe that comes out of nowhere and is visually discordant...

The animation is so clean and consistent and not 'toony' and played straight and serious that the suspension of disbelief holds within those scenes [some of the more realistic but still cell shaded anime maybe, something with Hellsing vibes], the live action is usually so normal visually, that when the two occasionally interact it really gives you an appropriately unsettled and out of place feeling.

And you could play with it too, like subtle animated overlays that you aren't always sure are animated or sure you saw. Stark lighting choices at least often enough, that brush up against cell shading.

Things that obviously clash and things that walk such a line between the two using some rotoscoping techniques that you aren't sure which you have been looking at all along.

Play with the fact that flat dark colours can be really ambiguous between the two mediums. Set up twists using the unique medium and visual ambiguity.

Many characters have a form they take in each plane that's appropriate to live action or to traditional animation, that may or may not be wildly different between the two.

You have your voice actors aligned to the live action ones already but you can add additional voice acting choices to the animated portions without it being obviously out of place, because it's animated.

It very much NEEDS to be a "our world plus something supernatural" kind of world that involves distinct planes/dimensions/realms/realities... I don't think something like x-files quite cuts it because aliens are too science and there's a lack of defined other places to visit involved [though aliens AND the supernatural could work in the right balance and with a similar ambiguity, it would just have to be more supernatural vs alien ambiguity and less aliens vs our own government ambiguity, because the aliens would be part of our plane not the other ones (or would they)]. Gargoyles wouldn't be a great fit because the Gargoyles -should- feel like they are a part of 'our' reality. Something like Supernatural meets Sandman would be pretty ideal. DC-verse could work.

Like Mary Poppins but make it serious and gothic instead of a flight of colourful fancy, involving modern techniques and crispiness, but taking advantage of rediscovering that yellow light alternative to green screening that's 100X cleaner [originally used in Mary Poppins].

I'd really want it to have an ongoing -both episodic and over arching- mystery kind of element with a lot of conspiracy flying around, much like x-files, because that's where the playing with visual ambiguity would have the most impact and payoff.

I don't have the best property for this picked out [or invented] -yet- but many a something Neil Gaiman has written or written for would be good candidates. Greg Weisman also comes to mind, and I always wanted to see what they would come up with together. Some universe that John Constantine would feel at home in maybe.

You have an opportunity for music choices like those made for "Lucifer" except with the potential of AMV elements.

There's a story I have been working on that would have just the right vibe [even if it would possibly be too short and contained]. It's a little Neo-noir but has an element of question of whether what the MC is experiencing is supernatural or a break with reality, or both, or a case of accidental unreliable narration. I just haven't gotten that far with it [not since I lost all of it on multiple hard drive failure events].

I have a vision. DO you see the vision?

[riftclaw]

Won't have time to finish either of the sonic oc showdown pieces i started but have not finished today bc i have a drs appointment so here's something i started working on in february but never finished about the differences between mobians/artuni (Amalgam's native mobians/other cartoony animal people I'll probably use in other settings) and terrani (anthropomorphic animal people of my original setting + the riftclaw not-quite-homeworld) which will probably still get used in the greater riftclaw species guide

the crux of the difference aside from the anatomy (w mobians/artuni being more "toony" and terrani being more realistic) is that mobians are all One Species with a bunch of subtypes, descended from a common ancestor warped by chaos energy, whereas the terrani descended from various animal species which mutated when exposed to the blood of the dead god entombed on Terra in prehistory.

since terrani are all different species, they can't have children with differing species at all, while mobians/artuni are all the same species w different groups of traits that get passed down pokemon style. they also have kinda distinct power sets, with mobians mostly getting chaos-powered super speed, strength, flight or chaos manipulation, whereas terrani get thaumaturgy which is manipulating void energy in a vaguely atla/nofna style. both of these things are tied directly into their genetics at this point, w the mobians/artuni all having some grasp of chaos power thanks to a particular gene they picked up that mitigates the damage caused by chaos radiation, whereas terrani are naturally a bit more resistant to the reality-warping energies of the void in the same way riftclaws are.

[spikeinthepunch]

im on the page that video games that just keep coming out that are Realistic graphics and nothing else can be boring but imo its less the graphics that are boring but 1) the same formula of Cinematic Movie Game 2) obviously, interesting art direction outside of said graphics

cuz like, i have been recently impressed and enamored by some games that have come out this year that do fall into just realistic category and not toony/stylized. and i think there can be appreciation for it, its unfair to ignore games that are making strides in that style. but its not just the graphics its the things that support the graphics. baldurs gate 3 has lovely graphics that i am pulled towards because of fun fantasy looks and the expressive facial animations from great mocap. i am impressed by alan wake 2's graphics that are complimented heavily by great color choices and compositions. i think spiderman 2 looks great and its realism plays directly into it trying to recreate a real location as accurately as possible.

