Creating Your Fursona

Ryuu takes us step by step through the process of creating your own fursona!

Featured Fan Mail: Coby Le Wagon

https://x.com/CobyWagon

Thanks for tuning in! Be sure to give us a download and let us know what you think! You can follow the podcast or either of the hosts at the links below.

Twitter: https://x.com/whatareweinfur
Ryuu: https://x.com/RyuuDerg
Adobe: https://www.youtube.com/@adobetheretriever

Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:01

Uh hey, hey, lovely listener. Thank you for tuning in to Lodian for Podcast. This week we have another nope. That's a this one happens when he tried to change the intro off the script. Hello everyone. Welcome back to Lodian for Podcast. I'm Adobe in the Star Podcast where we talk about anything related to furry fandom. My buddy Ryu is here today. And we take turns at choosing topics each episode. Sometimes it's entirely about the fandom, or it's just not enough about it. But speaking of Ryu, welcome back. I missed you. How are you?

SPEAKER_02 0:36

Oh, it's great to be back.

SPEAKER_03 0:37

It's great to be back. I missed everyone. No, don't, no, no, don't clap, don't clap. Okay. Okay. Stop clapping. Stop clapping. Everybody calm down. Yes, it's great to be back. I'm doing okay. Uh in light of recent events. Um, I'm making it. But I went to work today for the first time since I've been away. And it was okay. Today was okay at work. It was slow, quiet, and yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:09

Has anything changed because now you're a mallied man? A melee. Um you're all husband husbanding in it up. I'm a husband to a lovely dragoness, and I'm grateful to call her my wife.

SPEAKER_03 1:26

Good. How how was the honeymoon? How was the honeymoon? We went to Orange Beach, Alabama, and it was beautiful. I've I've never been to a beach, like ever. And then I finally we finally went and we got this condo from uh her grandparents, and we they let us use our condo. It was super nice, and we was like right on the beach, and you could go out on the balcony and just listen to the waves, and it was so peaceful, and it was it was beautiful. That sounds wonderful.

SPEAKER_06 1:58

Good for you. Yeah. And now have you been? Oh hold on, I still want to talk about you. You've been having so much going on. Uh okay. All right, now I'll talk about me. I understand. I got I got I I read between the lines, I get it. You're sick of me. No, um I love you. I still want to keep talking about you because you're also moving uh on top. You just got wet then honeymooning, and now you're movinging. I am moving. I'm movinging.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

We actually got our keys today.

SPEAKER_03 2:27

So after this recording, I'm gonna go and go move put all the boxes that are in my car into my new apartment because I have all my Legos and my fragile stuff in the kitchen.

SPEAKER_04 2:41

Upstairs.

SPEAKER_03 2:42

On the third floor.

SPEAKER_04 2:44

Outside.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

On the balcony.

SPEAKER_04 2:46

Can't go from third floor to outside. On the balcony.

SPEAKER_06 2:56

So you're moving into another another apartment? Yes. What's so different about this one? Yes, that is.

SPEAKER_03 3:02

It's uh the square footage is about the same, but the layout's different. So uh hopefully our couch will actually fit in the living room. Um, because we have a giant couch. Uh it's very big, sectional. It's a really nice couch though. But um, and our balcony is like three times the size of the one that we have now. So we'll have a lot more room for new plants. Lots of new plants. We're gonna have lots of them. They're gonna be big, they're gonna be gorgeous.

SPEAKER_06 3:34

No, that's good though. Um that's so is this gonna be like your new forever home or no. No. No.

SPEAKER_03 3:41

This is just gonna, this is gonna be our just our new home until we find a house somewhere in, I don't know, somewhere in uh Pennsylvania. Oh, yep, there we go. Auspicious for the Anthem. I think I think that's I think that's the state.

SPEAKER_04 3:55

The correct answer was no. Your new apartment is not your forever home.

SPEAKER_03 4:00

My forever home is Pittsburgh. Better be. But fuck the Pirates, fuck the Steelers, fuck all the teams over there. I fucking hate them. They suck. We got the draft. Besides the Phillies. The Phillies are really good. I love the Phillies.

SPEAKER_06 4:13

But no one likes Philadelphia. And if you if you're a listener who's in Philadelphia, I love you, but I don't love your city, so I guess that means I don't love you.

SPEAKER_03 4:20

So I love your baseball team though.

SPEAKER_06 4:22

I don't know. Baseball. Home It's okay. Home run. Home run. Home run. Swing better bad swing. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_04 4:33

I know sports. My girlfriend knows sports really well, so I have to like pretend like I'm into sports.

SPEAKER_06 4:38

I I just have to joke about it because there's no way I can even seriously try to relate to her with sports or her family. I just have I have to act dumb because if I actually try, it's humiliating, you know.

SPEAKER_03 4:49

Yeah, but why would you want to act knowledgeable on a subject that you're not knowledgeable about that just makes you look stupid in the first place?

SPEAKER_06 4:55

You know, if I could relate to it. No, I understand.

SPEAKER_03 4:58

Yeah, I would I would love to relate to some things that I come into a conversation about, but I can't relate to them. I know.

SPEAKER_06 5:05

But that's just kind of how the cookie crumbles now. I know. The doctor said I was diagnosed with stupidity, and unfortunately, I just there's no way to fix it.

SPEAKER_03 5:12

So well, you gotta tell us something we don't know that you're diagnosed with. Like I mean, I could have told you that one too.

SPEAKER_06 5:19

I look I I don't think so. I uh I don't I I've been told I have ADHD. I'm ADHD. I have ADHD, I have really bad ADHD.

SPEAKER_03 5:29

I I need to go get a study on that because I'm pretty sure I have it between my therapist, my psychiatrist, I got ADHD and I'm not medicated. That one like resonated like like in my Adobe? Felt like deeper. No, don't don't don't play it again.

SPEAKER_06 5:48

Play it just once in slow motion, and do something weird that you haven't done before. Whoa. Wow, that was interesting, wasn't it? That was that sure was interesting. That was so interesting.

