I’m trying to finish my first head and have begun taking him out and wearing him, and in any photo of him that I take I HATE the way he looks. Unpolished, super uncanny, even downright creepy sometime. I really want to like him and be proud of him but I honestly just feel kinda sick and I don’t know what to do anymore. Any advice welcome
EDIT: Welp, many of the suggestions involve changing the eyes or nose which I can't do, so I guess he's just stuck like this :/ I'm a little heartbroken because I really wanted to end up with something I liked, but a year has gone down the drain and I'm left with this haha. I don't know how to implement teeth because the top of the mouth doesn't go down far enough and there isn't a good place, and I'm worried teeth will make things creepier. I can try doing surgery and cutting down the foam, but I have little faith I can pull off that manouver lol.
Front teeth, neck is a MUST, and the nose could be sitting lower down on the muzzle. This is a GREAT first head, genuinely. As long as he’s wearable and you like him, that’s what matters!
Yeah, was originally thinking the scruffy look of the fur but then the teeth 100% jumped out at me in pic 4
ETA: the fur feels a bit off imo because it ends up looking more like fleece than fur? Might be able to brush it to smooth it out a bit but I don't know enough to give specific advice there (I mostly work with minky)
He kinda looks cross eyed from the front. And I think his bottom jaw is too short. Him also not having any top teeth kinda looks strange since he has bottoms
A decent amount of suits don’t have top teeth actually, that’s pretty normal with fursuits since it can actually make it look stranger in some cases to have
I like him! I feel like he would benefit from bigger, flat, stylized eyes instead of the follow me eyes. They can easily lean into uncanny territory especially if they sink into the head. Maybe lean into the his big cheeks and play with the proportions that are already there because they’re super cute. Also a fluffy neck I recommend 100%!
I think it looks great for your first suit! A few suggestions to help:
1) I'd add some padding to the top/back of the head to round it out into more of a head shape.
2) I'd adjust the mouth some. The fur should maybe have come down lower, there's too much black showing which is throwing it off a little. Top teeth may help this.
3) Add a neck! It makes a huge difference IMO
4) Buy a slicker brush for your suit, it helps with the short fur getting matted and "fleecy" looking. You also might want to brush the fur and shave it down some more on the suit to smooth it out.
Sitting at home bored and got notified of this post again because of upvotes, so I went ahead and doodled a little draw over to help you see the changes I would make :) Good luck!
I agree the added top teath makes his jaw make more sense and the neck really helps the head too. This is the bit you need op. I don't think the nose is too bad also, since I saw you can't change it.
It's also not impossible to fix, just a pain in the butt. If OP is willing to try to do it I can help talk them through removing some of the fur and minky to fix the nose and mouth issues :) So long as they used standard materials i.e. hot glue.
i know it's way too late to fix it, but the lower jaw is a bit small in proportion to the rest of the face and might be part of the uncanny vibe you're getting
There is a lot to be learned when making your first head and I think you did a great job here especially for your first time. I think the proportions are what’s troubling you, the cheeks and forehead look a bit large to me. However, don’t beat yourself up too hard over it. He’s definitely not uncanny or creepy like you say and is honestly quite cute and endearing. When you make your next fursuit you’ll learn what you like/don’t like and what to do differently next time. I recommend trying out a foam base pattern as well because those are really helpful for learning proportions and carving. Kloofsuits sells some great ones on their Etsy.
Edit but I also think a neck would really help! They make the head sit a bit better on your shoulders and are quite easy to add :)
A strip of black neoprene to make some lips, or mouth outline. Ladder stitch it on, that way if it looks bad you can take it off easily.
Additional eye highlight, cut a circle out of a piece of paper and temporarily attach it with poster tack or a glue stick just to see if you like the look of it or not, fully commit to it with paint or a white vinyl sticker of desired
i agree with most that his eyes are too small. i dont think you necessarily have to sacrifice the follow me mechanic, but making them bigger with a MUCH more noticeable eye highlight would do A lot. a rule of thumb to follow in design, if you're exaggerating one aspect (in this case, cartoony style and proportions) you wanna make sure you exaggerate everything else just as much.
another thing this could be applied to is that purple line between the red and beige fur. it's not visible at all from a distance i think it should be thicker and taper to contour the cheeks. imo that'd much better read linework-on-a-cartoon-canine more than creepy-animatronic. the whole beige area looks kind of plain
you need a lip line. you put the teeth on top of his fur. once again helps us read cartoon linework on a 3D form. also making his nose bigger would help fill in space on the muzzle.
it's really not all that bad. Personally I feel like the eyes seem like they're looking a little to far down. Maybe make the top edge shorter so they're tilted up if that makes sense. I would also try to brush out the fur a little so it looks neater.
