¶ Making a Character nice and Fluffy!
As part of making an anthro furry character, it means combining the human and the animal in some way. Although we are focusing on the visual.
One thing many mammals have is fur, and often the more popular animal kind within the furry sphere.
What that means, as a start of this guide is to look at real life and take inspiration from real sources.
In this case, it is Fur, and perhaps the animal that fur originates from.
However, there is one more aspect. The art in the character and their looks, for a fluffy and furry character, the fur can make one look softer, harsher and importantly silhouetted differently. As well as how you think it would look in a human body shape. It can create character, or just be pleasing to the eye. Regardless of what…
Lets dive in!
¶ 1. Making the Operation Mask ("FurOp" Operation Mask)
Firstly, we need to collect relevant masks where you do not want the fur to appear in a single mask. This will make things easier when you do configure the fur.
- Go to Coloration > Mask and create an Operation mask
- Set Operation mask to [LINEAR_DODGE]
- Collect relevant masks of places you do not want the fur appear (Mouth, skin areas, anus, vagina etc) and place them in the operation mask.
It is okay to leave certain parts with fur if they will have a little bit of it. - Expand [+] the operation mask, and add the Filter [INVERT].
- Name the mask (FurOp in this case)
¶ 2. Preparing the fur!
Enable the fur, and set the newly created FurOp mask as the fur Mask. The character will appear to have some wild fur on them.
Lets make wide edits firstly.
You will be using the Set Clipping border tool (B hotkey) and Gradient Fill (G hotkey) in various areas.
- Set a clipping border over the head, and gradient fill away while Target Property: Length is active.
You must hold CTRL while making gradient fill lines to SUBTRACT a Target Property effect rather than ADD.
Remember that Gradient fill adds/subtracts everywhere from the point of one end, to the other (Depending on strength settings as well).
Exit Clipping Border by pressing the Hotkey (B).
Now it is time to do it for each limb.
- Work on the characters Right side (in other words, your left facing the character) for Mirroring purposes.
You mirror by pressing Space hotkey (Shift+Space to mirror opposite side). - With Gradient fill, ease in the fur length from the arm to the hand.
Usually, more intricate areas wouldn't have as much fur, such as the hands and feet.
- It is Advised that you remove fur from crotch areas as they are very intricate.
- Add fur manually by using the normal brush Settings for Length, and use Sculpt (S) to ‘paint’ fur back on these areas to be more appropriate.
Remember to mirror the fur.
¶ 3. Tiling and Length of Fur (and Presets).
It is NOW that you decide the length, and tiling of the fur.
It is generally up to you to decide what tiling and fur, now or later.
But, here are some Tiling and Size presets to steal.
(Note that, the images are also tilted and combed to finish)
- Access tiling by expanding the Fur and reveal Head, Body, Hands, Feet, Balls. And selecting one.
- When Tiling anything but the Body, the numbers are smaller to work with. You can tile by manually eyeballing similarities. Or tiling by times 5 (Smaller proportion) as that is the difference between body and limb tiling. If the body is 2.5 (From 5), the limb should be 0.5 (from 1).
Body Tiling: x5 y5
Length: 0.0233
Body Tiling: x1.85 y0.7
Length: 0.0294
Body Tiling: x7 y7
Length: 0.0397
You should always adjust your tiling and length to appropriate numbers for your character as these “presets” may not fit.
The idea you want to learn with these presets is that bigger Tiling = greater number of strands and thinner. Smaller Tiling = Bigger/Lesser fur strands.
¶ 4. Tilt and Curving
To make a character Fluffy, you should Tilt and then Curve the fur. Tilting it upwards, and then curving it inwards will create the effect of depth in the fur without adding more length.
Use Gradient Fill (G) and Tilt the fur over the entire character.
- Press T, Select tilt
- Press G and add the tilt over the entire character.
Do not tilt too much as it will make Combing difficult if the fur is pointing too high upwards (Too high, as in, too close to maximum up tilt).
(Mirror to see the overall final better)
- Press T, Select Curve.
- Do the same with Gradient fill once again, but carefully and nicely curve the fur inwards.
You curve the fur inwards by holding Ctrl while drawing the gradient fill line.
(Mirror to see the overall final better)
- Adjust Length to be shorter, or longer, or the Tiling once again to better fit your character in general terms.
¶ 5. Combing (Shift + E)
Combing (Shift+E) is simply 'rotating' fur strands in a selected area.
You generally also want to give the fur a sense of action. Looking at Real Life fur, you will notice patterns that form on the animal. It could be due to their behaviours, how they handle themselves or how their limbs move. You may create character with the fur if you have some good use of Combing.
- Get rid of the unnatural patterns on the Butt.
Comb it away.
- Give natural waves, and sometimes go with the body. Try to interpret where fur would settle based on the body.
¶ 6. Fine Tuning
Now it is time to fine tune. Go back and forth between combing, tiling, curving, etc.
Create yourself 3 different presets to quickly go into. A low, medium and Strong settings to make your Sculpt brush behave lesser or stronger.
You will have trouble fixing the fur around the Nipples, balls+crotch, maybe vagina. Take your time with those.
- For Breasts, use a big radius, low opacity with high value.
Rub the Length of the fur to be shorter/removed until you satisfy the amount.
- You should also start detailing any fur on the face if there are any.
- Fix any odd undesirable curves and tilts.
Sometimes the tilt and curve feature will just curve or tilt into the character. Recognise these details and maybe fix them.
¶ 7. Fur Shading
Play around with the Shading effect for fur.
Shade and Lightening factors are not required.
In this guide, it is recommended that you turn all shade/light sliders to 0, however some shade can add depth.
¶ 8. Fur Color
The color of the fur will generally be based off of the character/Part. But this can be changed.
To use this feature appropriately, you want to learn some of its tools.
- Use Color_Alpha to designate/color an area.
- Use Color_T to adjust what color in the Gradient Index that the entire fur is using for Color changes.
Have multiple colors in a gradient index, and switch between those colours with Color_T on the fur. - Use Color_Offset to adjust how deep the color is to the fur. On the tip? Or all the way into the roots.
- Use Color_Emission to add Emission to areas. Emission essentially ignores shading, meaning you can have that part of the fur Glow in the dark.
¶ 9. Fur and Fluff (And other) Combination
Do not restrict yourself to the Fur feature being the only fluffy or furry thing about your character.
Fluff, parts, garments etc can all contribute to creating a fluffy aesthetic.
Feel free to take a look at [Hair by only using Fluff Appendage]
Image below showcases a mix of fur, fluff and garments creating variety of furs.
Usually to fluff up the shoulder and chest and neck. If you were to remove it all, he would be a lot thinner. Which means, the character takes account the effect a hairless cat makes as opposed to a furred cat. This is to show how when blocking out a character, with custom offset or not, the fur can be too big and fluffy if you dont also make the character a little thinner.
I hope this guide inspires you to take the extra effort in making your character furry in the way you want it.
My final tip is to not conform to what you see or have, think outside the box when trying to get your character come to life.