what i find bad is when these realistic graphics are simply there to support an otherwise boring game. there is a formula i am sure many ppl are aware of-- games that just... feel like walking movies? i guess? companies that simply repeat the same thing over and over (rockstar games, bethesda, etc). whilst i am focusing on graphics and not gameplay, its important to realize the realistic good graphics are often just slapped on those boring games to get the "oh that looks nice" reaction that makes ppl ignore the fact they are not good games. they churn them out with little thought bc its a formula that makes ppl come back. Game Look Good, Must Be Good. and best way to do 'game look good' is the realism.

we all have the ability to recognize the actually good games in between these, despite the common realistic graphics, of course. there are games outside of the big studios making the same shit. but specifically i want to think about the games that actually achieve this in a worth while way. i cannot deny how insane games are looking now in terms of realism and it stands out when you can see theyre not just churning it out. theyre making sure all other aspects around it work with it too.

[itsdetachable]

what's it like wearing a fursuit? is there some kind of standard that the person who creates it is expected to hold up to? i remember as a kid watching a yt video of someone in a quad Epona costume walk around a convention on all fours/stilts and always wondered how it was possible.

Fursuits have an absolutely fantastic history! The first fursuits were acts of absolute love towards the characters they represented - made of really whatever ppl could get easily. Faux fur, upholstery foam, mascot suit materials. Over the decades fursuit makers have been making HUGE advancements, and these days fursuits come in a variety of materials and styles. It's wild.

One of the oldest fursuit resources on the internet is Matrices.net and Matrices has been in the Fandom since 1998ish. There's tutorials on the site that show various methods of making fursuits. I'm talking about this bc it's important since you're asking what it's like.

There are some basics to making the suits. Faux fur, of course, and you want better quality fur. Minky or fleece for pawpads and claws and tongues etc. For the head, bases can be made from plastic canvas mesh (though the plastic eventually becomes brittle), upholstery foam (pretty standard), or a resin base (these started popping up a decade? Maybe a little more ago and are pricier). There are also various styles, such as realistic, cartoons, stylized (like my suit, Asher, the suitmaker has a unique style), kemono (Japanese inspired, animated huge eyes with small cute muzzles) and oftentimes how comfortable a suit is is a combination of material and style.

A resin based, toony style head is going to be more breathable than one that is made of foam most of the time, because often the resin form allows for more room in the head for a person's head. Realistic style heads can be stuffer and slightly less comfortable, resin or foam, because the only air holes in the head are the tear duct viewing holes and the mouth. Kemono heads are notoriously stuffy because they often have little air flow (they have huge eyes, but the eyes often have plastic coverings to make them shiny).

Are fursuit makers held to a certain standard? Yes, I mean not like legally I suppose? But the furry Fandom does hold makers to a standard. If your suits are uncomfortable, you'll hear about it. If your service is bad, you'll get bad reviews. If you use poor materials or half ass the construction of your suits, you WILL be called out on it. There are, of course, popular makers that have avoided being dragged for things they should have been, but in general if you're doing a bad job and your suits are shoddy, people will not buy them and will also tell others about it. Sites like FursuitReview allow ppl to submit reviews for makers in one place making it easier to see if the maker you're thinking of is a good choice or not.

Now, sorry this is very long winded, for my suit Asher, it's decently comfy though stuffy. I did a bad job measuring my head before ordering and the fit is very snug. Not uncomfortable but stuffy. The eyes are a decent enough size to see through, and the mouth is open enough to breathe ok, so overall it's a nice time. The only thing is that, since the head is foam with a faux fur covering, it gets WARM. And there is SWEATING. So Much Sweating. That's par the course for a fursuit, so taking frequent breaks and drinking plenty of fluids is a must. I wore Asher for almost three hours today, took a few breaks and drank water on them.

I'm sorry this was so long. D:

[adhderall]

I want to make fursuits so bad. not the whole ass suit bc ugh but like. mostly the head and arms and legs because . and the head is why I want to do it, it seems so fun to make that shit. and I've seen some legitimately cool ass ones (I like realistic ones and very specific stylized ones, usually semi-realistic and maybe kinda anime-ish, and on the other end of the spectrum, kemono can be cute, I just don't like the common toony style ones. like they're not necessarily poorly made and I respect the craftsmanship either way but it's completely a personal taste thing tbh. just don't find it personally appealing)

[silasopossum]

just got the notification that my base is officially in transit to the USA, so im gonna discuss my plans for him rq :]

so basically, all my fursonas have historically been feline (once i got over my horse art phase. i was never really connected to my horse sona anyways). i WOULD have gotten a feline headbase, but the problem with that is very few makers specifically sell a BOBCAT base, it's usually a canadian lynx or domestic cat or lion or something. cool, but i love focusing on small details in species differences so it would bug me forever if i put my bobcat fursona on a canadian lynx base. the other issue is that if i DID make a fursuit for my bobcat sona, i would 100% want a realistic base, since her cartoony design changes so often. plenty of makers sell realistic 3d printed or resin bases, however i am NOT confident in my ability to transfer a realistic design onto a base myself (especially since most realism fursuits involve airbrushing. i dont think i could do that well in an ideal environment, much less my 115 square foot bedroom which is my only workspace). i just dont feel i would be able to do her justice... and i wouldnt really want a toony styled head for my actual fursona.