SPEAKER_03 6:05

You know what's even more interesting? What's interesting? If you ask me that uh little question, yeah, Ryu, I'm doing great.

SPEAKER_05 6:12

Thank you so much for following up with how I'm doing. I'm great. Ryu, what are we in for today? Let's just go, let's just cut right to the topic.

SPEAKER_02 6:22

Fuck you. We're talking about how to create your own persona.

SPEAKER_06 6:27

It's happening.

SPEAKER_02 6:28

No, actually, I feel bad. I want I feel bad. I wanna I want to hear how you are. Uh can I just say so off topic?

SPEAKER_06 6:37

Adobe, how do we need like a jingle for like the what are we in for? I feel like we need like a tune that plays when we ask. We need it that we have to sing. Oh. Well, no, probably something that people can people who actually sing would be good to have in the background.

SPEAKER_05 6:53

We can sing. No, no, we can't.

SPEAKER_04 7:00

We sing when we're drunk going down the hall and stumbling through on a what is it, a luggage cart, a baggage cart?

SPEAKER_03 7:08

A luggage cart. Oh my god. I was pushing you and my mom on a luggage cart in this hotel, and y'all were drunk out of y'all's minds off of what was it? The cut water? You were high.

SPEAKER_04 7:17

Oh, dude, I just the cutwater, man. That was a bad idea.

SPEAKER_03 7:20

Cut water, the the white Russian cut water. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 7:24

That was kind of tasty though. Anyway, what do we infer? Let's see, I'm already off topic. What do we infer? Tell me what we're in for today.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

We are in for creating your very own persona.

SPEAKER_06 7:37

Audience, you may applaud now.

unknown 7:39

Woo! Woo!

SPEAKER_01 7:40

Applaud lights on. Clap.

SPEAKER_03 7:43

Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

Stop clopping! Stop clopping!

SPEAKER_03 7:47

Okay, okay, okay. I know everybody's excited, especially that one guy from the fan mail.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

What was his name?

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Mari. Mari. This is for you, Mari. Pay attention, okay?

SPEAKER_03 7:58

I know, I know you've seen those fluffy little creatures walk around conventions in their bright, fluffy suits and all the nice art you see online. Today we're gonna talk about creating your very own fluffy little character that you can be walking around a con pretending to be. Now, we're just gonna jump right in. We're gonna start with the purpose of your fursona.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

Actually, no, I forgot. I forgot.

SPEAKER_03 8:25

Dial it back, dial it back, no, we don't include it.

SPEAKER_02 8:27

I forgot. Today we're gonna start.

SPEAKER_05 8:31

Where do you want me to where do you want me to start this intro for the topic?

SPEAKER_00 8:36

Fuck.

SPEAKER_05 8:38

Right now. Right now. Today we're gonna be able to do it. Oh no, we don't include anything he said previously. Maybe just a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 8:45

Okay, so we're gonna talk about creating your very own persona today, and uh, we're gonna play a little game while we do it. We're gonna create a theoretical mascot for the What A We In for podcast. Oh, ooh! Using all these bullet points that I thought of while on the beach getting a good little tan. Out on the beach, stepping on the beach, truly do. Alright. Now, Adobe. Hi. You're participating. I like it. It's not just up to me today. We are gonna be participating and creating our theoretical mascot for the What Are We In for podcast using these little bullet points that I thought up in my mind and just word vomited all over this fucking word document. I love when you vomit.

SPEAKER_02 9:35

So uh so are you ready to start and create this theoretical mascot?

SPEAKER_04 9:43

Yes, Mr. Salamander, sir.

SPEAKER_06 9:45

What I said, yes, Mr. Salamander, sir.

SPEAKER_04 9:48

It's ma'am.

SPEAKER_06 9:49

Yes, ma'am.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

Good boy.

SPEAKER_03 9:51

All right. Before we start even talking about species and shit, we're gonna start with the purpose of your fersona. You need to decide what your fursona is meant to be for you. Ask yourself whether this character is a direct reflection of yourself, or it could be an idealized an idealized version of who you want to be. It could be a comfort character that makes you feel safe. It could be like a separate original character that you just like enjoy that you just made for fun. Yeah. Um what do we do we want this for Sona to be a direct reflection of the what are we in for a podcast?

SPEAKER_06 10:31

I think for the direction for us making a Sona, I think that works pretty well. Anyone who's following along at home, and you better be taking notes because this is gonna be on the test. I just uh no, so I uh the subjects you provided are completely spot on for like a good purpose. I think for us though, for us making a theoretical mascot, yeah, I think something that represents the podcast as a whole uh would not hurt to roll with as an example.

SPEAKER_03 10:58

Okay. Now, what about the emotional role that it'll like play in your life? Like a persona can be a persona can be personal, it can be symbolic, it can be playful, it can be aspirational even. Um the clearer your purpose is, the easier every later choice becomes. What kind of emotion do we want out of our persona, do you think?

SPEAKER_06 11:24

Oh, ours. My mind went to two. Was one that was either like kind of comedic or like looked fun slash funny, or something that's welcoming. I don't know if both overlap, but that's where my mind went it went with initially. Well well what about you? I'm I'm sure you've had time to think about it.

SPEAKER_03 11:42

I think I think something playful. I I like I said playful. I think a playful mascot would kind of work.

SPEAKER_06 11:51

You know what? Yeah, not funny. That's that's that's yeah, playful is more where my mind is.

SPEAKER_03 11:55

We're kinda on the spectrum where we are little jokesters and we like to joke. Really? We're so so I would never What? So, okay, uh I don't joke. So let's let let's pick an emotional role that's playful. Um so before we move on to Ryu, so my phone just fell behind my computer.

SPEAKER_06 12:21

I heard that. God damn it. Uh so I'm gonna grab that, but whenever you were making uh Ryu specifically, what was your intent with the emotion behind behind your character?

