How I design Robot Furries

Published on Jan 6, 2023 · #effortpost #monet 

An opinionated guide to designing mechanical furry characters.

Introduction

Most people know me for designing and drawing furries that are also machines. But don’t know the exact process and how I approach designing them. Here is a write-up that hopefully would clarify my process.

I’d like to preface that this is how I do things, I have, of course, known people who do things differently than me. And I feel like it’s good advice to ask and try out their techniques. So you have a wider net of knowledge you can reference.

The Process

Find references for the design style that you want

“Robots” are kind of a broad category. There’s everything from steampunk, to 90s retro technology, to futuristic cyberpunk styles. To keep the design more in-line with the style I want. I search for reference images from a specific style of technology. Whether it is Steam Engines, Vintage Casio Keyboards, or Cyberdecks. You could also reference other characters in the style, but be wary of copying too much from them[^1].

I then put all the references on a mood board[^2], and organise them to my liking. If you can, I also recommend searching for videos or articles about industrial design[^3] as that will help with the design process.

If you aren’t sure which style of technology you want, that’s fine. You can try finding references and ideas that you like and put them into the mood board. Experiment! something interesting might happen from that.

Study and Understand the References

I recommend studying the designs you picked as reference and understand why they exist so that when implemented into your work they serve a purpose. For example, if I particularly like the grating on something I might ask what function it’s serving, Is it Cooling? Speakers? Weight saving or structural reinforcement? Etc. If one can identify why it was used, they could then implement it for that purpose as well. Though there is nothing wrong with “just because it looks aesthetically neat”.

It’s good to tell a story with your design and it can help a lot when you understand what everything you’ve added does and what it implies. It’s one of those things that sounds obvious but a lot of people just don’t think about it.

Design Languages

If you’ve seen Apple products, you’ll notice they have an overarching design scheme. It’s because they follow what’s called a design language. This has been a thing with Apple Products since the 1980s, Apple used the Snow White design. As an example, it had parallel stripes to give the impression that the enclosure was smaller than it actually was[^4]. This is why you could reference a wide range of products from them in this or any other era and still keep the style very consistent.

Create or collect character references

Some people want to design Robot Characters from scratch, and some people want to “roboticise” OCs like Dr Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik (Unlike Eggman, I would suggest you get consent if it’s not your OC).

For the people who want to design “robot characters” from scratch. I recommend to first design characters like how you would usually (i.e. sketch an “organic” version of your character). People who want to “roboticise” their OCs can skip this step assuming they have a good reference (full-body preferred).

Keep in mind that a “robotised” design does not have to be mutually exclusive from things that are “organic”. For example, the snow white design language which I mentioned earlier could be used to make your robot character look friendlier and more compact.

Now put your character references on one side and your design references on another. See what characteristics of the styles could fit within the framework of the character. If you (or if you’re working on someone else’s character, their owner) are comfortable with liberally changing the design of the character, feel free.

Common Caveats

When in the design process, I sometimes fall into some common caveats. Some caveats I often see include:

  • Being afraid of not getting the robot design right at first. If you sketch your design first with all your ideas, you can step back and find design elements that you aren’t a fan of and revise them. None of us will get it right the first time[^5], not here or in any other discipline.

  • Viewing this in exclusively a character illustration or industrial designer perspective. I have been guilty of this in the past. You should keep both general perspectives of character illustration and industrial design. But don’t let one of the two overpower the other too much.

  • Not imagining if the design works within mechanical principles. If the design of the robot makes sense from a mechanical standpoint, like its movement system, it may be a good idea. Otherwise, try revising the design.

  • Ignoring anatomy in more humanoid designs. If your robot design is more humanoid, please take organic anatomy into consideration. Hence, why I suggested making an organic design first if you’re making a new character.

  • Fall into a rabbit hole of referencing design with no consideration and overcomplicating the design. It’s fine to deviate from the style you want to mainly do. I encourage experimentation, but I recommend checking if it fits in with the other parts and/or if you are sure you like it.

  • Exclusively rely on one or a few reference(s). It’s best to have a “big tent” base of references that you like. The design should look less derivative of a single product or thing[^1].

  • Not considering if the robot design fits within the lore or setting of their world. Should be self-explanatory.

Now, Draw

Apply everything that you know and start sketching out the character, and adjust as you complete the design. Be sure that everything fits or that you are happy with it. Once you’re finished with the drawing, congratulations! You did it!

Sometimes going wild can be good, even if it doesn’t fit. What’s important is that you or the commissioner likes it, depending on whose character it is. The only rule to character design is that there are no rules, only general advice.

Special Thanks

I would like to thank Aistarin, Frogmary, lastfirst, Neko May, PinkHairedCat, et al. for the help and feedback on the draft. To anyone who found this helpful, thank you for reading!

Footnotes

[^1]: Brookes Eggleston made a video about how to derivative-proof your characters which you should watch if you’re worried about this. [^2]: See Wikipedia to learn more about them. For my workflow, I use PureRef. [^3]: I recommend Tony Fadell’s TED Talk, Vox’s video on Design and Nature, and Design Theory’s playlist on iconic industrial design (Although, his entire channel is great, especially the fundamentals playlist) to start. [^4]: I recommend watching this video by The Computer Archive to learn about the Snow White design language in-depth, and this video by Tim Sutton if you’d like to know about Apple’s Pre-iPod design language history and rationale. [^5]: I certainly didn’t get it right when I started.