Hey all! Thought I'd drop this here and add it to the community for resources and ideas :)
First the disclaimer: This is a half suit and a prototype of a style I'm working on. Much of the build needs work to make it more performance ready, so if you try to duplicate anything you see here, do so at your own risk. If you use/copy my designs, please do me the honor of mentioning my work as an inspiration for yours. I work hard to produce unique, custom costumes... but publicly reveling some of my progress and construction methods is a privilege; I do it because I like to provide help and inspiration to others, so I appreciate your support and respect in this matter. Thank you guys! :)
THE LEGS:
![]()
The video should explain the features and their functions pretty well. I used this foam strip method of doing leg padding for my Pokémon suits, Shadow Lugia and Groudon, and got great results with both of those but I think I improved it a little further here. The result is something that I got a lot of positive feedback on when I took Riley to Further Confusion in her half-finished state so everyone could see how a fursuit is put together. She was great as a visual aid for panels as well so I will be permanently keeping her half-finished like this to use for learning purposes and demos.
As for the concept of the legs, I am a huge fan of digitigrade... but I'm also an animation student and I cannot stand when things do not move correctly. Digi-legs on suits have always bugged me because of the physical limitations we have being plantigrade creatures. They tend to be stiff and awkward triangle pillows strapped onto a leg. >:C There must be a better way without resorting to stilts! I worked hard to design something that would be the best compromise between the two and the only downside is that you need big feetpaws to make it look natural (curse our long feet!) They're not quite"stompy feet" level but it's rather streamline considering. The structure bends and flexes at key points on the leg to produce the best movements as well as being segmented and broken up into pseudo muscle groups, allowing them to slide over one another to rotate with your real leg muscles for a natural look. I walk in the video both on my toes and normally- but if it's hard to tell the difference then I did my job well!
If all goes well, I am considering offering leg commissions in the future and this would also be my personal style for digitigrade legs in my suits. There are two main goals I want for my legs: comfort (both in terms of heat and feeling of wearing) and ease of cleaning. This is just a prototype, the real ones I plan to make will be made of reticulated foam, this means better airflow, lighter in weight, and it won't hold water or sweat. I'll also be making spandex covers for them. They're built on top of leggings so it's as easy as slipping on a pair of pants and super comfortable, but I bet I could find ones that are a bit thinner. Heat wasn't an issue in my legs whatsoever during the con but better smart than sorry. The shoes I want to replace with crocs, which to me was always weird to put into fursuits, but I recently discovered their value- you can wash them! Not to mention they're comfy. And the floor mat soles? NO. NEVER AGAIN. The convention ate through them when I attempted to go dancing. I'll be making a custom urethane rubber molds for my feet bottoms from now on. So there's some tips for you guys on making nice legs.
I am also a huge fan of attaching foam padding on an undersuit and a completely separate layer for your outer fabric. Why? I think a majority of people build them into their suits but there are some downsides to that, though it greatly depends on what you're doing... not all suits will have the ability to be deconstructed like this but I thought I'd mention it anyways. First of all, it moves better. Take your arm and move your skin around with your opposite hand- you have flesh that is freely moving on top of muscle and bone. You can mimic this in your suit. Having a layer of padding that is secure to your body not only translates your leg movements out through the foam structure for more control and readability, but it can act a little like your real skin does over your muscles. I do recommend attaching the outer skin (via velcro or something) in key areas to make sure it only moves in the places you want it to move, but a majority of the time the skin is tight enough to stay in place anyways. The other reason is so you can remove the muscle padding layer and wash the fabric separately. (PLEASE WASH YOUR SUITS) I also recommend a diveskin under everything to take on the majority of your body sweat and odor. The final reason I do it this way is because the movie industry does it... and they pretty much wrote the book on it all. :>
THE TAIL:
![]( "Tail")
The structure is extremely simple, and also extremely flawed. I won't spend too much time on this simply because it's not ready for prime time but looks cool as it stands. I think the only thing that has bothered me more about suits than digitigrade legs is the tail- most characters have very exaggerated long, fluffy tails. They need to be stuffed to fill out their shape due to our limited ability to get any longer pile furs than a few inches, so they end up being these stiff pillows strapped to your butt. They don't really do the trick for me, especially if I want a wiggly, expressive tail than can hold itself upright. So I built a core that behaves pretty much the way I wanted it to... but if I were to fur this thing, I would loose almost all of that due to the weight of the fur. So this is why it's in super duper prototype stage.