and making a base myself isn't an option because 1. i cant even sculpt clay symmetrically, it'd drive me crazy if i tried it and 2. aforementioned tiny apartment problems. im not dealing with foam going everywhere... OR learning how to 3d model and print or resin pour or whatever else people use to make fursuits.

so i was looking through makers just for funsies and then i found the opossum base by ligris cybernetics / ligrisprints. and idk why but every ounce of my impulsive body decided "YES. OPOSSUM FURSUIT. NOW." ive never even had an opossum fursona before so i have no idea why i was suddenly so sure about it. but i was! so i decided to just make a new character specifically for this project.

i decided on the name silas (at the URL implies) and i designed a quick character on the fly, based entirely off of photos of real opossums instead of already having an idea. this was interesting for me, since i didnt realize how common the white spots on opossum ears are? i always thought they were only black, but most photos i found showed a little bit of pink/white so i added it to the design

(quick sketch, drawn over the sale image on ligris cybernetics' website. i also loosely based this off of the stylization of my one other opossum character's design. the black bits under the eyes are going to be eyelashes, cut out of felt. the grey will PROBABLY be fur markings, but i might change that to black felt too)

opossums are also fairly easy to design, since they are typically recognizable with only two fur colors (white and grey), and their faces are usually mostly white. it'll be easier for me if i only have to buy two fur colors.

another thing i'm planning on is having handpaws- this will be easy since opossums always have naked fingers... so i'm planning on just buying a pair of fingerless gloves and adding fur to the glove part and leaving my fingers out. will be much easier to wear too

one thing im unsure of is how to fur a moving jaw... ill need to look up some tutorials for this. because i think if i dont add at least a little fur around the hinge, the mouth will look way too wide...

another small issue is that this maker tells tpu ears for basically any species EXCEPT opossums. so my plan is to buy some fosshape plastic and make ears out of that? ill also add minky fur OR felt to them to add the color patterns. i havent decided between the two yet, but i think painting the ears would look strange? even if it's technically more accurate for the real animal.

i also got some fur color swatches a few weeks ago. getting swatches from fursuitsupplies, i tried out baby pink monster, silver lux fox, super short white, silver beaver, and silver lux shag. i like the color of the silver lux fox best, but the texture of the lux shag seems better for an opossum character, so i'm unsure. the beaver feels nice but is too short for what i want the longer bits of fur to be. the super short is nice, but i will still probably get the fur all in one length and just shave it. the monster fur feels gross to touch so i'm definitely not using that. i already know what minky fabric is like so i didn't bother getting samples for that (but i probably will order samples when i decide concretely on what fur to get once the base comes in, just to be sure of the color before i spend money on it).

i'm thinking of covering the nose of the base with pink minky OR pink felt, but i'm not sure if that would work with the base, so i'll decide that once i actually get my hands on it. otherwise, i will be painting it. i also think i'm gonna make a tongue with minky fabric

tail will also be a thing. since opossum tails are prehensile, i want to make it posable... i thought about using plastic ball joints / doll spines, but i know from my longfurby adventures that those are kind of heavy, so i think i will use wire instead.

not gonna bother with a bodysuit, those sound hellish to walk around in. i'm just gonna wear long sleeves and long pants

another thing i an excited / nervous about is adding hair... i want silas to have hair. SPECIFICALLY revenge era gerard way hair

and i know a lot of fursuit makers create hair by putting together pulled-out yarn OR brushing out fur both ways... but i don't like how that looks. since if were meant to believe that a plush in the case of a fursuit tail is flesh, and fur is their actual skin/fur... then it's just like... amorphous globosus... or a gigantic skin tag / tumor... TO ME... many fursuits make this look amazing don't get me wrong but i just couldnt get it out of my head if it was on my own suit. so i decided that i'm going to try and weft the hair, like in this tutorial? https://www.tiktok.com/@chaoticreations/video/7334668616350092577 (sorry for tiktok link, i know this creator uploads to youtube but i couldn't find the short) and this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo4FCmT1DP8 i'm thinking that depending on how i'm able to fur the head, i might be able to make a kind of wig thing that magnets on? i don't want to add the hair directly onto the head in case it looks like shit and i get tired of it, so i want it easily removable. might use velcro instead... also want it really long in the back.

