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Review: Atelier Amanojaku
3 years ago
General
Apparently, Atelier Amanojaku (actually they are a group of makers, but for convenience, I call them “fursuit maker”) is not on https://fursuitreview.com/ (they are based in Japan, duh) so I have to post my review here for people to see what to expect if you have a fursuit commission from them and why I am not happy with my suit.
Here comes the rating for the maker Atelier Amanojaku (I’ll just call it Atelier for convenience) and their fursuit:
Rating scale:
0: unacceptable
1-3: bad
4-6: not bad
7-9: good
10: perfect
Price: 1/10
The price may range from 800,000 yen to 1,200,000 depending on the complexity of your character. My character cost 8,000 USD or 920,000 yen (including upgrades/surcharges) when I commissioned them (Feb 1, 2021). It goes without saying that their suits are very pricey in Asia. Definitely don’t recommend it if you are struggling to make your ends meet.
Why are the suits so expensive you ask? One possible explanation is that they are extremely popular in Asia - they have a sizable fan base in mainland China and Taiwan. Ironically, they may not be that well-known in Japan (compared to mainland China and Taiwan), but they have amassed pretty decent reputation thanks to popular fursuiters like Rion (リオン). With huge fan base and reputation, they have no problem raising the price because they never run out of customers. You may want to commission a fursuit from them as early as possible (assuming that you can afford it) because they will probably continue to raise their price. Note that their fursuits were around 4,000 USD 5 years ago.
Communication/Customer Service: 2/10
The only compliment I can give is probably that they don’t ghost me and they let you know when they are taking a break from work and when to expect replies from them, but other than that it is hard to see that professionalism in their customer service. There are several problems with their customer service:
1. They do not give you any details with regard to their commission process. The details may include price range, how “confirmation of reference sheet” works, possible surcharge, and what to expect. Any of these important detailed are NOT mentioned in any of their official websites https://atoama.jp/en/ (their English website seems to be outdated) and TOS (Terms of Service), which means, if you have not done research on this maker, there is a good chance that you do not know how to work with them and what to expect (I’ll go into details later).
2. No changes whatsoever after you confirm your reference sheet. In western fursuit commissions, makers usually draw a reference sheet for you before they work on your fursuit commission, and usually, the reference sheet they draw do NOT look like the suit. Many makers say this is normal because it is hard to translate a 2D reference sheet into a 3D model (it is also worth noting that reference sheets are subject to art styles, which means different artists tend to make different reference sheets even though they draw the same character), so it is normal for customers to expect a fursuit that looks different from the reference sheet and the makers to allow customers to communicate with them if anything needs to be changed before they work on the suit. However, this is NOT the case for Atelier. Once you confirm your reference sheet, there is NO going back whatsoever. They will make your suit based on the reference sheet they drew for you and make exact copy of that 2D reference sheet (which is actually outstanding).
3. No work in progress. This may drive people up the wall because if you know that your reference sheet does not look good (or not something that you really like) and they tell you that they will make your suit based on that reference sheet, you don’t know what your suit will be like until the very end. It really sucks as that disappointment and anxiety kicks in and you start to have some shitty thoughts about yourself as you wasted a truckload of your hard earned cash on a suit that you don’t even like. But, like I said, there is no going back, so it does not even matter if they show you work in progress or not. Even if they do show you work in progress, you cannot make any changes to your reference sheet or show them any pictures of their past work for references. As for why they don’t show work in progress, nobody really knows. Some say that Atelier is concerned about other makers knowing their “secrets” in their fursuit-making process, but personally, I don’t think that is a reasonable explanation because a lot of popular makers show their work in progress (usually in telegram group or Trello), but I don’t see anyone trying to “copy” their work.
4. They do not give a fuck about your satisfaction. Like I said before, beware of “big makers” because they tend to do what is best for them, which is selling fursuits for profit. What customers feel about them is irrelevant and we know why: they do not rely on returning customers to boost their sales because most of their customers only commission them once. There will always be new customers who are rich enough to get such a luxury from them.