Right now, the tail is a foam pipe insulation with notches cut out of it for added flexibility, a 16 gauge wire core bent to a belt buckle shape at the base for attachment to a belt, and some foam rings for a support structure and some elastic. It looks like something from a sci-fi world, in fact the whole suit kinda does. We nicknamed it "Foamtron" during FC :3 Anyways I got the ability to be very responsive to my body movements and can move in all directions thanks to the wire, however the downside is that is can super easily be bent out of place. I'm looking for a material that can replace it, the closest thing I can think of is a delrin rod but I hear they can snap. I may switch gears and do something more complex that is segmented, but that will increase weight and limit the directions it can move in. I may try casting a custom foam core in various materials, rubbers, foams, wires, combining different things until I get some better results. I have a ton of work to do in order to expand on this idea but I'll be working on it. If I ever get something to work, I'll let you know! For now, it's a blast to wear.
THE HANDS:
The handpaws are extremely detailed. I think this picture captures it the best:
![]()
I pretty much made a handpaw sculpture out of foam. Of course this all won't show up in this high of detail when I cover it in fur, but I wanted to see where I could take my foam shaping skills. I cut some of the features extra deep so the exaggeration would stand a better chance at translating through the fabric. That and some airbrushing will make some impressive-looking paws! It's hard to tell just HOW big these paws are compared to my hand (so I posted another photo below), but the reason I decided to make big paws was so I could better match with my big feet. The problem with big padded hands is that you loose all hope at having dexterity. The other big big issue is heat, so next time I'm definitely using reticulated foam for these as well.
![]()
So there is a special structure in the core of each finger made of floor mat foam and some flawed resin mask hinges that I was just going to otherwise throw away. The whole thing is built upon a cotton glove for an internal lining and then the finger core hugs my fingers. This was done for two reasons: one, it gives me increased dexterity, essentially lengthening my fingers so I can hold objects easier and open doors with handles. The other is that when you have that much of a foam structure, it will look very unnatural when you press it against something and the whole finger compresses in on itself like if there was no bone in the finger. That'll look odd. So now this gives me a much more believable giant hand that isn't as cumbersome as say, my Leafeon handpaws. That sucked to do anything with.
THE HEAD:
![]()
Not a whole lot to say about it, it's a head :p This one was built off one of my resin bases primarily as an example of how you can customize my base with foam to create unique looks, styles, and characters. It's got a moving jaw and one of my slicone noses with the nostrils drilled out, a fan will be placed inside the muzzle. The current jawset is from DreamVision Creations but I will be sculpting my own soon; DVC's jawsets are a little short for my blanks but definitely did the trick for the convention weekend. Ears are foamies. This will be a toony/realism blend suit with 3D resin eyes and airbrushed details.
I think that pretty much sums up the project. Please feel free to ask any more questions, make suggestions, or general comments- your feedback is very helpful to me!
-Riley Carbaugh
CanineHybrid Creations
store.caninehybrid.com
First the disclaimer: This is a half suit and a prototype of a style I'm working on. Much of the build needs work to make it more performance ready, so if you try to duplicate anything you see here, do so at your own risk. If you use/copy my designs, please do me the honor of mentioning my work as an inspiration for yours. I work hard to produce unique, custom costumes... but publicly reveling some of my progress and construction methods is a privilege; I do it because I like to provide help and inspiration to others, so I appreciate your support and respect in this matter. Thank you guys! :)
THE LEGS:
The video should explain the features and their functions pretty well. I used this foam strip method of doing leg padding for my Pokémon suits, Shadow Lugia and Groudon, and got great results with both of those but I think I improved it a little further here. The result is something that I got a lot of positive feedback on when I took Riley to Further Confusion in her half-finished state so everyone could see how a fursuit is put together. She was great as a visual aid for panels as well so I will be permanently keeping her half-finished like this to use for learning purposes and demos.
As for the concept of the legs, I am a huge fan of digitigrade... but I'm also an animation student and I cannot stand when things do not move correctly. Digi-legs on suits have always bugged me because of the physical limitations we have being plantigrade creatures. They tend to be stiff and awkward triangle pillows strapped onto a leg. >:C There must be a better way without resorting to stilts! I worked hard to design something that would be the best compromise between the two and the only downside is that you need big feetpaws to make it look natural (curse our long feet!) They're not quite"stompy feet" level but it's rather streamline considering. The structure bends and flexes at key points on the leg to produce the best movements as well as being segmented and broken up into pseudo muscle groups, allowing them to slide over one another to rotate with your real leg muscles for a natural look. I walk in the video both on my toes and normally- but if it's hard to tell the difference then I did my job well!
If all goes well, I am considering offering leg commissions in the future and this would also be my personal style for digitigrade legs in my suits. There are two main goals I want for my legs: comfort (both in terms of heat and feeling of wearing) and ease of cleaning. This is just a prototype, the real ones I plan to make will be made of reticulated foam, this means better airflow, lighter in weight, and it won't hold water or sweat. I'll also be making spandex covers for them. They're built on top of leggings so it's as easy as slipping on a pair of pants and super comfortable, but I bet I could find ones that are a bit thinner. Heat wasn't an issue in my legs whatsoever during the con but better smart than sorry. The shoes I want to replace with crocs, which to me was always weird to put into fursuits, but I recently discovered their value- you can wash them! Not to mention they're comfy. And the floor mat soles? NO. NEVER AGAIN. The convention ate through them when I attempted to go dancing. I'll be making a custom urethane rubber molds for my feet bottoms from now on. So there's some tips for you guys on making nice legs.