i also got the eye mesh pre-installed on the head by the maker. which will be easy for me if i like it... however i DID request slit pupils and i'm second guessing that decision right now. i'm also unsure if i shouldve made them green instead of grey... but i guess i'll see it once it arrives :]

i also was JUST barely in the sizing for a "small" size head according to this maker, but just to be safe i ordered a "medium" size head instead. if it's to big (which it probably will be), i'm going to add foam inside, which will probably make it more comfortable anyways. iirc you can also use foam to hide the hinges in moving jaws? so i can just use the foam for that too. not sure yet.

and i already have sandpaper and stuff for sanding down the 3d print. just gotta wait for it to arrive... probably a month since it's gonna go from poland to the usa... if it gets lost in shipping i WILL cry (since mail people love to just not deliver to my apartment complex. because apartments are haaaaaaaard to deliver to (even though all the doors are easily accessible from the street with no key necessary)...)

[xaeyrnofnbe]

(this is like. a joke or whatever. i did this because i thought it would be funny. also it’s only gonna be the people i’m familiar enough with, so not every member will be listed)

dream smp members rated based off of how good of a furry i think they’d be

dream, george and sapnap: 4/10. they’d be funny but i also think they’d be kinda weird about it.

badboyhalo and skeppy are a 9/10 they’d have the best fursonas and would probably have fursuits with some sort of matching detail. like something on their fursuits would be the others main color. it would be adorable and hilarious.

awesamdude: 5/10 i think he’d have one of those cool scary fursuits and like fifty fursonas. almost all of them are edgy but he never leans into it when fursuiting.

antfrost. 10/10 warrior cat fans are literally just diluted furries.

jack manifold is like a 3/10 he’d have one of those generic like wolf or husky fursonas that every other furry has. he’d be the life of the party though and his fursuit acting would be off the charts. everybody would want a picture with grey-and-white canine #127

nihachu: 10/10 she’d have the coolest most unique looking fursona and like so many fursuits from the best makers. like they’d be ranging from cute pink toony cats to those cool creepy realistic canine suits. maybe a dragon one too.

wilbur soot is a 8/10 he would probably commission a lot of art and have a good number of fursuits but he’d only ever go to cons and meetups in his skulldog mini partial. it’s revivebur themed. i also think he’d change his fursona like every other week. most of them are pretty ridiculous.

philza: 8/10 he would have one fursona that he’s had since like middle school and it’s some sort of hybrid fantasy creature. he wouldn’t have a fursuit but he’d be a fantastic fursuit handler. definitely a big furry protector and gives a lot of advice when it comes to making fursonas and taking care of fursuits.

technoblade: 6/10 only really a furry by technicality, doesn’t really participate in any furry activities but would have a sick fursuit. wilbur got it for him.

tommyinnit: 9/10 there’s a fine line between an animal person and a furry. he’d have a super unique but simple fursona, i think it’d probably be a dog. yeahyeahyeah you might think it’d be a cow or something, no. he’d have a cute and toony dog fursona that is literally just him. like a yellow/blond and white dog with big floppy ears and a bandana. the only reason he’s not a 10/10 is because he’d probably be REALLY active on tiktok.

tubbo: probably a 5/10 like he could go either way. he’d probably be a pretty chill furry y’know like not be super into cons and fursuit meetups and stuff but like he’d have at least a mini partial fursuit of like… probably something cool actually. his fursona would be one of those popular original species like a manokit or a protogen. maybe even a dutch angel dragon.

ranboo is a 7/10 he’d be really annoying and extra about it but he’d support a lot of artists. he’s got like several different versions of the same fursuit from throughout the years and it’s like a dragon dog or something. maybe a dragon cat but i don’t think he’d risk it. literally everyone would be able to recognize his fursona because it’s really well designed but like there’s a negative attachment to it. he’d be cringe as hell if enabled, i think.

quackity: 6/10 he’d be a weird one but would have a really cool fursuit of his fursona that’s like a really cool original species he made that has a lot of lore. nobody would be able to tell that he put so much effort into it though because the character would be the stupidest most insane thing ever.

karl jacobs: 10/10 would have a cute and simple but distinct cat fursona, i don’t know if he would have a fursuit or not but he’d be really active in the community. everyone would love him and his dumb cat sona. if he did have a fursuit he’d put so much life into it when acting that the character would be completely separate from him.

eret: 8/10 your average cool furry. they’d have one of those fursuits that are lowkey kinda…… but they’d be overall a chill and supportive furry i think.

foolish: 5/10 probably kind of annoying but still alright. his fursona would either be something super crazy over the top cool or something kind of generic and boring.

fundy: 0/10

[skidar]