Slot availability: 10/10
Unlike other popular makers, Atelier never rejects any commissions provided that you pay them enough to make your suit. With that said, they never close commissions, and they are always open for commissions. If you have sent applications to popular makers, you definitely know how good that is – you don’t need to wait for the commission to be open (many popular makers only open once or twice a year) and you have a 100% chance of getting in (you have a very slim chance of being selected for slots if you are planning to commission a popular maker, so what happen is you may never be able to get a slot from your dream maker). I tried to commission Phoenix Nest because I really like the style (they made a partial for theodd1sout!) but I didn’t get in. Later I learned their fursuits are so in demand that the chance of being selected for a slot can be rounded to zero. Also, Phoenix Nest tends to choose popular furs so if they don’t know you, don’t expect a slot from them, period. Now you realize how good Atelier is in terms of slot availability, so they get a 10/10 hands down.
Turnaround: 9/10
The turnaround is pretty good. It took me 10 months to get my suit, which is so much better than many popular makers. Small makers usually have better turnaround (less than 6 months), but for popular makers, a one-year turnaround is probably the best you can hope for. You may not want to commission big makers like One Fur All. They are very notorious for crazy turnaround (usually > 2 years). Some clients got their suit 10 years after they commissioned the suit! But Atelier can get your suit done under 1 year if you can pay them in full, which is truly remarkable.
Fur quality/satisfaction: 5/10
The texture of their fur swatches is pretty good – it has a very soft texture. But personally, I am not a big fan of their “premium fur” because I am not getting the fluff that I desired, or in another words, their fur is too short. Unfortunately, they only offer 1.5 cm fur if you opt for “premium fur.”
Fursuit Appearance: 2/10
The problems with appearance are:
1. Color. They cannot find a color that matches the color of my Shiba, which is the golden fur. I paid 100,000 yen to get the right color, but their fur for gold (#66 ゴールド) looks too orange for a Shiba with golden fur. That is indeed a big waste of money.
2. Eyes. I thought they would make the eyes look like those characters drawn by Ichihi, and I even sent them pictures of their fursuits for references, but what happened is they made an exact copy of the eyes in the reference sheet they drew. My assumption was that they drew their eyes like that in the reference sheet because it is just the artist’s style so they would contact me later and ask me how I would like my eyes to be made, but obviously that didn’t happen.
3. Cheek. The fur on my cheeks looks strange from another angle because it is sticking out so much to the side (say, it would look so weird from behind because it sort of looks like whiskers).
Overall satisfaction: 1/10
I would NOT recommend the makers for the reasons listed above. BUT, if you are rich and you like their style, you should go for it because many of their suits look gorgeous. Just make sure you steer clear of these “traps,” so you can make good use of your hard-earned cash.
If you want to know how I commissioned my suit from Atelier, please keep reading.
Why I decided to get a kemono suit
Before I attended MFF I already commissioned an Australian maker (LupeSuits) for a full plantigrade suit, but I canceled my fursuit commission later because I saw some panda suiters walking around at MFF and I don’t like the skinny look of pandas. I know it sucks to trade comfort for aesthetics, but I have to admit that a heavily padded digitigrade suit looks more appealing to me because I really hate the slenderness of plantigrade fursuits. And of course, more padding means higher price, but you get what you pay for. So, that is basically why I switched from toony to kemono.
How I heard about Atelier
I heard about Atelier for the first time when I attended a panel named “Introduction to Kemono Suits” at MFF 2021. In that panel, a fursuit maker from Canada introduced two “big makers” based in Japan, which are Atelier Amanojaku and Kemono Line (or K-Line in short). Atelier is extremely rare in the US as most of kemono suiters (like Sherbert Shenanigans) have K-Line suits, but I don’t like the look of K-Line suits because their eyes look so freaking big, which is a little off-putting in my opinion, and I don’t like their fursuit head base. So, that left me with only one option (if I want a kemono suit): Atelier. I know there are other options but unfortunately the vast majority of Japanese makers do not speak English and I don’t know Japanese. At least Atelier can sort of understand English (maybe?), but it looks like they should work on their English. I guess they just don’t care because most of their clients are not English speakers.
