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Stuck in the Gears (fursuit progress update)
Posted 10 years agoSome people have to find something in their lives to be frustrated with at all times. I am definitely one of those people. But I've recently realized that this is ok as long as you are frustrated with something you are interested in. That way it motivates you to do more instead of dissuading you.
I've been working on the tail portion of my fursuit, and I've got a skeleton that works very well for posing. It consists of 3d printed vertebrae and spacers, then using high-strength fishing line for tendons. My goal is to get the everything connected up to motors that will be automated by a raspberry pi.
I've pushed myself through a crash course of basic electrical engineering, and the software engineering side is really easy for me. But now I'm hitting the classic issues when it comes to embedded systems - how to get enough power to do what I want and how to store that power. I'm using small DC motors, which just barely do the job of moving the tail when they're directly connected to the batteries. But once I go through the raspberry pi's PWM and an h-bridge, there's enough inefficiency that it doesn't work at all. And I haven't even put the foam/fur on yet.
I tried various battery configurations to see if I just needed more amps, but that's not the case. So I've been learning some basic mechanical engineering, and am currently trying to figure out how I can use some gears to translate my high rpm into the necessary torque. I've gone with a 4-1 gear ratio which gave me plenty of power with spur gears, but found them to be way too loud (though that's with no lubrication and pretty inaccurate scaffold holding everything together). I've been trying to print some herringbone (double helical) gears, but my old 3d printer is having issues printing that kind of detail at the size I need. I've been stuck on this for close to a week now, but I want to get this figured out before I continue.
So with all of that, and the chemistry that was involved in casting silicone for the paws, I hope this helps to motivate any furs currently in school studying math, physics, chemistry, electronics, or programming.
In other news, I've picked out some higher-quality fur and ordered what I would need to make the full fursuit. It arrived a couple of days ago and I'm happy with the quality, but I'm currently going through a slight redesign to include an additional accent color - a light blue - to help visually clarify or emphasize some of the markings. Once I get a new ref sheet completed and the proof of concept complete on the tail, then I'll update my paws to the new fur and make the actual tail.
With ♥'s,
Par
I've been working on the tail portion of my fursuit, and I've got a skeleton that works very well for posing. It consists of 3d printed vertebrae and spacers, then using high-strength fishing line for tendons. My goal is to get the everything connected up to motors that will be automated by a raspberry pi.
I've pushed myself through a crash course of basic electrical engineering, and the software engineering side is really easy for me. But now I'm hitting the classic issues when it comes to embedded systems - how to get enough power to do what I want and how to store that power. I'm using small DC motors, which just barely do the job of moving the tail when they're directly connected to the batteries. But once I go through the raspberry pi's PWM and an h-bridge, there's enough inefficiency that it doesn't work at all. And I haven't even put the foam/fur on yet.
I tried various battery configurations to see if I just needed more amps, but that's not the case. So I've been learning some basic mechanical engineering, and am currently trying to figure out how I can use some gears to translate my high rpm into the necessary torque. I've gone with a 4-1 gear ratio which gave me plenty of power with spur gears, but found them to be way too loud (though that's with no lubrication and pretty inaccurate scaffold holding everything together). I've been trying to print some herringbone (double helical) gears, but my old 3d printer is having issues printing that kind of detail at the size I need. I've been stuck on this for close to a week now, but I want to get this figured out before I continue.
So with all of that, and the chemistry that was involved in casting silicone for the paws, I hope this helps to motivate any furs currently in school studying math, physics, chemistry, electronics, or programming.
In other news, I've picked out some higher-quality fur and ordered what I would need to make the full fursuit. It arrived a couple of days ago and I'm happy with the quality, but I'm currently going through a slight redesign to include an additional accent color - a light blue - to help visually clarify or emphasize some of the markings. Once I get a new ref sheet completed and the proof of concept complete on the tail, then I'll update my paws to the new fur and make the actual tail.
With ♥'s,
Par
Re: Nervous
Posted 10 years ago(Disclaimer - I am not an expert on anything I am discussing. I may state some things like they are facts, but please be aware that I am not claiming anything as absolute truth here. I am just taking that tone so I can freely move from one thought to the next.)
posted a video today where she talks about feeling nervous in public-oriented situations, such as recording a video that will be published for public consumption. I get what I believe to be a very similar feeling every time I try to make progress on my fursuit. As Striker points out, there is no social interaction in the creation or posting of the content, yet I would describe what I feel as "social anxiety" as soon as I start to just think about working on it.
I can probably come up with a myriad of arguments against feeling this way. The furry fandom is extremely open and accepting.1 I have set my personal expectations abnormally low in respects to the quality and quantity of both my creation and community response. Yet even as I write this journal, not a single sentence passes without me reevaluating whether or not I will actually post any of it.
Why do I have this feeling? Nervousness. Fear. Dread. The part of me that is causing it cannot shake that chance that this action will just be added to the growing list of things that I regret doing. Those things that I will reanalyze in my head over and over again until I can convince myself to categorize them as failures. Those things that then haunt me with relived embarrassment when my mind can't find something to be distracted by. I wish I could believe that I'm "just doing this for myself so it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks." But I know myself. I know I will always be distracted by imagining what other people think in response to my actions.
Yet here I am. I am going to post this journal. I refuse not to. Screw that feeling. I'm sick of that feeling and I've mulled over similar ideas long enough to feel confident in doing it.2 And that's really the only way I know how to build up enough confidence to beat it: meticulous planning. Exploring all of the details until I convince myself that I can defend my decisions.