Disney announces a ‘live action’ (hyper-realistic CGI animation) remake of Bambi

I’m sure most of the world is tired of the Disney remakes and sequels that have been plaguing the box offices as of recent years. With all the stories of the world that have yet to be told, Disney is opting to stay in the illusionary ‘safe lane’ and continue the hash out the same products it already knows will sell instead of trying to cobble together an original feature. It’s hard to believe that the animation company that backs amazing original tv show ideas like Gravity Falls, The Owl House and Amphibia cannot fathom how to make an original animated movie. Is Disney actually scared of risk? It shouldn’t be! Disney is literally too big. A massive media monopoly that could literally make flop after flop in the box office over and over in experimentation and not fail. So many indie studios do NOT have that luxury and yet still take crazy risks to tell us new stories in new ways. Disney used to be the animation pioneers but recently the only thing Disney seems to create are re-hashes of its classics that fall all too short. Disney is focusing on the visual realism in its films while seemingly ignoring the heart and soul that made the originals so successful. The most recent and best example was The Lion King remake. While the films boasts near-flawlessly realistic animals, their stoic expressions and restricted movement made them unappealing. The movie copied dialogue from the original word-for-word and nearly shot for shot but the focus on the realism cut the character’s charm completely out. The ‘I Just Can’t Wait To Be King’ number lost all its stylistic qualities that made the song bright and colorful and the character’s lip-syncing to the songs was emotionless and stale. The characters also no long moved with expressive freedom. Are they happy? Sad? Overjoyed? We wouldn’t know. The Lion King remake was devastatingly disappointing. A realistic skin stretched over the bones of a far better film while letting no charm or heart escape the cold, hyper realistic faces.

Surely Disney would realize the mistake and stop. Right? Surely they could dig around their submissions box and try to make something new with the skills they obviously have without resulting to re-hashing it’s already successful classics. Right? 

Wrong.

Disney now has Bambi on its chopping block of remakes and plans to do to it what it’s done to The Lion King. Virtually gut it.

Bambi cannot be remade successfully as a hyper realistic film today. You could tell the story, yes, based off the original book, Bambi: A Life in The Woods by Felix Salton, but it would not be the visual masterpiece of the original. Let me explain:

Bambi was the 5th animated feature by Walt Disney but it was MEANT to be one of the first. Walt wanted to make Bambi from the beginning but he wanted to make it ‘right.’ He wanted to stray away from the ‘toony’ simplified animals of Snow White and Pinocchio and instead focus on realism, anatomy and expression. He brought live animals into the studios and worked with animal artists to develop a healthy balance of realistic anatomy and exaggerated features. Ie: Bambi’s large forehead and eyes symbolized that of a toddler as a young deer. 

Bambi also pioneered new ways of technology, the early pan-shot of the forest in the beginning of the movie was made by painting trees on long panes of glass and then stacking the glass vertically and sliding the panes around to show depth. By sliding the camera on a track from left to right, the viewer was transported through a ‘3D’ forest that moved and shifted with them. Bambi also brought about the study of the art of water physics for the ‘Little April Shower’ scene. By filming and photographing drops of milk, the animators learned how to draw the intricate patterns of a splashing drop of water on a leaf or in a puddle. 

Speaking of animators, Bambi employed at least four of Walt Disney’s ‘Nine Old Men’ some of the most well-known character animators in history: Milt Kahl, Frank Johnson, Ollie Thomas and Marc Davis.  The iconic movements of Bambi and the other animals would not have been possible with them, but the biggest artistic influencer of Bambi was a young Chinese-American man name Tyrus Wong. Tyrus Wong had been an inbetweener animator on Pinocchio but expressed interest in Bambi by privately submitting some sketches to Walt. He was hired and became the lead production illustrator of the film. Tyrus Wong’s beautiful watercolor backgrounds were soft and simple, setting a film steeped in nostalgia, innocence and beauty of the natural world. Without Tyrus Wong, the film would have been completely different. 

Bambi was also the first Walt Disney film to recognize a woman in its screen credits. Traditionally, women often worked in the Disney Ink and Paint department coloring cels. Retta Scott was a storyboard artist that worked mostly on scenes with Bambi and his mother, but became well known for her savage hunting dogs sketches that caught the eye of Walt Disney during production. Many men were shocked at the ferocity of her dogs because ‘she was a women and shouldn’t have been able to draw something so vicious,’ but she became the lead animator for the hunting dogs that chased Faline during Man’s hunt. She was tutored by another member of the Nine Old Men, Eric Larson. Retta Scott’s continued yet under-appreciated success opened doors for many women in the animation industry.

Bambi was a film of massive risks and little payoff. It challenged style, it pushed animators to their limits, it experimented in technology, color and technique. It opened doors for marginalized people that usually had doors slammed in their face. It received backlash for its violence and the anguish of loss and its questionable suitability for children. Bambi broke boundaries… but wasn’t much a success until it’s future re-releases. 