SPEAKER_03 12:31

With the intent of creating Ryu whenever I was still young, I I can't really answer that because I feel like a persona grows with you. If your fersona can't grow with you, then it becomes irrelevant. I think whenever I was making Ryu, initially he was like a badass dude and he had all this lore and he was like and he like Sounds pretty emo. He he was like a pretty, pretty solid dude that I had him out to be because I would roleplay with him a lot. And then as I got older, I stopped roleplaying and I started getting more artwork, and I that's where I started not really portraying emotion, but like That's where he really started to develop. It's become a good one. It's where he started to develop more personally to me because I was also finding myself as I was, of course, getting older, and um like I said, just I was I was finding myself, and that's okay to have a persona that grows with you because like I said, you don't want that that that persona could just be um what am I trying to say?

unknown 13:44

I believe in you.

SPEAKER_03 13:45

Let me take a sip of my water.

SPEAKER_07 13:47

Can we hear it?

SPEAKER_05 13:53

I don't know why I asked. See, cut out on Discord. So I'm so curious what it's gonna hear when I play it back.

SPEAKER_03 14:05

But yes, I I I really can't answer that. Like I said, he was like a badass guy. He had all this lore that I would interpret into uh role plays and stuff, but um he's grown with me as a person, is how I am. Uh so yeah.

SPEAKER_06 14:23

Yeah, I mean that's that kind of does that. Absolutely, because yet not every um not every character necessarily has to have a certain like um thing, just just in general, anything uh tied to it. So I think him developing alongside you is a perfectly valid um just emotion or uh um subject to tie him to because that that's right it leads to uh you know more personal growth with you rather than like disconnecting from him down the road. Yeah. Um makes him your main character, your main person.

SPEAKER_03 14:52

That's why he's still my only OC. Yeah. Well, besides besides my Highland Cow that I never use, I forgot about him. It's okay. I have a naked cat I never use, so I get it. I mean, like if we're if we're going back on these bullet points, like I'd say Saint, my Highland Cow, he's a separate original character that I have, but I just made him for fun. I don't really use them, but I enjoy them. So yeah.

SPEAKER_06 15:14

He's just there, he sits in limbo. Yeah. So I know with Adobe, um, I've talked about this quite a bit as him being like a role model. Um, but if I had to like choose like an emotion when I developed Adobe, and it it went alongside with you, you know, Adobe I wanted for him to develop with me. I can't say I had that in mind when I made him. I kind of let that happen naturally. So if I had to choose an emotion when I made my character, and this is what helped me relate to him, was him just being joyful or happy. And granted, it is a lot more in depth than just that, but that was kind of the baseline I gave Adobe when I thought of him was he's a happy character, he's joyful.

SPEAKER_03 15:58

And then I and then I led to more um uh narrow down now. Whenever you were creating these emotional roles for Adobe, were you thinking like, hey, this is an idealized version of like who I want to be, or was or was it like a comfort character that made you feel all safe and snuggly inside?

SPEAKER_06 16:17

He was definitely a comfort character to a degree, but more was more of an idealized version of me. Um, he was definitely created to be a role model and something I looked up to. So he definitely had traits that I wanted. So there was comfort in having him. There was comfort in getting art and seeing him come more to life, whether it's in an animation, whether it's in like an art piece or a VR chat avatar. But he definitely for the almost entirety of the time that I've had him has just been this is what I want to be, this is what I look up to. Here's his traits. Um, so that that's what I'd say he more represents. Well said.

SPEAKER_03 16:57

Okay. I think now we're gonna move on to how we want the fursona to feel. You know what I mean? Yes. Like before choosing your species and all that, we're gonna we're gonna keep going down some prerequisites first. Um we're gonna we're gonna define the vibe of your fursona. So you wanna ask yourself, do do I want them do I want my fursona to feel soft or intense, calm or chaotic, friendly or mysterious, elegant or scrappy, confident or shy, whatever the fuck. Slimy. Slimy, gross, sheddy, like shedding. Tall and slimy and slender. So slender. I'm a salamander baby. What can I say?

SPEAKER_06 17:46

Yeah, you are. You own that. So, okay. Now, are we looking at this in terms of our mascot now for us?

SPEAKER_03 17:58

Uh yeah, we can. Um, like focus on like the emotional atmosphere first, and like I I think that would help avoid making random design choices that don't fit together.

SPEAKER_06 18:09

It does. It really does. I what what I so this is what I have in my head. I I need to put this away. Is I just have our characters yeah, as if they had a baby and that's the mascot. I I need to get that out of my head. That needs to go.

SPEAKER_03 18:24

I think I think I think we should have like an like an energetic, chaotic vibe. Absolutely. Chaotic vibe, I think. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 18:32

Yeah, I think having him be you I think the original intent was what playful is kind of what we went with. Mm-hmm. Yeah, so having him kind of like energetic, a little chaotic, I think having that vibe cater to that emotion is is probably ideal when it comes to our podcast as a mascot for a character we're creating right now. So I know with Adobe he was just a fucking energetic goofball, so I can I I get it. Yeah. Yeah. That's kind of me sometimes when I choose to be.

SPEAKER_03 19:00

Yeah. When I I mean, whenever I designed Ryu, he was supposed to be, you know, like confident and strong and all because he's a dragon, you know. So strong. I should say salamander now.

SPEAKER_06 19:12

Yeah. I want to see Salamander Plushie. That'd be great. One day.

SPEAKER_03 19:15

Salamander Salamander Plushie of Ryu. That's our first merch.

SPEAKER_06 19:19

Merch line. Imagine.

SPEAKER_03 19:21

How do you even go about doing that?

SPEAKER_06 19:24

Uh I don't know. I'll just assume someone's gonna be.

SPEAKER_03 19:27

We can't go off topic. We can't go off topic.

SPEAKER_06 19:29

There's so much more to go over.

SPEAKER_03 19:32

We're gonna identify parts of ourselves that we want to express into our fursona. So think about it. Express all over that fursona. I'm gonna ex- I'm gonna I'm gonna express everywhere. So gross. Don't express everywhere.

SPEAKER_04 19:50

I love that you play into my little bit, and then you're just like, wait, no, hold on.