How I contacted Atelier
Easy. Send them an email, of course. They will contact you through email. This is the first email I received from Atelier:
“Hello
Thank you for contacting me
I will quote once, so please send me an illustration
As for the seams, we sew so that the thread breaks.
If you sew it too hard, the fabric will break.
If the thread breaks, it will be sewn by the customer.
Please note
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Atelier Amanojaku
http://atoama.jp/en/
Email: customer[at]atoama.jp
TEL: 052-875-3506
Postal Code: 470-0134
Address:
309, 2-chome, Kaguyama
Nissin-City, Aichi, JAPAN
(We are closed every Sunday and Monday)”
Well, you have to understand that English is not their first language, so you can’t complain about their English being this broken. At least they are aware of some terms like “quote,” which means they will give you an estimate based on your reference sheet. But for the rest of the letter, I was really struggling to understand what they were trying to say. I asked them how they sew their fursuits because a person who commissioned Atelier said they have to deal with popped seams so maybe there are quality issues, but anyway, if you want a fursuit, you need to know how to sew.
What Atelier’s Terms of Service (TOS) looks like
It looks shitty, period. They have the WORST TOS you can ever fathom. What makes their TOS so bad is that their TOS says literally nothing - there is no useful information in their TOS. Unlike many western makers’ TOS, their TOS does not tell you anything about the type of fursuits (e.g. fullsuit, partial) that they offer or the features (e.g. removable eyelids) they offer or things they do and things they don’t do (e.g. airbrushing) or anything about the queue or what to expect from them (e.g. when to expect updates from the maker, when to take body measurements) or price range and possible surcharges (e.g. indoor feetpaws, puffy fingers). I mean everything they should have in their TOS is absent, or I can say they have no TOS. If you are wondering what they have in their TOS, it’s like, clients can request that Atelier must make the fursuits the way that the customer desired, and Atelier can reject the clients’ request if they think they have made the fursuit as per request. Like, what it is this shit? I asked them some questions about their TOS but I still didn’t know what they were saying, but in order to get a fursuit from them, I had to agree to their TOS.
How I paid for my fursuit
Atelier gave me an estimate for my fullsuit after submitting my reference sheet. I made the purchase on Feb 1st because I got 10 percent off for placing the order around Chinese New Year. So, place your order at the right time to save money. You usually get 10-20 percent off, which is a lot if you are spending over 800,000 yen on a suit. And that is why you should check their Twitter account https://twitter.com/amanojaku_j for newest updates. The only problem is you really have to have that patience to wait for the discount.
Fursuit payment is always upfront payment. I made full payment when I commissioned a toony suit because makers love that. I know most makers are okay with payment plans, but for customers, making a full payment means a lot to the makers because you are assuring your maker by saying “I trust you.” And making a full payment also shortens the turnaround because makers only start working on fursuits after full payment is received, so that is why I decided to make a full payment.
After paying for my suit, I was informed by Atelier that they would start working on my reference sheet and they would get back to me for confirmation.
How I confirmed my reference sheet
The first reference sheet they drew for me looks very strange: the color was way off. They used yellow to draw my Shiba! How? I asked them to change the color because my Shiba doesn’t look like that, but unfortunately, they told me that “gold” is not available. If I insist on my golden fur (which is what they call “the premium fur”), I have to pay 100,000 yen for the upgrade. AND, only “1.5 cm (or 0.59 in) fur” is available for the premium fur, which means I will NOT be fluffy. Dude! What the fuck was that? Why did I not know about this?
I tried redesign my character (like using different colors), but I was still not satisfied – it’s just so wrong. I couldn’t make it right. Then my friends weighed in, claiming that I have to get the color I wanted – it is the most important thing in a fursuit commission because, if I don’t like the color, it is just a huge waste of money. It kind of feels like I was doubling down (because I was literally putting more money into my fursuit) on a 11 against a 10 in blackjack – pretty much like a 50-50. If I win, I will be the happiest man in the world, but if I lose, I will take a bigger L. And I decided to pay for the surcharge, wishing the luck was in my favor.