Bringing us back to the present. Disney announces a Bambi remake similar to the failed ‘Lion King.’ There will be no luscious backgrounds of Tyrus Wong. There will be no jaunty gaited fawns crafted by the masterful Nine Old Men. There will be no ferocious hounds carved by the hand of Retta Scott to make a path for women. There will be a story of a deer in the woods. A ‘real deer’ in ‘real woods.’ It will be hollow and lifeless. It will be eye-candy at best, but it will not be better than the original. The original is a true masterpiece. It is not something that needs to be redone or retold. Bambi was a risk, a risk that didn’t pay off in the beginning but today it is a marvel. A true testament of art and love of the craft and it cannot be replaced. Disney should not remake Bambi, they should learn from it, they should learn that they are big enough to take risks and they can. They should learn to give marginalized creators a chance to shine because they have something amazing to share. They need to let go, move on, and embrace the fear of the untold story. I hope that in the years to come, the age of remakes and sequels will stop and we can look forward to a new era of wonderful stories that get to be told for the first time in animation.

--

Bambi is my favorite movie in the world. I have seen it well into the hundreds if not quad digits. I watch it when I’m happy, I watch it when I’m devastated. I watch it when I’m sick and I watch it when I wake up from a nightmare and can’t fall back asleep. Bambi is what made me want to become an artist and I have a lot of personal feelings about the movie as a work of art. I’m not looking forward to the remake, I can only hope and hope and hope that Disney learned from the Lion King and won’t make the same mistakes again. Until then, we just have to wait...

[worldbuildguild]

Im having trouble pushing expressions and putting shading and determining the light source. Any sort of help would be appreciated.

Squashing and exaggerating expressions is something I need to look into as well. As it can be hard to really find a balance for yourself. Of course, this all comes down to your style. A toony’ style like yours should be able to hold a great deal of compression and stretching, in comparison to something a little more semi-realistic. 

I’m sure you already know the concept of compressing and stretching. Modelling a character’s face off-model ( off-model: A feature or structure of a character that crosses the boundaries set by its initial design. Whether by intention or mistake )   to accommodate for exaggerated features such as bulging eyes or gaping mouth. The technique is frequently used by animators to bring more flair and dynamic life into their character’s.

An example above being the second face from the left. The corner of the character’s mouth reaches past the boundaries of the skull, and thusly forces the cheeks to stretch outside its base model.  To be able to do this, it is important that you have an in-depth grasp at anatomy AND your own style. As your understanding of the body and its functions can help you gain an understanding of just how far you can push certain features before the exaggeration becomes uncanny.  If it helps, imagining the space between the chin to the top of the cheeks as a rubber band can visualize the core idea of this concept. Meaning that the more you stretch the rubber band, the slimmer the breadth of it will be. 

As for lighting on toony styles like this, I recommend you focus on blocking out the character into chunks. My usual thumb rule is that the light should only grace half of the face, cutting somewhere over the bridge of the nose, and then only come in clusters on the other half. This of course only works if you’re working with light sources situated immediately to the side of your character. But the method remains the same. Start big, and then work your way down.  For more reading on this, I’ll link you these posts about shading.  ( i really need to sit down and make a shading tutorial that’s more cohesive, don’t I? ) 

https://theredlinestation.tumblr.com/post/180562476178/ive-been-trying-more-semi-realism-lately-and-i

https://theredlinestation.tumblr.com/post/176167945086/i-feel-the-head-to-neck-placement-is-a-little-off

https://theredlinestation.tumblr.com/post/180858440634/hello-there-i-need-some-help-with-my-drawing-im

https://theredlinestation.tumblr.com/post/180752744103/thanks-in-advance-for-you-help-this-was-my-first

- mod wackart ( ko-fi ) 

Original art by: @rags-the-ragdoll

[candiphoenixesartblog]

Prices:

$2.50 for sketches

$5 for Lineart

$10 for full colors

Tips are optional, but greatly appreciated

Rules:

⭐️Please have a reference of your character on hand. This will ensure they are drawn correctly.

⭐️No Stolen Art. I do perform signature checks and reverse searches if you have been suspected of art theft.

⭐️References of YOUR CHARACTERS drawn by others are ok if you don’t have a full reference.

⭐️Specify details for the commission such as:

-Poses

-Costumes

-Prompts

Or

-actions/interactions

⭐️No Mature or Unsafe Content. This includes and is not limited to:

-P0R• Material

-NSIWE Material (anything deemed not fit or permitted in work or school environments)

-Excessive Blood and Gore (unless we’re talking actual Zombies or Monsters, it’s a no go)

-Hate or Anti Material (if it involves reflecting hate towards non-heterosexuals, non-Americanized Religions, non-whites, et.c., I WILL NOT DRAW IT!)

-🍺💊 references (basically if it involves getting drunk or high, it’s a no go)

-References of harmful behavior being committed to character (this includes rape, abuse, suicide, et.c.)

