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Guest post by Hyshaji Nightdragon. Nightdragon is a biological science graduate, laboratory specialist & fursuiter from Singapore. Rawr!

Three years ago, I was first introduced to fursuiting and fandom. This year, I made my first ‘pilgrimage’ to Anthrocon. With that came the rather intimidating prospect that is long distance travel. You see, I’m from Singapore, so by traveling all the way to the United States, I do mean a really, really long journey.

Crossing borders can be a touchy affair. Deep down, many of us do fear ‘outsiders’. We scrutinize them, question their motives, and sometimes downright reject them from ‘our place’.

That sense of caution is not entirely unwarranted, but in a manner of speaking, it is building a barrier around ‘our place’. As discussed in articles such as Furry Internationalism, the furry culture is helping to break down those barriers.

In many ways, my experience was complementary to JM’s experience, when he travelled from the UK to Malaysia, as he detailed in The Furry Accommodation Network.

The journey to Anthrocon would take me from Singapore, to Japan, then to the United States, visiting Seattle and finally Pittsburgh. Through some work-related circumstances, I later ended up in the UK too.

All over the period of two months.

Several Japanese fursuiters had visited Singapore the previous year for an Anime convention. We’d gone fursuiting together then, but I certainly couldn’t claim to know them that well. However, I still contacted one of them and, with my intermediate level of Japanese, managed to tell him about my upcoming trip.  I expressed to him that it might be difficult to meet because it was a Friday, being a working day, but I was greeted with a very happy reply.

Don’t worry! I’ll take leave!

The result of that was two Japanese furs picking me up from Narita Airport during my 8 hour layover, and taking me out to the nearby areas. A simple, quick shopping and lunch trip. And as a little bonus, the three of us got out our partials and took photographs at a small waterfall in a park.

The language barrier was there and communication was rather minimal, but it was a different feeling. It didn’t feel like I was going to Japan alone; I was going there to meet friends.

My purpose of going to Seattle was to visit a Singaporean who was there for studies, and I was also referred to contact one of the local Seattle furs prior to the trip. I did, and that got me a phone number and a lunch appointment.

Upon arriving in Seattle, I was indeed able to meet up with several local furs, despite having no prior contact with them before. After flying over 20 hours and the trip through immigration, it was a very good feeling to be welcomed by the locals.

Did I mention they dragged me to visit the local zoo on the day I was fresh off the plane? Yup, jet lag be damned! And I had a photo shoot, in fursuit, at a local museum the very next day.

A lot of the anxiety of traveling to a foreign country had faded away.

As for Pittsburgh, it so happened there was a fur from Singapore studying there. I’d only met him briefly once before during one of his visits to Singapore, but a quick online message and I had someone else to meet .

This was in addition to the contacts I’d been speaking to online, and had arranged to meet during Anthrocon. Plus some of the Seattle furs from before, who were also attending Anthrocon. I could probably go on about ‘My First Convention’, but that’s not really the point of this article.

My overseas travels were not to end there however, as I was soon sent to the UK for a work-related training course.

Very nicely, a fur from the UK had earlier visited Singapore and joined one of our meets. We exchanged messages, later phone numbers. And suddenly, the looming business trip to a foreign country, knowing nothing and no one, turns into a trip where I could look forward to meeting people during the weekends. One of whom happened to be JM.

Looking back, this was a completely different feeling from being on a tour group or going with my parents. Rather than follow ‘their’ schedule, I was able to follow my own.

I would have to say that in Asian culture, we are definitely more conservative. Someone, like myself, who is not a seasoned solo traveller, was bound to get flooded with the ‘usual advice’. Don’t do this, don’t do that, don’t go and meet random people from the internet; you never know who they could be.

That’s my parents’ generation, and while some of those rules still do apply,  times change and other rules break as a result of that change. As long as it’s done smartly.

To quote JM, “When you first meet a new furry in real life, there is an implicit level of trust.”

I don’t expect things to go perfectly every single time. There will be the good and the bad; that’s just life.

I compare this to when I studied & lived in Australia for two years. When everything around you seems unfamiliar, we tend to gravitate towards the most familiar thing. In this situation, I found there was an Aikido club on campus, a martial art which I practice back home. The people there may have been different, but the feel of the art was still the same. It definitely helped me to relieve the stress in my initial weeks there.

On each leg of my trip, I found myself taken back to that emotion I felt then.

Not only was I able to visit touristy areas and do touristy things, I was able to see how the locals lived and dined. And I got to hear it from them directly: the differences and similarities between our cultures and our countries. I was able to talk to them about how the fandom scene was over there.

The beautiful thing is that I would never have crossed paths with these people otherwise. Our lives were too different, except for that one common interest.