I am also a huge fan of attaching foam padding on an undersuit and a completely separate layer for your outer fabric. Why? I think a majority of people build them into their suits but there are some downsides to that, though it greatly depends on what you're doing... not all suits will have the ability to be deconstructed like this but I thought I'd mention it anyways. First of all, it moves better. Take your arm and move your skin around with your opposite hand- you have flesh that is freely moving on top of muscle and bone. You can mimic this in your suit. Having a layer of padding that is secure to your body not only translates your leg movements out through the foam structure for more control and readability, but it can act a little like your real skin does over your muscles. I do recommend attaching the outer skin (via velcro or something) in key areas to make sure it only moves in the places you want it to move, but a majority of the time the skin is tight enough to stay in place anyways. The other reason is so you can remove the muscle padding layer and wash the fabric separately. (PLEASE WASH YOUR SUITS) I also recommend a diveskin under everything to take on the majority of your body sweat and odor. The final reason I do it this way is because the movie industry does it... and they pretty much wrote the book on it all. :>
THE TAIL:
The structure is extremely simple, and also extremely flawed. I won't spend too much time on this simply because it's not ready for prime time but looks cool as it stands. I think the only thing that has bothered me more about suits than digitigrade legs is the tail- most characters have very exaggerated long, fluffy tails. They need to be stuffed to fill out their shape due to our limited ability to get any longer pile furs than a few inches, so they end up being these stiff pillows strapped to your butt. They don't really do the trick for me, especially if I want a wiggly, expressive tail than can hold itself upright. So I built a core that behaves pretty much the way I wanted it to... but if I were to fur this thing, I would loose almost all of that due to the weight of the fur. So this is why it's in super duper prototype stage.
Right now, the tail is a foam pipe insulation with notches cut out of it for added flexibility, a 16 gauge wire core bent to a belt buckle shape at the base for attachment to a belt, and some foam rings for a support structure and some elastic. It looks like something from a sci-fi world, in fact the whole suit kinda does. We nicknamed it "Foamtron" during FC :3 Anyways I got the ability to be very responsive to my body movements and can move in all directions thanks to the wire, however the downside is that is can super easily be bent out of place. I'm looking for a material that can replace it, the closest thing I can think of is a delrin rod but I hear they can snap. I may switch gears and do something more complex that is segmented, but that will increase weight and limit the directions it can move in. I may try casting a custom foam core in various materials, rubbers, foams, wires, combining different things until I get some better results. I have a ton of work to do in order to expand on this idea but I'll be working on it. If I ever get something to work, I'll let you know! For now, it's a blast to wear.
THE HANDS:
The handpaws are extremely detailed. I think this picture captures it the best:
I pretty much made a handpaw sculpture out of foam. Of course this all won't show up in this high of detail when I cover it in fur, but I wanted to see where I could take my foam shaping skills. I cut some of the features extra deep so the exaggeration would stand a better chance at translating through the fabric. That and some airbrushing will make some impressive-looking paws! It's hard to tell just HOW big these paws are compared to my hand (so I posted another photo below), but the reason I decided to make big paws was so I could better match with my big feet. The problem with big padded hands is that you loose all hope at having dexterity. The other big big issue is heat, so next time I'm definitely using reticulated foam for these as well.
So there is a special structure in the core of each finger made of floor mat foam and some flawed resin mask hinges that I was just going to otherwise throw away. The whole thing is built upon a cotton glove for an internal lining and then the finger core hugs my fingers. This was done for two reasons: one, it gives me increased dexterity, essentially lengthening my fingers so I can hold objects easier and open doors with handles. The other is that when you have that much of a foam structure, it will look very unnatural when you press it against something and the whole finger compresses in on itself like if there was no bone in the finger. That'll look odd. So now this gives me a much more believable giant hand that isn't as cumbersome as say, my Leafeon handpaws. That sucked to do anything with.
THE HEAD:
Not a whole lot to say about it, it's a head :p This one was built off one of my resin bases primarily as an example of how you can customize my base with foam to create unique looks, styles, and characters. It's got a moving jaw and one of my slicone noses with the nostrils drilled out, a fan will be placed inside the muzzle. The current jawset is from DreamVision Creations but I will be sculpting my own soon; DVC's jawsets are a little short for my blanks but definitely did the trick for the convention weekend. Ears are foamies. This will be a toony/realism blend suit with 3D resin eyes and airbrushed details.
I think that pretty much sums up the project. Please feel free to ask any more questions, make suggestions, or general comments- your feedback is very helpful to me!
-Riley Carbaugh
CanineHybrid Creations
store.caninehybrid.com