The word "anthropomorphics" contains the greek root "anthropos", for "man", and "morphos", for "shape". Hence the genre deals with man-shaped creatures-- not actually human, but usually a genetic cross, either evolved or engineered, between human traits and those of one or more animals, real or imagined. Different people tend to focus on different species. Some like fox-morphs (two-legged fox-creatures), others various feline-morphs, some dragons, otters, canids, equids... anything.
Triggur's primary hangout is on FurryMUCK... a MUCK is an Internet-based text game where sometimes hundreds of people at a time are roleplaying their own characters in a rich, elaborate virtual environment.
 By M. Coker White |
 by Jim Groat |
Costume artists can chose from quite a palette of materials for their creations. Some sew panels of fake fur together, others sculpt models and cast painted latex shells, and still others create vacu-formed plastic or fibreglass structures; many artists use hybrid techniques from all of the above, and more.
So far I have created three furry costumes. The first, taken to ConFurence 6, was of Triggur; I slip-cast a life-size latex horse head and painted it black, then complemented it with a white period lace-up shirt, black tights, and knee-high moccasins, and made black three-finger-plus-thumb gloves for the hands. The latex head had such poor ventilation that I installed a small battery-operated fan in the muzzle to help supply fresh air.
The second costume, taken to ConFurence 8 is the character V'ril, also from FurryMUCK. This one features a much more "human" face, using the actor's own eyes for the costume eyes, with the nostrils and mouth projected forward. V'ril is an albino Unicorn, and so a twisted polyester-resin-based horn graces his head. The character is dressed in traditional English riding clothing.
 |
The third costume, also taken to ConFurence 8, is Sir Karl from the Red Shetland comic series. Sir Karl is a knight of the Borderlands (a region roughly analagous to Germany) and is a deer-morph. This is by far the most technically challenging costume I've ever done; a fibreglass "skull" gives his head rigid structure, and a sleeve of appropriately grained fur slides over that skull, then the nose, ears, and antlers are affixed. Since a deer's neck is usually quite long, the bottom of Karl's jaw sits right about the bottom of my nose. As such, I installed a very tiny video camera in his left eye, which feeds a tiny TV monitor in the nose. This gives me reasonable 2D vision when I wear a 4.00 dioptimer contact lens that lets me focus on very close objects. |
|
 |