- Fetishizations (stuff that can be classified as kinks are a no go)

- Excessive Nakedness (basically if they show a tit or dinghy, they’re out of the ring,eh)

- Ped. Material (basically if they are a little kid being with an adult in a questionably sexual manner, it’s a no go)

- pol. prop. (This ties in with the hate/antagonist material, but it can be worse)

⭐️Material I will draw includes:

-Cartoon Characters (this includes characters from various eras and genres)

-Mythical Creatures and Cryptids (this includes monsters and creatures in various Mythos and lores)

-Video Game Characters, to an extent (if they’re realistic in appearance or have complex design elements, I may have difficulties drawing it)

- Mechanical gadgetry and vehicles (again, if it has a very complex design, I may have some difficulties drawing it)

-Anthropomorphic Characters (as long as it does not have elements from the Mature content list, I will draw it)

-Background elements

-Animals (realistic and toony)

-Human and Human-like characters (Elves, Faeries, and anything else human like in appearance)

-Stylized Art (Stylizations I can draw include Tribal Art, Stained Glass Stylization, Various Cartoon Stylizations, Pop Art, and Era Based Art Stylization.)

-Anything else

⭐️Paypal will be sent to you once the initial messaging is completed. I also check to ensure you aren’t on the con list for commissions (basically people who don’t pay for commissions or swindle money from the commissioned to get free art)

I can be contacted via Tumblr Private Messaging, Twitter Direct Messaging, Amino Chat or DeviantArt via Note.

[qiaopanda-blog]

Tree Growth!

Ended up doing everything tech. The good thing is that it’s kind of fun tho. I did not pick up this one because the first thing came to my mind is recursive data structure. So I was like, huh, let cs ppl handle this shit. However, I was using some different approach to this problem. 

1. Problem

We want to have some animation looks like this:

A post shared by Hayden Zezula (@zolloc) on Jan 6, 2017 at 6:48pm PST

(Art by Hayden Zezula)

To be more specific, the growth should be slow and detailed. The default Maya tree generation is not what we are looking for. The tree has a very undesired realistic style look but the growth process is basically just scaling. So we have to figure out some other way to make our apple tree have a toony growing.  

2. Solution

The current tree growing is like this:

My approach is to use separate joint chains for each twig. Each joint is assigned with a loop of vertices.  In this way, the animator (me) can bend and stretch all the twigs any way I want. 

joint chains have their levels. For example, the big main tree is on level one. Level 1 contains all the twigs that are growing from frame 1 - 40. Then the second layer contains all the twigs that are growing from frame 41 to frame 80. And so on. Each joint chain’s rotation and translation values are normalized as some float between 0 and 10, so that an attribute from 0 to 10 can be used to control a whole twig’s growth. Simple math will make it look very nice.

This playblast can explain better:

[mic-and-cheese]

I can’t believe I haven’t uploaded Akiko’s full ref here yet???

Bio under the cut, contains spoilers for Danganronpa 2 and 3

Full name: Akiko Hirose

Gender: questioning nonbinary (she/her)

Age: 22

Birthday: June 26

Sexuality: demiromantic asexual

Personality:

Being as small as she is, with a talent that could be considered quite strange by some, Akiko has adopted a tough attitude and quick tongue to fend off anyone who dares mess with her. In reality, she faces very little conflict due to her quiet but complacent and agreeable nature, as she doesn't go out of her way to cause conflict. However, when she's fursuiting, the opportunity to be someone other than herself even just briefly changes her personality upside down, becoming much more outgoing and excitable. She's very easily annoyed and won't put up with things that rub her the wrong way, often snapping at or yelling at people who cross her. When she's sad, she'll get angry at the person or thing that made her sad. She doesn't like to show affection openly, as it embarrasses her, but she shows affection through her loyalty.

Likes: daydreaming, fursuits, animals, cute things, and sweets

Dislikes: the cold, romance, people knowing that she likes ‘girly’ things, and her talent

History:

A student attending Hope's Peak academy, accepted into the school for her talent: The Ultimate Furry. With this talent, she is skilled at anything and everything furries are known for, including the ability to organize people and plan events well, draw, dance, act, and of course, fursuit. Akiko is an extremely convincing fursuiter who's been able to trick people into thinking she's a real animal.

She was a member of Ultimate Despair following the Tragedy at Hope's Peak, using her talent to conceal her identity and cause many murders through bombings and other methods, as well as setting up "cons" that masqueraded as a safe haven for those effected by The Tragedy, but these gatherings were actually used as a means to round people up and kill them.

-mentions of suicide-

During the events of the school trip killing game, being around so much death effected her greatly and she became even more shut in and unstable, having difficulty trusting people, becoming hypervigilant, hostile, and suffering from frequent nightmares. She later commits suicide. However, because events of this trip were purely a simulation meant to recondition her and her classmates out of their beliefs as Ultimate Despair, she did not actually die and was able to recant her beliefs.