SPEAKER_03 19:54

But yeah, no, no, so so so you want to think about which traits feel m most important to your identity. These traits, they can be traits that you have already, or they could be traits that you want to grow into. Example I guess some examples could be loyalty, curiosity, independence, protectiveness, pure fucking emo badass. Emo badass motherfucker, uh playfulness, like we've described a few times. Um awkwardness is a good one, or something like gentleness, or you fox out there. Pick a small full of pick a small handful of like some core traits instead of trying to represent everything. A strong persona usually has a focused emotional center. So so you want to kind of pick one or two big core traits, you know?

SPEAKER_06 20:52

Mm-hmm.

unknown 20:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 20:54

At this point with the persona, and I I know we we relate to this when it comes to our characters, but like this is when the persona starts to feel more alive. It has more meaning, more there's more definition than just a thought now. Absolutely. Um, and this is where things get to more be more personalized when you're like, oh, okay, hold on. This is like this is a concept I actually really want to roll with. It's it's when you start finding more simplicity in making the character because it's at this point where if you're choosing what you're looking for, not just some random thing you're making up for a story or something, but if you're making more personalized fursona or just fursona to be represented as, to have as a badge at a con, to wear as a fursuit, this is when everything starts to come together and feel more real before really thinking about like the species or uh uh colors of the case.

SPEAKER_03 21:39

We're we're digging into the brain of your fursona right now. This is what we're doing.

SPEAKER_06 21:42

I'm sticking my finger in that brain and I'm wiggling around like a ladle in a soup.

SPEAKER_03 21:47

Hell yeah. Hell yeah, mixing that shit, mixing that shit. All right, what do we wanna what do we wanna throw into the pot now?

SPEAKER_06 21:53

Um, I think a sense of confidence or leadership, not not an overbearing, not overbearing, but like. If it's a mascot for the podcast, I mean it's it's it's the mascot for a podcast.

SPEAKER_03 22:07

I think there should be a combination of of three three specific ones. Um what'd you have in mind? Curiosity, yep, playfulness, and awkwardness. Ooh, just a little bit awkward. Just a little bit, just a little sprinkle of awkward. Yeah, honestly, that's fair.

SPEAKER_06 22:23

Because it it makes it personalized, especially to the podcast. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And for people who don't know, we cut some awkward bits out. I'm just saying we we yeah, we do.

SPEAKER_03 22:33

We we really cutting out not them. Some of them are funny, some of them are just really fucking weird, and we post them anyways. I mean whatever. Now, what kind of core traits did you amplify with Adobe? I mean, you kind of mentioned it before, like joyfulness and um happiness, but like were there any others?

SPEAKER_06 23:01

Yeah, so I kind of think of three the second you uh asked that was uh leadership and or slash extrovertedness, and then um what do you call caring in this term? So you know, very, very um um empathetic.

SPEAKER_03 23:17

Uh yeah, empathetic.

SPEAKER_06 23:18

Caring, uh, you know, something in combination of of of that idea. Okay. Was definitely the backbones of Adobe when I was creating him and as he developed with me. Um for sure. That's that's absolutely what he was based off of. Uh what about you with uh Ryu?

SPEAKER_03 23:35

I'd say loyalty, curiosity, he's independent.

SPEAKER_06 23:41

Yeah. Don't give a fuck, I'm my own man kind of uh Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:46

I mean that's that's just how I am. But I'm a married man now, so what can I say? Now we're gonna move on to decide whether your persona reflects you, contrasts you, or balances you. So these are three very useful ways that you could approach the approach fursona creation. Um reflection is uh your persona is already very much like you. Aspiration, uh your persona embodies what you want more of or balance. Um your persona fills in emotional gaps that you feel in yourself. Uh example, if you're shy, you might take a bold wolf as aspiration. If you're chaotic, you might take a calm deer as balance. Um if you're already independent and selective, a cat might be a good reflection. Um knowing this gives your persona more emotional meaning. Did that make sense?

SPEAKER_06 24:48

It does. And here's the thing. Here's a thing. If you're looking for stereotypes or you know, you wanna you're you're thinking about some characters.

SPEAKER_05 24:56

We got a stereotype episode. We do, we got a stereotypes episode, we got a tier list for species, so not not trying to call us out or anything.

SPEAKER_06 25:05

But no, actually, if you are new to the fandom, there are some stereotypes and uh species that are very common and known in the fandom. Uh, those are actually good episodes to reference back to just to get like a general idea if you're brand new to the fandom. But that how you said it was very, very well said.

SPEAKER_03 25:22

At the end of the day, at the end of the day, the tier lists and the stereotypes are just are just opinions and not factual. So don't cancel us, okay? I mean they could be a big thing. If you want to go be a blue fox, that fucks everybody. Go ahead. I'm still gonna judge you.

SPEAKER_06 25:39

Yeah, one of how many? Like a million?

SPEAKER_03 25:41

Yeah, a million blue foxes. I mean, there really is a lot. Did you know I I saw this in a YouTube video? There's a lot of blue fursonas out there. Uh there is because um, one, the world's favorite color is blue. Is it really? That's the worst. Yes. I love blue. Nah, actually, red's the worst. I love blue so much that I actually never mind. We're not gonna talk about this right now. You have blue balls?

SPEAKER_00 26:07

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 26:10

Testicular torsion. Oh, I can fondle those for you. Would that help? Yeah, untwist them a little bit.

SPEAKER_05 26:20

Okay, okay, let's get back to it. But you know what else we can untwist or unravel the fan. Yeah! Untwist that shit.

SPEAKER_06 26:37

Anyway, it's time for the fan mail. If you guys don't know the fan mail, uh, you can click the link down below on all your uh podcast listening platforms and find a link to message us. Uh, if you're on YouTube, you're not gonna see that link down below, but you can just comment in the uh on on our YouTube and let us know it's for the fan mail. Uh, if you have a question, have a comment on the podcast, or want to shout yourself out um via your social media on something that you do in the fandom, that's what this is there for. But speaking of which, we got a wonderful fan mail from Kobe. Were you? This is from Kobe the Wagon.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

Uh good morning. Just found y'all's podcast, and it seems super cool. As for furry-related hobbies, I do photography at events mainly and post it on all my socials.