I took back from my journey was the idea that ‘now I know how it feels’. My experience has become another common interest I can share with visitors when I reciprocate for kindness that was given to me. It’s certainly a hope that by spreading this around, others will be encouraged to do the same. This is especially interesting because I’ve always been naturally very introverted, yet the fandom has helped me open up and talk to people. That in turn has actually made me more comfortable with meeting people outside the fandom as well. It’s just a matter tailoring the conversation for the audience.

As a side note, readers, while I can’t really offer a crash-in spot for the night, I’m certainly happy to meet up for dinner. Drop the me or another of the local furs a message if you’re ever in Singapore.

To finish up, I would say that I’ve found some things to be truly international. Public transport screwing up, idiot drivers, screaming kids on planes & trains, McDonalds, the sight of my dragon fursuit making kids cry… and furries.

We’re one of the means to break down the walls that society has set up around us.

Hyshaji Nightdragon on Twitter
Hyshaji Nightdragon on FA

Hey I am an outsider to the furry fandom but I am a all around general nerd through convention I had run in and have met furries and all that.

I respect you guys and gals I mean I am aware of the crazy assumptions and prejudice that go with and the fact all of you continue to support each other and enjoy yourselves with zero fucks given is just awesome.

Flattery aside I wanted to know like how does it correlate or interact with your every day life?

How was your first ever con experience?

How would you gauge how comfortable you are about it?

Creative processes when it comes to art and suits?

Like I said I am an outsider so apologize if anything came off rude before hand I am just really interested to learn.

submitted by MistakingLEE
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Hi there! Just a few questions about fursonas. I don't have one but have wondered whether to make one. For those who have them, what encouraged you to make it? Do you see it as an essential part if the fandom? What are your fursonas?

For those that don't, why? What are your opinions on them? (I would make mine but I've got the feeling it'd be seen as quite generic)

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submitted by vxd2k7
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Macrofur community portal containing art gallery, forum, directory and stories.

Rating

When viewing without an account and can be configured with an account the artwork is suitable for all ages. Accounts can be configured to allow viewers to see content that has graphic violence, mature themes, and/or nudity and adult situations.

Additional linkForumWikiFur entry

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submitted by junkyardmessiah
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submitted by teryxc
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A small community website for taur furs, revolving around their IRC chatroom.

In their words

Taurs and non-taurforms alike are seen to be lounging and talking, playing and laughing, cuddling and snoozing. This is a calm place where the daily grind is left behind. Let yourself go...

Rating

Chatroom is public and will typically be inhabited by people over 18 years of age. Those under 18 may require parental supervision.

 Additional linkWikiFur entryChatroom

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Humourous gags illustrated in Shiuk’s cute chibi art style.

In their words

A webcomic by writing machine Graveyard Greg and artist extraordinaire Shiuk. A certain guy who thinks he's a pony online might also be helping, but no one is really sure!

Rating

This site contains little or mild offensive materials.

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via designboom:

New York-based artist deborah simon walks the line between taxidermy and toy, fabricating a series of faux-bear sculptures that materialize their vulnerability to human-initiated adversity. the three species are meticulously crafted from clay, imitation fur, and embroidery tools, and hold near perfect proportions and facial likenesses to their living counterparts. influenced by the evolutionary process and biological classifications, simon crafts an embellished coat for each species — wearing it rather than their own — ornamented with intricate organ systems hand-stitched to their exterior.

via io9:

My work walks the line between taxidermy, toy and sculpture. Each animal is meticulously fabricated to create an unnervingly accurate but slightly off version of the natural animal. Evolution has always held a particular fascination for me, informing how I create and group the animals in my work. As I've read and dug through museum collections to research my pieces, western science's mania for labeling, codifying and collecting has stood out. Most of this categorizing bears little resemblance to how animals and plants exist out in the natural world and I find this disconnect fascinating.

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Essentially one of those comedies about a has-been actor trying to get back into the industry; in this instance their gimmick is that the actor is a horse. The lead character is voiced by Will Arnett of Arrested Development fame and will be distributed on streaming video service Netflix.

I’m a big fan of Netflix because they represent the future of where the entertainment industry is going. They are working on a lot of original content including animations for children, so we could be seeing a lot more programming of interest to furs in the future.

Edit:

BoJack Horseman is being animated by ShadowMachine, the same studio that does the claymation for Robot Chicken. [Source: The Next Web]

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I had initially thought it was just a traditional hand drawn animation composed against a physical set when in fact it was almost somewhere between a stop-motion and hand drawn animation.

Why go to the extra length? Perhaps for the shadows you might not so easily re-produce on the computer, or maybe for the sheer hell of it, nevertheless I am impressed by the labour of love.

