😺😽 furry thread 2: reminder the correct pronunciation of gif is "yiff"

[Durandal]

It's furry time, my dudes

Akineza


Alradeck


Jademere


Casynuf



Darbaras





Lofi

[Octavia]

If any of y'all are watching Jeopardy, there's a furry Hip-Hop artist named Bucktown Tiger that's been completely dominating for the past 6 days. He's racked up over $144,000 already and he's eligible for the Tournament of Champions.

[Orange Fluffy Sheep]

Alradeck

[Pocket]

I've heard that name. Is this the first time he's brought this up about himself because after six days he's run out of other stuff?

[Strangething]

If any of y'all are watching Jeopardy, there's a furry Hip-Hop artist named Bucktown Tiger that's been completely dominating for the past 6 days. He's racked up over $144,000 already and he's eligible for the Tournament of Champions.

I thought he played off the furry question pretty smoothly. "For charity" smooths over a lot of potential objections.

https://www.facebook.com/Jeopardy/video ... 776230663/

I've met him at a MFM a couple of times, he even filmed a video there. He's a pretty chill guy. And apparently a fan of the best pony.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOt7qV ... JncAOHLzIQ

[Octavia]

FYI he won again and is up to $163,000

[Durandal]

Nomax



Lyc


ovopack


pointedfox


Qualzar



tacogrande

[Octavia]

He lost

FYI he won again and is up to $163,000

He lost, ended up with around $165K. Said he's gonna take a 2-week vacation with his wife to Alaska and Hawaii

[Perpetual Motion]

I've had this really silly character idea bouncing around in my head for the last few days, and I feel like I need to put it to (virtual) paper, at least in text form:

A flying squirrel furry who almost exclusively wears ponchos, because wearing normal clothing is nearly impossible thanks to their gliding membranes.

Is this a fursona? Maybe?? I guess??? I dunno how these things work. I just really like flying squirrels and the idea stuck in my head.

[Fizzbuzz]

What about pants?

[Madeline]

What about pants?

That’s also the name of my novel

[Perrydotto]

I love the idea, PL

[Venusy]

I've had this really silly character idea bouncing around in my head for the last few days, and I feel like I need to put it to (virtual) paper, at least in text form:

A flying squirrel furry who almost exclusively wears ponchos, because wearing normal clothing is nearly impossible thanks to their gliding membranes.

Is this a fursona? Maybe?? I guess??? I dunno how these things work. I just really like flying squirrels and the idea stuck in my head.

The line between fursona and just a character is vague and depends on the person; for me I'm much more strongly attached to my two fursonas than I am to any of my other characters, but for some people that isn't the case.
Still, they sound really neat!

What about pants?

the donald duck look is in this season

[Madeline]

I wish I could come up with things that easily, but I always have to smash a bunch of existing ideas together to not just repeat what 10 million people have already created, anymore.

I tried coming up with a furry character for fun and it was like the written equivalent of Lisa Simpson playing anagrams and mumbling “Jeremy’s.... iron.”

[Perrydotto]

True innovation doesn't exist. If you like what 10 million people also liked, what's the harm?

[Weird Autumn]

Originality is something you kinda need to just not sweat that much I think. The stuff that makes your creations unique is the stuff around the edges, all the specific individual details you choose and decisions you make that nobody else would do in quite the same way. Obviously you're not the first person to pick a dragon fursona or whatever, you're probably not the only person to pick that general color pallete, or to dress them in that particular style, but the amalgamation of all of those things plus all the choices about what their personality is, the kinds of poses and expressions they have, and so on and so in is never going to be exactly what anybody else would choose.

A lot of my ideas for stories and characters come from me reading (or watching or etc) something, finding an element or an idea that I like that the thing doesn't explore or isn't interested in the way I am, and taking that and making it the focus of something new. My fursona was literally just me picking an animal that felt appropriate and saying "okay so she's like me but cuter and softer and punkier." I don't worry about my stories being too similar to something else because I'm motivated to create stories that I want to see told, and if somebody's already done the exact same thing that just saves me a lot of effort. I don't worry about my fursona being similar to somebody else's because she's a way for me to express myself and explore the person I want to be and that's a very personal act of self-actualization that can only ever be mine. "Originality" doesn't really factor into the equation at all, to be honest.