SPEAKER_03 27:21

I do find myself in a weird area at times where I don't have photos of my own suit. So I make sure everyone has a picture if I'm able. Something I do that's less furry-related is cooking and drink making on my socials. I don't have a lot of room and video making know-how, so it's just photography and recipe designing of what I cook. I also do requests for cooking themes, and I'll work on designing food and drinks preparing for it. I also do Dungeons and Dragons content and run a campaign with some furs I know on my Twitch, as well as regular streaming stuff. Anyways, that's my hobby slash rant lol. Sorry it was super long. I am on x.com at Kobe Wagon. Thank you for reading the super long message. Sincerely, Kobe the Wagon.

SPEAKER_06 28:06

Thanks, Kobe! Kobe, thank you so much for writing in. Um we will have your Twitters posted down below. And can I just say, anyone who is listening has a moment, go check it out. The food on here, listen, all I had the food. All I had before I started recording today. I had a banana hot dog early in the day, and now I had two spoonfuls two spoonfuls of peanut butter and blackberries. I don't have a lot of. Kobe, your food, man. It is as aesthetic as hell. That looks great. Drinks. Those drinks look. Five or six four plastic pan, fried burgers, whole grain mustard mayo with cheddar, jammy onions, and a crunchy mustard apples. I'm so hungry. Uh anyway, guys, go support Kobe. His food and harvey is absolutely fantastic on his Twitter. Uh, we gotta support the fan. I'm so hungry. Kobe, I love you, and I kinda hate you because I'm so hungry. But anyway, can we give uh Kobe some love, guys? Appreciate everyone supporting us, and we wanna do the best we get back to. We wanna do we wanna do our party give back to it. Just go ahead and give us some love. Kobe, thank you so much again for writing in. Look fucking fantastic.

SPEAKER_03 29:29

Your photography's excellent. Uh keep it up. Keep it up. And you gotta you got a good career.

SPEAKER_06 29:36

And thank you, and thank you guys again for anyone who writes into the fan mail. As mentioned before, if you guys want to send us a message, links down below if we're on YouTube, just go ahead and type in the comments. But anyway, let's roll right back into furry for shur fur fur fur furs.

SPEAKER_01 29:51

Furry for furry first. So, Adobe, today we're now gonna talk talking about we're gonna start talking about picking our fursona species, okay?

SPEAKER_06 30:06

Start talking about the species. I like the species.

SPEAKER_03 30:09

We're gonna we're gonna choose a species that feels personally meaningful, okay? Pick an animal that you connect with emotionally, visually, or symbolically. Don't worry about being too common or not unique enough. A species matters more when it resonates with you than when it impresses other people. I wrote that weird. Yeah. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_06 30:35

It absolutely does. And I know with a lot of people, whenever I I've heard a lot of talk, and this is one of the biggest issues when it comes to creating a persona, is just choosing the species. Hopefully, what we talked about earlier does help you visualize a species as you're making it. If you haven't gone to that point, a good start, just an initial start, is sharing a species of something that is important to you that you've had IRL. Um, I know a lot of people start with some, you know, you could have had a family dog growing up. So my family dog was a husky. If I wanted to and had I struggled with a species, I would probably start with a husky and then just move on from there and change it as needed. There's literally no harm to change your species down the road. Hi, I already did that. I went from being a wolf to a retriever. Sure did. Um, so a good start is just something that you are around in person. And if I'm round, those tra you're so round. Fucking never mind.

SPEAKER_03 31:36

I'm a inflatable fur now.

SPEAKER_06 31:38

All right, moving on. Uh, but yeah, just starting with something that you relate to in person is a good start for those who have no idea. If you have a couple ideas in mind or you're trying to think of something different, there are good um, I don't I don't want to say stereotypes all over again, but there are a lot of species have certain emotions tied to them just as you think about them or right off the bat, like raccoons or you know, trash pandas or wolves or alphas, foxes or fanboys, you know, those stereotypes.

SPEAKER_03 32:06

Yeah. I mean, you you you had some pretty good points there. So, like you could ask yourself like what animals have always interested me? Uh what animal traits feel like me? What animal energy feels comforting or exciting? Absolutely. What animal body shape and style do I enjoy visually? I don't know. I mean, like you can choose real animals, extinct animals, mythical creatures, hybrids, fucking robots, planes, people people make plane sonas.

SPEAKER_01 32:35

Have you seen the planes?

SPEAKER_06 32:36

They really do, and they're kind of cute too. When they have like a plain, like dragon looking thing.

SPEAKER_03 32:40

They are kind of dude, they're they're really cool. It's really fucking cool.

SPEAKER_06 32:45

The thing is, is you can get very creative with your sona. You don't have to worry about fitting in, like, for those who don't know, some of the most popular species in the fandom are some sort of canine breed. You don't have to fit in with that crowd, but if you do, that's also more than okay. Get creative with it. If you're if you're a meme biologist or interested in science and you like bugs or fish, make a sona off that. If you have multiple multiple species that you like or interested in, combine them. You can get very, very creative with it because if you're looking to stand out or make something that's personal to you, finding something that isn't that is important to you is what's gonna help that sona feel more real.

SPEAKER_03 33:20

Fuck yeah. Well said, dude. You said that really well. And I think you can just really do whatever the fuck you want. Make whatever you the fuck you want. Um, but you want to go deeper than oh, this animal looks cool. You need to consider what the species communicates. Like how we talked about uh remember when we talked about different animals and we kind of anthroper anthroom.

SPEAKER_06 33:47

That was speed spots and softness. I remember that speed spots and softness.