Part of me enjoys that process of dreaming and discovery more than the actual execution. The only problem is that can backfire as well. I can always think of something else that I can do more research on. There's always another layer of complexity I could add so that I can envelop myself in some cozy delusion of grandeur that postpones the entire process until it is no longer relevant or worth the investment.
For this post and things I don't plan on revising, I have to lower my standards enough. I don't have to look up every word or idiom I've written to ensure it will be interpreted in the way I meant. But I will look up a couple to improve my writing. I don't have to plan out a subsequent series of posts in advance that are interwoven with themes, hidden meanings, and carefully-shaped pacing, and then make sure this post doesn't hinder that grand scheme. Though I'll keep those kind of ideas in my back pocket for a future endeavor if I ever feel inspired. I'll still read this entire post out loud at least two more times to increase my confidence. But I will post it.3
For my fursuit, I have to embrace the fact that there will be revisions. I am able to justify this since building a fursuit takes a set of skills that I don't have experience in.4 The fursuit itself is not the product I should be focusing on. I can instead focus on the act of creating the fursuit. That journey is far easier to be satisfied with. Far easier to not feel regret. As long as I learn something and enjoy the process, I have succeeded the rest doesn't really matter.
If you're reading this and have had similar feelings of anxiety, I want to encourage you to fight those feelings. Draw something, write something, make something and let it be a step in the direction that you want to take. Instead of hating that you aren't completely satisfied with the result, embrace your dissatisfaction as a part of the journey. Those mistakes or possible improvements are not failures, those are valuable resources that can be used in your next project. Create something and enjoy the journey it takes you on. I will cheer you on.
With ♥'s,
Par
1 Luckily the fandom is well-enough established that it can survive the costs of being that way. I've participated in countless other online communities that were less open and still were dismantled from the inside in their infancy by trolls that were welcomed in.
2 This is the fourth or fifth journal that I've thought about writing as a reaction piece to something else another furry did or said, but this is the first one I actually sat down and started writing. Perhaps my personal need to tackle this subject is what allowed me to post this.
3 The generic disclaimer at the top which assumes no responsibility also helps...
4 I am even using the planned obsolescence as a motivation of my design - maximizing modularity so I can minimize impacts in future iterations.
posted a video today where she talks about feeling nervous in public-oriented situations, such as recording a video that will be published for public consumption. I get what I believe to be a very similar feeling every time I try to make progress on my fursuit. As Striker points out, there is no social interaction in the creation or posting of the content, yet I would describe what I feel as "social anxiety" as soon as I start to just think about working on it.I can probably come up with a myriad of arguments against feeling this way. The furry fandom is extremely open and accepting.1 I have set my personal expectations abnormally low in respects to the quality and quantity of both my creation and community response. Yet even as I write this journal, not a single sentence passes without me reevaluating whether or not I will actually post any of it.
Why do I have this feeling? Nervousness. Fear. Dread. The part of me that is causing it cannot shake that chance that this action will just be added to the growing list of things that I regret doing. Those things that I will reanalyze in my head over and over again until I can convince myself to categorize them as failures. Those things that then haunt me with relived embarrassment when my mind can't find something to be distracted by. I wish I could believe that I'm "just doing this for myself so it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks." But I know myself. I know I will always be distracted by imagining what other people think in response to my actions.
Yet here I am. I am going to post this journal. I refuse not to. Screw that feeling. I'm sick of that feeling and I've mulled over similar ideas long enough to feel confident in doing it.2 And that's really the only way I know how to build up enough confidence to beat it: meticulous planning. Exploring all of the details until I convince myself that I can defend my decisions.
Part of me enjoys that process of dreaming and discovery more than the actual execution. The only problem is that can backfire as well. I can always think of something else that I can do more research on. There's always another layer of complexity I could add so that I can envelop myself in some cozy delusion of grandeur that postpones the entire process until it is no longer relevant or worth the investment.
For this post and things I don't plan on revising, I have to lower my standards enough. I don't have to look up every word or idiom I've written to ensure it will be interpreted in the way I meant. But I will look up a couple to improve my writing. I don't have to plan out a subsequent series of posts in advance that are interwoven with themes, hidden meanings, and carefully-shaped pacing, and then make sure this post doesn't hinder that grand scheme. Though I'll keep those kind of ideas in my back pocket for a future endeavor if I ever feel inspired. I'll still read this entire post out loud at least two more times to increase my confidence. But I will post it.3
For my fursuit, I have to embrace the fact that there will be revisions. I am able to justify this since building a fursuit takes a set of skills that I don't have experience in.4 The fursuit itself is not the product I should be focusing on. I can instead focus on the act of creating the fursuit. That journey is far easier to be satisfied with. Far easier to not feel regret. As long as I learn something and enjoy the process, I have succeeded the rest doesn't really matter.
If you're reading this and have had similar feelings of anxiety, I want to encourage you to fight those feelings. Draw something, write something, make something and let it be a step in the direction that you want to take. Instead of hating that you aren't completely satisfied with the result, embrace your dissatisfaction as a part of the journey. Those mistakes or possible improvements are not failures, those are valuable resources that can be used in your next project. Create something and enjoy the journey it takes you on. I will cheer you on.
With ♥'s,
Par
1 Luckily the fandom is well-enough established that it can survive the costs of being that way. I've participated in countless other online communities that were less open and still were dismantled from the inside in their infancy by trolls that were welcomed in.
2 This is the fourth or fifth journal that I've thought about writing as a reaction piece to something else another furry did or said, but this is the first one I actually sat down and started writing. Perhaps my personal need to tackle this subject is what allowed me to post this.
3 The generic disclaimer at the top which assumes no responsibility also helps...
4 I am even using the planned obsolescence as a motivation of my design - maximizing modularity so I can minimize impacts in future iterations.