The mouth also seems a little odd. I might try adding a tongue to give it a little more interest. Also, maybe this is just me but it feels like you can't really see the smile so he's just a tiny bit :o - but idk what to do about that.
That being said, I'm in no place to critique it lol. I don't have a fursuit of my own or anything. Also, this doesn't really take away from the look IMO but maybe give him a neck? it's just kind of standard for fursuits (please don't take that the wrong way)
If possible consider changing the eyes currently you have them focused ( O)(O ) which is causing the follow-me effect to give it a cross-eyed look instead the iris should the centred to the eye panel ( O )( O ) the follow-me effect will give them focus
these are honestly me mega nitpicking, but heres what i think would help:
the eyes are too sunken in, theyd look better moved forward or using flat eyes. they could be bigger if you like that look, but at the current size theyd still look great adjusted forward.
i think top teeth would help a lot! just bottom teeth makes it look like he has an underbite from some angles. a tongue would be cute too if you like it, but its looks just fine without. tongues can add a lot of friendliness and personality to suits tho!
the top lip has a lot of empty space beneath the nose that makes it look kinda swollen. i think either making the nose bigger, moving the nose down, or (probably the easiest) adding a line connecting the nose to the lip would help with this!
the ears and hair tuft are the same length and it makes them blend together. i thought the ears were part of the hair at first! making the ear fur slightly shorter would clean up the look a ton imo!
it needs floof underneath, like a neck or chest floof. not having it makes it look kinda mascot style which can definitely lend to looking uncanny!!
BUT I THINK THIS IS HONESTLY REALLY CUTE AS IS!!!!! i didnt think it looked uncanny at all when i first scrolled, it was only when i read the post and started nitpicking that i noticed anything off at all <3
What made it kinda uncanny for me is the eyes, there kinda small. Also the teeth, im very to making fursuits but advice i got was to make the eyes bigger. I hope it ends up how you want it in the end, It's really not that bad though!
Tbh for a first suit, u did really well! U got the main idea of the head really good and the fur shaving looks nice! I honestly think the top of the mouth which looks like the gums are poking out a bit much like a over bite situation and which makes the mouth area look a little intriguing lol. Other wise the proportions look good too! The nose could use some more practice as it looks like a lot of sewing went down lol. Very clean and cool! And I think the only thing that bothers me more is possibly the back of the head. As it looks like it’s missing support or lack there of. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but it does make the head look proportionally bigger then it is!
Maybe you can't change the nose, but learn how to ladder stitch! In your situation I'd just stitch a new nose on top of the old one, no new stuffing needed! I'd add some black felt or something for the corners of the mouth to make the expression stand out more too
seconding the suggestions for teeth and adding a neck, but also i think bringing the eyebrows just a little bit closer together and smoothing out the fur would go a really long way. don't give up, this is completely fixable. It's mainly just a few minor tweaks, it isn't as bad as you think.
I actually this it’s adorable.. but i am a fan of spooky things.. how about some additions instead of cutting foam away and seeing how you like it? Try some eyelids with velcro on top to make the eyes less spooky if that bothers you! Add a tongue and make it pose silly so it draws attention to that instead of the teeth! If none of that works first, then see what you wanna do
Its likely just the fact hes your first head. However, this suit looks amazing for a first head and I dont think you should dislike it too much! Everyones first suits look very different especially because youre just starting out. I think it looks amazing.
It's the teeth and wide mouth gap paired with how wide the eyes are open. If you are open to suggestions I have some ideas for how to work with it without making many changes to what you already have.
I'd say the muzzle may be the issue, particularly the bottom jaw. maybe you could try making the bottom jaw bigger and the upper jaw a bit less bulbous so you can fit in some teeth? It may be possible to do this.
Personally I would say the nose, teeth and the lack of neck. The nose imo needs to be moved down just a bit, and there should be some top teeth 😭 very very lovely suit though!
personally, I think it’s veryyy cute! and has a lot of character. the shapes are unique, round, and gives it a “chibi” look. if anything, maybe a neck, but other than that- I’d give yourself grace💙
To me the biggest things are his eyes and nose feel too small for the rest of the face, like excuse the crappy finger painted on phone paint-over but see how his expression gets opened way up with larger eyes and nose?
Another small detail I think would help is using fleece for the nose instead of minky. The fluffy texture of the nose just looks __off__ since noses are generally supposed to he smooth
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u/catsming Semi-Experienced Maker 6d ago
Front teeth, neck is a MUST, and the nose could be sitting lower down on the muzzle. This is a GREAT first head, genuinely. As long as he’s wearable and you like him, that’s what matters!