Making of film directed by Jake & Josh
jakeandjosh.co.uk

The Bear & the Hare is the first John Lewis campaign to embrace the emotive power of animation, a filmic technique so evocative of Christmasses gone by.

Elliot and Yves took the two most traditional and time-honoured animation processes – stop-motion and traditional hand-drawn 2D animation – and combined them to create something innovative and unique. Their aim was to do almost everything in camera, using real lighting, lens and film craft to build a world where the audience can see and feel the painstaking work behind it. The 2D animation’s physical interaction with the set and the human imperfections inherent in the process create a hand-crafted piece full of heart and integrity.

The animation process involved constant shifts between 2D and 3D worlds. In order to achieve this complicated combination the whole film was first created in Blinkink Studios as a 3D previsualisation animatic with all the sets and characters built to scale. This allowed everything to be developed and planned alongside the modelmakers and animators, thus integrating the different disciplines and processes before the set was built or the characters were printed.

Aaron Blaise (Brother Bear, The Lion King, Mulan) and his team of veteran Disney animators at Premise Entertainment in Orlando, Florida, designed and animated the characters. The 2D-animation frames were printed onto mounted paper and cut with a laser. Each frame (nearly 4,000 in total) was then individually hand-labelled before going on set. Feature-film stop-frame animators then spent 6 weeks bringing the world to life.

The set was built by our production designer John Lee (Aliens, Fantastic Mr Fox, Frankenweenie) and his team at Shepperton Studios before being transported to Clapham Road Studios ready for the stop-motion shoot.

Post-production was done in-house in Blinkink’s animation studio, and the final grade was completed at MPC.

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Cartier is a prestigious French jewellery business established in 1847. For the last 4 years they have ran a christmas advertisement campaign called “Winter Tale” featuring leopard cubs, usually walking among the jewellery they sell in a snow setting.

This year they have chosen to an animated feature (as oppose to realistic CGI) with Cartier’s couriers acting like jewellery Santas, dropping off jewellery to various homes whilst accomplished by a cute leopard cub who might as well just be a cat but with a vicious ancestry.

Celebrating the magic of the holiday season, Cartier is proud to present the fourth installment of the Winter Tale film series. A magical walk through Paris featuring an enchanting baby panther and Cartier pages will take you on a nostalgic journey to the 1920s.

Directed by: Bibo Bergeron.

And as a bonus here’s the video L'Odyssée de Cartier, a cinematic celebration of Cartier’s history.

L'Odyssée de Cartier

Discover the new Cartier film, a journey between dream and reality.

For the very first time, Cartier has decided to create a cinema epic focusing on its history, its values and inspiration, its artistic and universal scope.

Directed by: Bruno Aveillan.

More information on: http://www.odyssee.cartier.com

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In the first video, a man with a gaping hole in his chest (get it?) is bicycling on a road through the desert when he happens upon a little bunny he believes to be in need of his help. He gets off of his bicycle and approaches the seemingly cute and friendly rabbit. Upon closer inspection, we see that the rabbit actually has glowing red eyes and sharp, jagged teeth. The man doesn’t seem to care.

Then, the all too important question is asked: “Give ‘em cable” or “Cut ‘em loose?”

The cable cutter continues to embrace the bunny, and offers the small creature a ride on his bicycle. The rabbit then leaps up and latches on to the man’s neck, biting down and continuing to hold on despite the man’s struggles.

“And because he didn’t get the news,” a tablet tethered to a cactus reveals, “he didn’t know mutant bunnies were on the loose.”

Speaking as someone from the UK, I never quite get the situation in the US about cable. Still, my interest in linking to this is purely for how mind numbingly ridiculous this propaganda video is. And it features killer rabbits.

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submitted by MizzMara
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Adventure Time and Bravest Warriors cartoonist Mike Holmes draws himself and his cat Ella in the style of different artists, mimicking and paying tribute to their signature aesthetics.

In their words

An art project I started in October 2011, Mikenesses is a series of self-portraits in the style of 100 different illustrators, animators and video games that have influenced me, or that I just really like. It became a sort of illustrated biography of the art that means something to me, and to a lot of artists.

Rating

Suitable for all ages. This site has no offensive content.

 Additional linksBook

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A server for furs to play Minecraft together.

In their words

F-craft (Furry craft) is a Minecraft server for furries but everyone is welcome as long as keeping to the rules.

The server originally started back in February 2011 as a fun thing that had no intention to turn into anything big.

Rating

This is a public Minecraft server with most users expected to be over 18. Those under 18 may require parental supervision.

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submitted by kingdeeder
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