SPEAKER_03 33:53

Something like that. Way back there. Way back when I lost count. We were we were old then, we were old. Back in the day. Back in the day. So you want to consider what the species itself communicates. Um, so we're gonna kind of go back to that old episode and kind of talk about some episode five. Episode five. We're gonna go back to episode five and we're gonna talk about some example ideas. So, of course, we can start with a wolf. Um, wolves are loyal, they have pack bonds, um, they're intense, and they have misunderstood strength. Foxes are clever, they adapt really well, and they're really playful. And they're also really horny. Um cats, uh, cats are really independent, they're selective at times, um, they can bring comfort or um some subtle affection.

SPEAKER_06 34:44

Absolutely. And if you're thinking of a species that maybe just doesn't have obvious traits, you can think of it as like, hey, you know, I if you know a species off of like a story, if you know a species based off of a game, like um Falcon from what is it, Star Fox? You know, if you're if you're thinking of a bird, so is it Falcon? Is that other than that? I think so. Yeah, if you're thinking of like Falcon off Star Fox, I'm really hoping that's the character incorrect, but like if you're having trouble trying to identify what a bird species had, you can give him traits that you relate to. And if a bird that has Falcon's uh personality, roll with that. If you're thinking of a species like a fish, you're like, I don't really know what kind of personality traits that would have, at least right off the top of your head, relate a fish to some character you know from some video game, some story, some movie. Yeah, that might help build some more story blocks for you.

SPEAKER_03 35:33

Nemo.

SPEAKER_06 35:34

Yeah, exactly. So if if you have trouble relating what a species personality traits might actually be, relate to something you're familiar with, and then roll from that and see if that's if that's right for you.

SPEAKER_03 35:46

Dude, dude, some people even pick like movies that they like and they base a character off of their movie, like that they like, or like certain songs that they that they listen to. Yes, Nick Wilde, Zootopia.

SPEAKER_06 35:58

Did you say did you say a fursona based off songs?

SPEAKER_07 36:02

That's crazy because the beats to beast episode episodes!

SPEAKER_04 36:13

Oh shit. We'll just combine all our episodes as one, and it'll just be all in tandem as a how to create your own fursona, and it's just five or six episodes like just attached together.

SPEAKER_03 36:25

Anyway, it at the end of the day, your interpretation does not have to match everyone else's. I think what matters is what the species means to you. I think you want to decide if you want a single species or a hybrid. Because actually, a single species often feels cleaner and easier to design. But a hybrid can be great if one species alone does not fully express you. Use a hybrid when it adds meaning, not just echo extra decoration, though. A good reason for our use of a hybrid is if you want to connect two emotional identities, or if you want to show contradiction or complexity, or if you want a blend of traits, like a little a little sprinkle of different traits in there. Um, like an example could be a deer and a dragon that could suggest uh softness plus strength. Or it could be a wolf and a cat, and that could suggest uh loyalty and independence. But keep the mix readable so that this is so that the design still feels intentional. Couldn't have beside it better myself. Thank you. You're welcome. We didn't really go into um why we picked our species.

SPEAKER_06 37:40

I think everyone knows why I picked mine. Because he's a dog, he's a dog, and I have golden retriever brain.

SPEAKER_00 37:47

He got dog brain.

SPEAKER_06 37:49

But that is why I picked a golden retriever. I mean, people have called me a retriever outside of the furry fandom, as I have mentioned before. Um, but I enjoy retrievers, and it's why I changed from a wolf to a retriever because loyal, happy, energetic, but also just kind of dumb a lot of the time. Uh, but very caring, and that's why I made Adobe more of a retriever. Because that that's just a much more relatable uh species and personality trait. But I changed that because Adobe is meant to relate to me. If your persona isn't meant to be exactly one-to-one to you, it doesn't have to be species that relates one-to-one to you either. But for you, what about you with your dragon?

SPEAKER_03 38:27

You know, I picked the dragon because I just thought they were fucking sick. Like I just thought they were badass, they were like strong, and I don't know. Dragons are free and they're fucking awesome. They're powerful, and I just like I just like fantasy creatures. Okay, now we want to go choose our first sonas body type. Body, body, b body yadda yadda yadda. Body yadda yadda yadda yadda. Yeah, I mean think about like silhouette, physical energy, tall like do you want to be tall or short, slender? I don't want to be short or say that for a while. Stocky, fluffy or sleek.

SPEAKER_06 39:05

And this could be something that relates more to you as a person or more to the character itself.

SPEAKER_03 39:10

So there's really no wrong answer here. This helps your Sona feel more visually complete once you pick that body style. What would our character we we kind of completely abandoned mascot? I know we did abandon the mascot. Fuck the mascot! We are the mascots! Fuck the mascots, we are the fucking mascots. We're talking about us. We're talking about us. Yeah. Whenever I built Ryu, I mean, I originally built him as like six foot, really built, athletic, but now he's just five foot three, 150 pounds and full of anger.

SPEAKER_06 39:53

Adobe was definitely me. I I gave him a little more height just because of his diggy legs. So you know, he would match more realistically what the species would entail if it was one, two legs, but he pretty much was my height, just a little bit taller. But my body type, all that jazz.

SPEAKER_03 40:12

Are you ready to color?

SPEAKER_06 40:13

Yes, ma'am.

SPEAKER_03 40:14

We're gonna choose an emotional design direction. I'm ready. We're gonna talk we're gonna talk about color palettes.

SPEAKER_04 40:22

Okay, not nope, no emotional design. Moving on.

SPEAKER_03 40:25

With intention. With intention. Do we want to go over emotional design? Do we want to do more emotional design? Because I feel like we didn't. No, no, it didn't matter. No, don't I don't know why I put this there and not just.

SPEAKER_06 40:37

Okay, color palette. Just say color palette, but color palette. With colors with with personas, there are two directions you can go. Um, you can, and we've talked about this before. The great hurried bait and hot takes, but there's more natural designs you can roll with, or more cartoony designs, or a combination of both.

SPEAKER_03 40:59

Yeah, I mean, you wanna you wanna start simple. You wanna actually choose colors based off of feeling, how they feel, not like how popular that color is. Because at the end of the day, if somebody is like, Oh, I love your fursona, but I don't really like the color, I mean, fuck them first of all, but not everybody's gonna like the color of your fursona. Oh god.