Obviously there is such a thing as just straight up plagiarism but that's not something you do by accident so, you know, just give yourself permission to make stuff that you think is cool and that you want to see in the world and when all's said and done you're gonna wind up with something nobody else could make in quite the same way. Smushing together bits and pieces of everything trying to create an amalgamation of ideas nobody's ever seen before is gonna leave you with something that feels a lot more like a bunch of ideas you stole and slapped together than just doing a take on a genre or archetype or whatever you like and letting your own particular style shine through in the specifics.

[Venusy]

don't be afraid to mash ideas together and see what sticks, because spoiler alert, that's how i created dex

like, dex's backstory is some old headcanons about bubsy and other forgotten/infamous game characters, reworked into a better fit for a softer character rather than one designed with attitude in mind

and things flowed from there

purple as a prominent design colour is there because of both spyro and saints row

the heart tail was because i knew i wanted something like sparx, but was also inspired by dynamite headdy's spotlight health bar, and the heart tattoo health bar from jurassic park: trespasser

the original inspiration for the horns is an idea better discussed elsewhere, but it tied in really nicely as a way of traversing down ziplines and other platformy things

some other things (like the head "fins") were only figured out while working with Lobst on my ref sheet - sometimes that collaboration is what's needed

i've still worried that dex is too derivative at points
but then i've looked on FA and saw plenty of different purple dragons with yellow horns that aren't named spyro
(and met a fursuiter at confuzzled who was getting rather annoyed by everyone calling him spyro)

[Fizzbuzz]

As I see it, the difference between a sona and just a character is in how strongly you identify with that character. If that character is you (or since Venusy brought up multiple sonas, maybe various major aspects of you, depending on how you see yourself) if you were a cartoon animal-person, then I think that's more than just an original character.

Like with my ponysona, even though that's not as freeform as general furry characters are, most everything about him I did to represent something about myself. His coat and hair colors I picked from shirts I liked and his eye color was sampled from my eyes IRL, since they happened to fit the scheme I wanted. He's an earth pony since I feel like I'm heavier and more Southern than a lot of people. His name and cutie mark are computing references because I care a whole lot about computers. Even silly stuff like his head and body parts being detachable are such because I thought that was funny and would be fun to be able to do if I were some sort of magical cartoon character.

If that seems like an awful lot of things to have to decide, don't be intimidated. You can always pick whatever you feel like now and add, change, or remove aspects over time. My ponysona has gone nearly unchanged since I came up with him a few years ago, but I've seen other people who've changed their sonas a lot over the years or even come up with completely new ones if they feel their old ones no longer represent them. Again, it's all up to you.

[Weird Autumn]

don't be afraid to mash ideas together and see what sticks, because spoiler alert, that's how i created dex

To clarify an earlier comment, mashing up stuff you like to make something new out of the component pieces is good advice and something I do a lot. What's counter-productive is mashing things together that you don't have a passion for because you feel like you won't be making something "original" unless you can find some specific combination of elements that's never been done before. Adding elements in because you like them and want to do something with them is great, you just don't want to be worrying about "oh but somebody's already used this mixture so I have to find something new."

[Weird Autumn]

You know how people always tell young writers "seriously don't worry about people 'stealing your ideas' because nobody's going to and it wouldn't matter if they did?" The same principle works in the other direction. If you think an idea's cool and you want to do your own take on it, there's nothing wrong with that, and unless you're literally copying your inspiration beat for beat you're going to bring something new and unique to the table simply because you're a different person with a different set of values and priorities and things you want to say with your work.

[Venusy]

oh yeah, that's important. i didn't think, "I'm going to mash these specific things up", i thought "here are some things i like and ideas i've had" and let them flow naturally rather than trying to pick another thing to mash up
a lot of my other characters are just much more simpler ideas

[Perpetual Motion]

What about pants?

Considering that a flying squirrel's patagium (gliding membrane) stretches from their wrists to their ankles, they wouldn't be able to wear pants and keep their full range of motion either.

Also, wow, I didn't expect my silly idea to spark deep discussion.

Now I just need to commission some artwork and I'll be a real furry.

[Mad Surge]

Excellent, another one joins the club, HEHEHEHEHE

[Weird Autumn]

it me

[Perpetual Motion]

Excellent, another one joins the club, HEHEHEHEHE

Joke's on you, I've been in the club ever since I read Animorphs as a child. I've just never really created a anthro character before. Probably because my furry interest was directed towards more non-anthro characters (again, blame Animorphs).

I should probably involve myself in the community more than just following a bunch of furries on Tumblr, though.

it me

It u

[Madeline]

Thank you for the advice, everybody!

