Muzzles and Snouts
By Dragonsfire
If you're planning on making a fursuit head, any kind at all, any style, any animal, whatever, one of the first things you need to know about is the shape of your muzzle. Depending on whether you plan to make your head toony or realistic, humanoid or animalistic, you'll be using different shapes to create the snout of the character.
The basics: The most important thing to know about your muzzle-in-progress is the shape in which it is going to be. If the design is unlike any animals you can think off, think carefully about the front view, side view, and top view and sketch it.
Here are the main points: Canine muzzles (meant for foxes, dogs, wolves, coyotes, jackals, dingoes, and such) the snout is going to be generally long and thin. Smaller canines (foxes, etc) are going to have muzzles that are pointier than those of the larger breeds. However, when you start actuall making your mask, might want to go with the stereotypical “ractangle” for a temporary muzzle. Otherwise, just keep the idea that a canine snout is rectangular in mind when you're building.Depending on whether you are making a toony mask or a realistic one, the shape of your muzzle might vary.
Feline masks are slightly different from one another. Smaller species of cats (house cats, bobs, and lynxes) all have relatively short and small snouts. Larger cats, like lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars, and cougars, will all have muzzles that extend out farther from their heads, but will still be broad. (Tigers and lions have the longest muzzles in proportion to their heads of all the felines.) When making a feline mask, keep in mind that the muzzle is generally a square.
Bear muzzles, along with weasels, badgers, wolverines,skunks, and similar animals, are very similar in structure to cats, bears more like the large cats, which means that their shapes vary from squares to wide rectangles. Remember that they are not as slender as canines.
Here's a diagram I drew up to show the differences between muzzle lengths and shapes:
More points before you begin:
Toony: For toony masks, the muzzle is sometimes bulkier or smaller than that of an actual animal. They also tend to have muzzles that are lower down on the face to make room for large eyes. Examples:
http://www1.balloonfox.com:8080/photos/FursuitDir/Rabbit.jpg
http://www.fursuit.co.uk/gallery/albums/fursuits/sylvester/thumb_head-1.jpg
http://www.fursuit.co.uk/gallery/albums/userpics/10010/normal_RedXIX_FC2005_002.jpg
Realistic: This style can be the easiest as well as the hardest. When building your mask, it's imperative that you keep the 'rectangle vs. square' concept in mind, but also be aware of the other shapes that help make up the nose of that animal. (Ie; wolves Do have rectangular snouts, but they aren't just rectangular. Toward the base of the head the muzzle is wider, and the very tip of the snout isn't a 90 degree angle, like it ran into a wall and smashed it in. From the tip, it curves underneath at more of a 120 degree angle; see my diagram above in order to see what I'm talking about.)In order to make your mask look the way you want, you have to be aware of every aspect.
Building a muzzle: There are many ways to go about this. Here are a couple links:
Page Tools