SPEAKER_05 41:27

Oh god, not everyone's gonna like you. I just had a brain blast. What happened? Why brain blast? Brain blast. That sounds like racism.

SPEAKER_07 41:37

Oh I'm leaving it in.

SPEAKER_06 41:42

So I know color theory and color palettes can be very difficult for people who don't have a creative background. So here's one of my biggest suggestions to help anyone figure out a color palette. It's really easy to really easy to pick a favorite color. It's really easy to pick uh favorite two colors. But putting that design in place can be very difficult, as well as making something unique that you want moving forward. What I personally suggest, um, in my experience uh with a lot of arts and whatnot is think of a scene or think of something you're interested in. You know, it could be, you know, like is it like a sunset city vibe? Is it like a lo-fi forest vibe? Literally anything. It could be some sort of landscape, some sort of funny picture you enjoy that that means a lot to you. Doesn't matter what it is, it could be the color palette in your room, something that uh gives you comfort, something that has some meaning. Doesn't matter what that could be, but thinking of some sort of scene and picking colors off of that scene and putting into the fursona is at least maybe not the answer, but a good building block for you. When you think of something that has meaning outside of just the fursona itself, uh for me, I guess I should explain with Dobes, my other fursona, he's gray, brown, light green, and dark green. He I personally I like lo-fi vibes, and I've always enjoyed the kind of more plant aesthetic with lo-fi vibes, and that's exactly how his color palette came to be. I chose something that was pretty much outside of the furry fandom, outside the fursona itself, brought that in, and that's how I was like, this is my character. So that's just my little aside as someone who's comes from a creative background because color color palettes can be very, very difficult to come up with. Yeah. And there are also online color palettes you can just look at and at least base your idea off something that just works that you're looking at online first.

SPEAKER_03 43:32

So not steal your thunder, but no, no, no, you're fine. Another big thing is um I see a lot of people asking, like, do I want like a colorful character or do I want a more natural colored character? Um, you can have like a natural colored palette. Like, for example, if you choose a canine, uh I'm gonna go P. Keep going. I'm gonna go P. Okay, if if you choose a K9, you wanna make you wanna make him red like Clifford. And You can totally do that. You can make a red dog, a blue dog. I mean, and shit, Adobe made a red dog. Um but you can create whatever color species that you want. But you can pick a natural color palette, such as browns and blacks and whites, or you could pick any other color, like a blue, orange, pink, green, whatever. So yeah, that's that's another thing that uh people can think about whenever creating your fursona, especially when adding color. But you want to really think about like an emotional impact. So like you want to ask yourself, do these colors feel like the personality I want? Do they fit the species and are they easy to recognize together? Now that's of course if you're gonna pick different colors that aren't natural, prefer uh colors. And we'll talk about markings and stuff whenever Adobe gets back.

SPEAKER_00 44:55

Hey piss boy.

SPEAKER_06 44:57

I'm back. I'm sorry, I had to piss like a racehorse.

SPEAKER_00 44:59

Hey piss boy.

SPEAKER_05 45:02

Hey What did you talk about?

SPEAKER_03 45:05

I talked about I I talked about different colors. Oh that's pretty cool. We like covers. Different colors, and then I waited for you to come back. Oh, take away for me to come back. So next, we're gonna talk about markings. Markings help make your sauna distinct. These can include stripes, spots, gradients, patches, tail tip, color changes, um, face markings, scars, freckles, glowing accents. Glowing accents are cool. Very dick glows. Did you know that? Like a glow stick. Your bob listens your bob listens to the podcast. I don't care anymore. His dick glows loud and proud. Yeah, you snap it like a glow stick, and it Oh! Yeah. Oh Hey, didn't you also realize that glow sticks have glass inside of them?

SPEAKER_06 46:02

I did. That was a recent uh was that on the podcast? I don't remember.

SPEAKER_03 46:06

I think so.

SPEAKER_06 46:07

Maybe, maybe it was at the wedding. I don't know. I put a lot of my stupidity in the podcast. I don't remember. It's okay.

SPEAKER_03 46:13

Anyway, markings. Good markings should support the silhouette, be recognizable, and not overwhelm the design. A common mistake is using too many details at once. One strong marking is often better than ten scattered ones. I mean, in my opinion. Yeah, like how did you come about picking like where you wanted certain colors on Adobe?

SPEAKER_06 46:40

Because I know like his shoulders are like white with red or something, and um so there were two major ways that went about Adobe, and this is something I suggest for anyone who is or isn't creative. There's two ways I went about um making him. First, I literally went on Google and typed fursonas. I looked at people's personas, looked at their species, and I kind of combined some things to help me gather some sort of uh intel that I wanted to put into Adobe. Did I like how stripes looked? Did I like how there is uh a solid color on the stomach versus the shoulders? You know, I I just kind of compared how other fursonas were made and looked at their complexity versus simplicity. Doing that helped me realize, okay, I want I want Adobe to be simple. Because I was thinking of fursuits down the road. I was thinking of um how art would be drawn of him. That's how I first started with Adobe. Then what helped me personally make his design was, and for anyone who doesn't know, there are some free ref sheets you guys can find online, which is just line art of an outline of uh a species. If you have a common canine species, this is gonna be very easy to find. If you have something very uncommon like a beetle, might be a little more difficult to come up with. But just finding a blank canvas to draw on, or you know, the blank line art and just throwing colors in. You don't need to be good at art, you don't need to know how to work Photoshop or any any online uh program, but just throwing dots and circles on certain parts of the species can help you visualize what works. That's what I did with Adobe. And using those tools helped me finalize his design, at least with his design he has currently. And I I I highly recommend it to anyone. Um Ryu, what about you? How did you go about Ryu? The the dirt.