To clarify an earlier comment, mashing up stuff you like to make something new out of the component pieces is good advice and something I do a lot. What's counter-productive is mashing things together that you don't have a passion for because you feel like you won't be making something "original" unless you can find some specific combination of elements that's never been done before. Adding elements in because you like them and want to do something with them is great, you just don't want to be worrying about "oh but somebody's already used this mixture so I have to find something new."

My problem is more that I keep adding in ideas until everything turns into an unwieldy mess just in the planning stage. Then I get intimidated, pare it down, and end up getting frustrated. This applies to everything from fursonas to fiction to my failed attempts to write for the web. The term would be feature creep, I guess. Like, I’ll think “oh this is cool, I like this character so I’ll write out a backstory for her, what if I put in spaceships and dragons and horses and some jerk looking for Philosopher’s Stones” etc. I think in run-one, and have a bad habit of writing in them when it doesn’t need to be polished. I don’t know what to do with all of it because my writing program emphasized short stories, poetry, and creative nonfiction. I wrote some novels when I was young, but they suuuuuuuuuucked (all those “u”s are needed to emphasize the suckitude).

So a few weeks ago, I thought, “I need to get off of this track and entertain myself. You watch pony cartoons and you wrote stories about talking cats when you were a kid, you love ‘Cats Don’t Dance’ and ‘Blacksad’ and ‘Lackadaisy,’ you are probably closet furry trash or at least furry-adjacent.” Which is why I wanted to make a fursona, and then I start going “wait, what species should she be, what if I’m not happy with what I do and the effort is wasted again,” and then I do something timid and make the face again. Then I give up and go watch a movie or something. This was supposed to be fun! But I can’t turn off my internal editor/critic. Which is the silliest thing ever when I’m in the furry thread asking “how do you furry” but there you go. I’m wondering if I’ve killed my imagination or something by constantly overthinking everything I try to make.

[Fizzbuzz]

This was supposed to be fun! But I can’t turn off my internal editor/critic.

Boy, do I know this feel too.

Often it's hard for me to get started drawing something since I know I'm not a good enough artist to where the finished picture will look exactly as I imagined it. And even if I remind myself that even real artists basically never have things turn out as they imagined them to the last detail, I then start thinking of how other people will view it, assuming that virtually no one actually likes or cares about my work beyond a sense of pity for me. I'm fairly certain I am wrong about this as well, but it's still a big mental hurdle I find myself having to clear before I can actually get myself to make something.

[Weird Autumn]

Honestly it sounds like you're biting off a bit more than you can chew there. Not every story needs to be this big grand sprawling thing, you know? Sometimes you need to just give yourself permission to do some small stuff that's never gonna go anywhere so you can get away from your hang-ups for a bit.

Probably the biggest hurdle to me in writing has been this constant feeling in the back of my mind that I need to be doing more. Especially with where I'm at in my life and financially now, I keep feeling like I need to be working on stuff that I can like sell and build a fanbase on and yadda yadda whatever. I know that's not a good way to look at things and isn't a realistic or helpful expectation but I definitely feel that pressure and it makes working on anything hard. It's like I can't just make a thing, everything has to be the thing, or at least an attempt at it, or else what am I even doing this for, you know?

Lately I've been able to let go of that a little bit and it honestly makes things a lot easier to just take that pressure off. Don't worry about writing a novel, or building a big world, or any of that shit, just do something short and simple that you don't have any plans to do anything with. Don't make it a big endeavor, throw together something off the top of your head and keep it small enough that you can just do it in one sitting. Tell your internal critic it can take a break for a little bit cuz nobody's even gonna see this one so who cares, and scope for something so small and low-effort that even if you aren't happy with it you can't be mad about wasting effort cuz you didn't put that much time into it anyway.

Deliberately setting out to write something small that you can give yourself permission to toss off and not care about always feels like a waste, but if you're struggling to get anything done, just doing some super tiny minor stuff to prove you can make something after all helps a ton.

[Venusy]

Boy, do I know this feel too.

Often it's hard for me to get started drawing something since I know I'm not a good enough artist to where the finished picture will look exactly as I imagined it. And even if I remind myself that even real artists basically never have things turn out as they imagined them to the last detail, I then start thinking of how other people will view it, assuming that virtually no one actually likes or cares about my work beyond a sense of pity for me. I'm fairly certain I am wrong about this as well, but it's still a big mental hurdle I find myself having to clear before I can actually get myself to make something.