See her full characterization here

Physical Appearance:

Akiko is a rather short person, standing at 4'7". She wears fake whiskers, ears, and tail

Fursuits:

Lantana:

species - raccoon

type of suit - toony fullsuit

features - sparkly fur, light up pawpads, moving jaw, and animatronic tail and facial features

description/personality: Lantana is a highly advanced fursuit, created by Akiko herself. In the furry community, she is most well known by Lantana. Lantana is the exact opposite of Akiko, peppy, excitable, and extremely social.

Marmalade:

species - unicorn

type of suit - kemono partial

features - moving jaw, light up blush

description/personality: Marmalade is a rather cutesey fursuit that could easily be considered Akiko's most girly fursuit. She uses this suit to express her more girly, childish side, as Marmalade has the personality of a shy, but curious toddler

Honey:

species - American black bear

type of suit - realistic quadsuit

features - sound box, moving jaw, and moving jaw, and animatronic facial features

description/personality: Honey acts just like a real bear cub, and is rather inquisitive, but also startles easily and is prone to stealing food. Due to the suit's sound box and Akiko's spot-on acting, she is able to convince people into thinking she's a real bear cub.

[fantabulosogamedev]

Midweek Update: Stylish Shamrocks

Hey everyone,

As you might be able to guess from the late posting of this MU, this week was a tough week in terms of getting work done due to the severity of the aforementioned personal issues.  However, I still got a sizeable amount of work done, and I’m hoping that I’ll be able to rally my work ethic and get back to normal summer content for next week.

(full size here)

The Shamrock Fort is mostly completely detailed now!  Both windows and doors have been added to the buildings, improving their general appearance and livening up the area.  Before the demo, I’ll also add a number of even more fine-detailed and likely destructible objects -- cannonball piles, carts, crates, and more!  Furthermore, a couple of interesting structures have been added: a road, a fountain, and a gate.

(full size here)

The road and the fountain are simply more detailing; the fountain is just a fountain, while the road leads from the gate to the main mountain base.  This gate will, in the demo, be unopenable by Capboy -- it leads to the staging area that the Shamrocks use to reach the Fightyplace, a cliffside along the northeastern coast of Fantaria.  Perhaps Capboy will eventually find a way to open it with something later on in his adventure?

(full size here)

I’ve also begun work on a more combat-oriented window.  I’m not happy with its appearance yet, and will tweak it until it looks better, but I figured it was worth mentioning.

(animated)

The Floatatron has now been animated as well.  The bobbing may be removed if I can’t get enemy AI to work properly on it, but I’ll try my best to find a workaround before scrapping it entirely, as I know that the effect adds a lot to the animation.

(full size here)

Finally in terms of new content, although it’s in an extremely rudimentary state, here’s the current work done on the exterior of the mountain base.  Of special note is the elevator on the small arch over the river: this elevator will be a shortcut that Capboy can activate from above, to help speed up his ascent if he dies or falls down on the way up -- though there’ll be an effigy at the very top of the mountain, mini-checkpoints will be the only things (if anything) that keep his progress partway through, thus the need for a shortcut.

One last thing: I’m considering switching the shaders again.  Those who have been following the project for a long time will know that about a year ago, I decided to forgo cartoony shaders in favor of Unity’s more realistic Standard Shader.  As the game’s evolved, I’ve decided that I’d prefer cartoony shaders -- but not the original implementation, because I simply don’t have the shader talent to make it look good.  As a result, I’m considering purchasing the package Toony Colors Pro 2 -- using the free version, I made some mockups of the new shaders’ appearances below (no full sizes included since they don’t really add all that much detail):

Capboy is the most blatantly improved thing about these shaders -- the rim lighting and generally toony aesthetic do wonders for his simple, untextured design.  It would also be further improved if I were to get the paid version, as it features a very interesting halftone effect -- something that would synchronize very nicely with the plan for cutscenes.

These 3 images all show the same approximate scene -- the first is the current shaders, the second is the toony shaders applied to everything, and the third is the second + Unity’s okay outlining system.  This is where the weaknesses of the free version show themselves -- the walls are far flatter as the free version has no bumpmap support.  However, the paid version supports bumpmaps, substantially better outlines, water, and a number of other items.

The reason I bring this up is I’m looking for general feedback: I don’t want to bother implementing an entirely new shader system if people don’t like it.  As such, I’m running it by everyone right now to get general opinions before taking the plunge -- feedback is accepted anywhere, be it here, my twitter, the discord, or somewhere else entirely!  Any feedback on the shaders is more than welcome, thanks in advance!

My plans for next week are basically the same as my plans from last week: work on finishing the general structure of the level, round 2.  If I finish that early I’ll move on to the inventory system, or if response to the new shader is positive implementing the paid version globally.  Thanks for reading everyone, and I’ll see you next time!

Last Week: Shamrocks and Stat-ues

Next Week: A Half-Ton of Halftoning