tchaikovsky2
patreon
Fluffy thoughts
🕑 Added 2016-11-26 12:53:43 +0000 UTC I've been pondering on this for a long time now. I asked Patrons about it already, but it was a restricted post, so now I'll talk about it with everybody here. So, excuse me not replying to the remaining comments in that other post (I may not even reply to comments on this one, and later do a follow-up post, so please let me know what you think) - I'll share my thoughts here in detail, and consider what everyone said.I am probably able to give my characters fur. Like full body fur. Y'know, how they should be. They're anthros. Hominid animals. Animals have fur. And while I've always excused their lack of fur with the argument of evolution, like it happened with humans, I never liked the fact that I can't make fur where I'd like to make it. AND NOW I CAN. MAYBE. Skin is nice, but I have two inherently furless characters already, and there will be more. Fur is also nice. I'd have more variety.
And to be frank, I'm kinda dissatisfied with people getting confused about why my characters are furless, and it's kinda unpleasant when someone says they don't like that fact (feels like "hey, this is a stupid idea and you're stupid", while in reality it wasn't even my choice). So I'd also get more followers if I did it the way it's meant to be. That's kinda very important. I think I'd prefer to add fur, but there are pros and cons to it. Imma list those now:
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PROS:
- Proper (or more acceptable) way of making anthros
- The lack of clothes would make A LOT more sense, and adding fur is much more convenient than adding clothes
- Cute, fluffy characters
- CUTE, FLUFFY CHARACTERS
- More variety with furry and furless characters
- Fur can have many more colors and secondary forms than skin
- Hair/fur is actually a bit faster to render than skin
- Skin/anatomy details would be mostly unneeded, therefore less work, therefore new characters a bit more often
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CONS:
- Furry chars aren't as unique
- Skin/anatomy details would be mostly not visible on existing characters
- Fur needs MUCH more RAM to be rendered, especially in more complex scenes, and/or with more characters - this one is serious, and might ruin everything; gotta experiment before actually taking action
- Fur tends to clip into everything; hard to manage - another serious one
- I'd be left with a big bunch of outdated art with furless characters who now have fur, and that would bother me because I don't like inconsistencies like this (remaking them is out of the question)
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I think that's all. While fur has more pros, it has two very serious cons, so it's quite an even match. The only big difference is that the pros are mostly things I like, and the cons are things that mostly my computer won't like.
It's aesthetic vs. tech.
Want vs. should.
It's something I want to do, but I'm still not sure if it's a good idea.
One comment also mentioned that a lot of my art relies on body curvature. That's true, but adding fur won't necessarily ruin that. For example, Uzuri would have very short fur adhering to her body, while Jinjing-Yu and Adreea would still have none. XD The only case where fur would change something so far is Hjalta, because highland cow. All the floof. All of it. I love it. She needs it. Also because Iceland. It's cold.
So that's my 32 cents. I'll probably make this as a journal at dA, too, and ask around more friends. Maybe even make a poll.
IT HARD YO
But in the end the decision may be my own. Let's see what happens.
Comments
ElectricGears
I do like their unique fur-less look. But you might try it with Hjalta, long fur would make great hand holds for when you really need a part of someone's body to be in a certain place, over and over and over and over...
ZekLullaby
I really like to see their skin, but I know you know what you're doing. So I have faith that you will do what's the best.
Diego P
Experiment, it's healthy
Randochi
Long comment: TLDR. No I don't want you to add fur. I will like your art regardless. There's a vote for hair and there's a vote against hair. I'm for the side that's against hair. Mainly because you've established your own genre within the fandom. If you add hair it won't be the end of the world and I'll still will give you support. But the change will take some time for me to get used to. I like your established designs. How I found you, I was looking for an artist who created good anthro art when I first got onto deviantArt. And I saw your stuff and was instantly enamored with it. Your characters aren't paired up with the usual furry fandom. You've got flat chested, young, anthropomorphic, furless furries. It's its own genre of anthropomorphism. The reason why I don't want you to add fur to the existing characters is because it's been established already as them being naked characters. I liked that idea that genetically as they became more humanoid they lost their hair. You've actually got me to like furless animals more. My favorite is a furless chimp. But if I think about why you want to do it.: "The lack of clothes would make A LOT more sense, and adding fur is much more convenient than adding clothes". I don't show your artwork to everyone. It has an undertone that comes off as creepy, pervy, odd. It's hard to show your work to people I am slightly more than acquaintances too. Adding fur would negate the awkwardness of showing off your stuff and it would hide a lot of the childish physique that your characters have. Adding fur would make your characters more appealing to a larger number of people and they wont get that uncanny valley feeling as much as they do. (I have never felt that feeling for your stuff so its a little hard for me to identify). I have mixed feelings about adding fur. I would be more comfortable with you keeping these characters as they are and you creating an entirely new group of furred characters to the mix. The original characters are like the x-men of the group. The special furless group.
Graye
I would say go for it. The one con that you list that I think is not really a con is the idea that you will have outdated art. Your models progress like any artist's skill does. You upgraded the hair on all of the models and that does not negate your previous works. Adding fur won't do that either. It is the same as the comic artist who does the same thing for years and gradually improves the style as they go. Its called being an artist and no one is going to call your older stuff outdated. Just earlier work. :) The older stuff will be loved and the newer stuff will be appreciated for both where it came from and where it goes.