Fighting the "I'm no good at this, why even try/this won't come out looking the way it does in my head" urge is hard, and something I struggle with a lot!

But with character and fursona design in particular, overthinking doesn't help. Most remain as works in progress; they will change as you change, particularly if you roleplay with friends.

I've tended towards writing a little short story when I make up a new character, a little vignette into their world and their lives, leaving unimportant details for questioning and teasing out later. One of my characters has magical tattoos, I know what one of them is and where it is (but would have to look that info up since it's been a while since I used that character for anything), but not the rest.

And effort put into character development and worldbuilding is rarely wasted, because it can be repurposed. Sometimes you find your passion isn't in one thing you thought it was, but in finding that out, you find your passions for another, and it's perfectly valid to switch details, species, or characters if you find something that fits you better. Perhaps you don't end up writing the novel, but create a rad world for tabletop games with your friends that they enjoy visiting (though protip, if you go down this route you are going to have to create quite a few characters as the GM ) - or perhaps you bring your character to someone else's game as long as they fit the world.

[Venusy]

if it helps, post a 2-ish sentence long description of your fursona if you feel comfortable doing so (even if that description is "they're me, but a cat").

here's me, the first sentence is a minor expansion of what's written in bullet points on my ref sheet:

Dex (they, ~27) - fluffdragon, former platforming mascot during the mega drive era that never transitioned properly to 3D, now works a steady 9-5 job in IT. A lot of wacky things happen to them because of their absurdly powerful roommate*, and their early exposure to too many GameShark codes.

* one of my other characters

(That second sentence was one of the things that drastically changed over time, my original intention was to keep Dex away from all that weird stuff)

[Fizzbuzz]

In talking about this, I feel like my trouble is more that I need to learn a better sense of self-discipline, so that I can better motivate myself to do stuff instead of relying on external motivators to make me get things done. If I rely too much on others to make me want to produce art, I become vulnerable to my own worries about how others see me. If I can get better at making myself want to do it, then I could avoid those worries in the first place and also be better able to push past my own frustrations in the process of actually drawing.

[Fizzbuzz]

Actually, a slightly related story involving the picture I drew a few weeks ago:

When I drew it, I was in Germany on a study abroad trip, and I had to get used to quickly getting ready so I could be out of the hotel at a certain time for whatever our group was doing that day. I thought of the expression "you'd lose your head if it wasn't fastened on," then imagined pony-me realizing it was time to go and briefly forgetting where he left his head in a moment of panic.

I had that idea sitting around for a couple of days, but what got me to draw it was the slogan on a shirt I saw a classmate wearing. It read, "wolves don't lose sleep over the opinions of sheep," i.e. that you should ignore the unimportant haters in life. Thinking about that made me feel like I could ignore anyone out there who might hate me or my work for no good reason, which was a big help in getting me to actually get it done. I hope I can become better at holding onto that attitude.

[Madeline]

I have trouble accomplishing anything without an external motivation as well. I also feel a lot of pressure to be successful out of the gate because I’m in a pretty precarious position right now. Plus, it’s always just been expected of me. I know I need to be able to blow that off and just work, but sometimes it’s easier said than done. And I also have that same fear that nothing I do is any good, and that nobody will like it.

Anyway:

if it helps, post a 2-ish sentence long description of your fursona if you feel comfortable doing so (even if that description is "they're me, but a cat").

here's me, the first sentence is a minor expansion of what's written in bullet points on my ref sheet:

Dex (they, ~27) - fluffdragon, former platforming mascot during the mega drive era that never transitioned properly to 3D, now works a steady 9-5 job in IT. A lot of wacky things happen to them because of their absurdly powerful roommate*, and their early exposure to too many GameShark codes.

* one of my other characters

(That second sentence was one of the things that drastically changed over time, my original intention was to keep Dex away from all that weird stuff)

Quick summary:

she’s a cat, and she really likes glam, synth pop, and punk. She’s an adult so she’s kind of caught in that place where you can’t be a kid any more, but also don’t feel old. Plus she’s secretly a big old geek.

[Weird Autumn]

Your sona rules tbh

[Mr. Big]

I like the idea of your sona, Madeline (also, she's a cat)

[Princess Flufflebutt]

I'm love her already.

[Mad Surge]

As a fellow cat haver, I approve

[Perrydotto]

that sounds like a pro and top tier fursona IMO

[Venusy]

hella rad!

[Madeline]

I’m glad my sona is rad and good