SPEAKER_03 48:23

Uh well with Ryu, he's pretty he's pretty basic. He's just two colors. I mean, well, three, if you wanna know four, he's four colors. Um his main body color, his dark gray, his hair and his paws um are the light blue, uh, his claws are black and his horns are like a silvery gray, like a light gray. The tongue's also blue. But yeah, there's other penis. Yes, the penis is blue. Um I don't even know Adobe's penis color.

SPEAKER_05 48:54

I haven't really thought about that.

SPEAKER_03 48:56

That's funny. But yeah, I didn't give him any markings or any like stripes or spots or anything like that. Um, he just has a big ass blue mohawk and some cool horns on his face. But yeah, other than that, he's pretty basic.

SPEAKER_06 49:12

Well, it's good and it makes him very easy to replicate. And I assume, correct me if I'm wrong, but when you made him or at least maybe a few years down the road after making him, did you enjoy the simplicity of the design because that could allow for him to be made into, you know, a headshot, a fursuit, uh, you know, you know, full body art.

SPEAKER_03 49:31

Yeah, absolutely. I love my full body art that I've gotten. Um, I haven't gotten much, but a lot of the full body art that I've gotten is amazing and it really brings him the life. And I just I'm glad I went with a simple design that's cheaper for art and fursuits.

SPEAKER_06 49:48

So you can make as complex a design as you want, or for anyone out there, you know, making their sauna, but you do have to understand that an artist needs to be able to replicate that if your inter if if if your intent is to have a fursuit down the road, if your intent is to have a bunch of art made or anything in between, whether it could be something used for content creation, something used for like a body pillow, it doesn't matter what it is. Knowing how complex your design is really says a lot about your wallet, too, if you want to replicate the design. So just keep that in mind moving forward um and finding a design that works for you.

SPEAKER_03 50:22

I'm looking at you, suspiciously wealthy furries. All them fucking IT numbers out there. Yep. But yeah, I you know, I had a lot more that I wanted to go over, but um we're coming up on an hour now, and I kind of just kind of I'm kind of gonna go speed run through some of these. Um, so next from markings, you can kind of go decide on like the face and expression style. The face is one of the most important parts about an emotional connection. So you gotta think about the eye shape, eye color, the muzzle shape, the ear shape, and like a default expression that you want your persona to have. So, like, ask yourself like, do you want them to look approachable? Do you want them to be sharp and intimidating? Um, do you want them to look sleepy? Do you want them to look mischievous or eyes can be eyes eyes especially, eyes especially carry a lot of personality. Bright and wide eyes feel open and expressive, narrow eyes can feel sly, calm, or intense. This is where the design really starts to feel alive. Moving on from eyes and face, uh, you want to think about hairstyle, fluff, or any special special physical traits, um, like head fluff, bangs, a mane, horns, feathers, scales, long tails, paws versus claws, unique ears. Um, I mean, just just ask, like, does it fit the emotional core of your fursona? Does it fit how you want to look and emotionally look and feel? Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_06 52:02

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 52:03

Awesome. And then from there, decide if you want your fursona to wear clothes. I mean, clothes can communicate personality, hobbies, aesthetic, confidence.

SPEAKER_06 52:14

I mean one thing I want to add before we do close today. Um, so with all that being said, there's a lot of information in this episode. Ryu did a fucking fantastic job going over it. What I do want to mention, anyone who might be listening to this episode just in the car and doesn't have time to really sit down to really think about their sauna, take it one step at a time. Whatever stood out to you, go with that first. Um, this is just how him and I went about our first. Uh, Ryu and I have been in this in the fandom for many, many, many, many years. This is off of our experience and things that we have seen and observed throughout our years in the fandom. There's no right answer, and there's definitely no rush to make yours. Take it as you will. A final design doesn't mean it's the permanent design of your sauna as well. You can always just throw something together and then tweak that design over the many months or many years that you've had that sauna. That is very common. You're not out of place for doing that. If you make a badge or you make art, it's okay if that art gets old and isn't your real fursona anymore. It's still history. Everyone changes, everyone has different things with their sonas, and that's okay. Just starting with something that stands out to you most, going with that is usually the easiest way to start. There's a lot of information, but there's no wrong way to go about it. Express yourself. Express yourself and express on me and express it in the rating that we have in our podcast platforms. Let us know what you guys think.

SPEAKER_03 53:38

Yeah, let us know. Let us know what you guys think.

SPEAKER_06 53:42

We really appreciate all the support.

SPEAKER_03 53:44

So I mean, even a star would would count.

SPEAKER_06 53:47

Five stars. If you have one star, lower that rating. So five stars. Just five stars. If that's the truth, if it's not understood. But anyway, as you mentioned, we do have a famous down below. Uh thank you guys all so much for the support. As always, give us a download at helpstar rating. And, you know, let's let's let's let's keep pushing the podcast. We're on episode 32.

SPEAKER_05 54:06

We're pushing along once weekly, every Tuesday.

SPEAKER_01 54:08

Don't forget free. Where can they find us? They can find us and what are we in for on Twitch? Twitch!

SPEAKER_03 54:17

You can find me at ReGard on the Twitch. Um, you can find the don't you? I don't use it. I don't I Twitch or Tweeter. I just prepost the Twitch and the Don't Do Retweaper on YouTube. Thanks everybody for the Twitter.

SPEAKER_04 54:33

I've been hoping to say where they would find like the Twitter itself.

SPEAKER_03 54:38

So yeah, you can find us at the What A We In for You can find us at What Are We In For on Twitter slash X. Did you already say that?

SPEAKER_06 54:44

I'm just stupid. Did I miss it?

SPEAKER_03 54:46

I did, I did say that.

SPEAKER_06 54:47

I knew that.

SPEAKER_03 54:48

Anyway, I'm a dumb dog. You're a very dumb dog. I'm a smart dirk. Dumb dirk, dumb dirk. And we will see you guys. Hopefully. In the next one. The next one. Possibly. Bye. Perchance. Definitely. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_05 55:07

Faux show. Say goodbye. Let them know you can.

SPEAKER_04 55:11

Yeah, goodbye, guys. Love y'all. Bye.