Atelier redrew the reference sheet for me, and I was like, that looks okay, and they took it as a confirmation. I didn’t think much about that because I thought I could make changes to the references later (which was my assumption) like right before they started making my fursuit and I was really busy in the Spring semester because I had a lot of classes to deal with, but that turned out to be a big mistake.
About three weeks later, I contacted them for making changes to the reference sheet but was told that I have to pay 50,000 yen surcharge for making these changes. I was shocked, again, because I was not aware of this sudden surcharge. Again, I paid for the surcharge. Got to go big or go home! And that was how I confirmed my reference sheet.
Later they sent me a booklet that says “Specification (仕様書),” which looks like a blueprint for my character. In the booklet you can find the reference sheet and fur swatches for your character, but I didn’t even know they have things like that until I received the booklet. I asked them if I can get a new “specification” as there are new changes made to the reference sheet, but they declined.
What happened before making my fursuit
I took my body measurements three months before they started working on my suit. After that, I sent them pictures of fursuits (find one of the pictures I wanted to use as a reference here https://twitter.com/yougin1986/status/1067729921131241472?s=20&t=8FguXdEEJNkCphRXMqDHnQ) they made in the past and told them that I wanted my character to look like this, and I mentioned my eyes should look like this, but they rejected my request. They claimed that, after I confirmed my reference sheet, no other references can be added and thus they will make the fursuit based on the reference sheet they drew only. But, I did NOT know that! They never told me that I can’t send them pictures for references before I made the payment, so at this point I knew I probably fucked up. How come I have no control over what my suit should look like? HOW?
What happened after Atelier completed my fursuit
They sent pictures of my fursuit and asked me for confirmation, but I don’t even know what the “confirmation” is for because they’ve already finished the fursuit. Nothing can be done. The fur is super short, and the color is still off (golden fur still looks orange). Now I know I really took a big L – I clearly lost the double down and now I have to work extra hard to make up for the huge loss.
What I learned from this commission
Do the god damn research. Never ever get cocky or complacent. If you want a fursuit, you have to do research on makers that you want to work with. Keep in mind that the knowledge of toony fursuits and makers may not apply to kemono suits and makers and every maker works differently, and always ask your makers if you don’t know how the commission works. Do not make unwarranted assumptions. If I did my research and asked a lot of people who have commissioned Atelier, I would not end up wasting so much money on this commission.
My future plan
My character is not suitable for being made into a fursuit by Atelier. I learned it in a hard way. But, I do not want to give up on that – I will get a fursuit that I like so much that I will look at my suit everyday and never get tired of looking at my gorgeous suit. Instead of designing my own character, I paid Ichihi (Ichihi is a professional furry artist who sells character designs. She is also a contributor to Furstar, a website where you can buy predesigned characters along with fursuits based on those characters. Furstar is operated by Atelier) to design a new character, and I will use the reference sheet she made to commission Atelier. Why Atelier? Because they are the only option that I have. I don’t like other makers like K-Line or Kigurumi Kagetsu (きぐるみ花月). The most important thing is the reference sheet. Once I get the reference sheet right, I should be able to get a fursuit that I like.
Here comes the rating for the maker Atelier Amanojaku (I’ll just call it Atelier for convenience) and their fursuit:
Rating scale:
0: unacceptable
1-3: bad
4-6: not bad
7-9: good
10: perfect
Price: 1/10
The price may range from 800,000 yen to 1,200,000 depending on the complexity of your character. My character cost 8,000 USD or 920,000 yen (including upgrades/surcharges) when I commissioned them (Feb 1, 2021). It goes without saying that their suits are very pricey in Asia. Definitely don’t recommend it if you are struggling to make your ends meet.
Why are the suits so expensive you ask? One possible explanation is that they are extremely popular in Asia - they have a sizable fan base in mainland China and Taiwan. Ironically, they may not be that well-known in Japan (compared to mainland China and Taiwan), but they have amassed pretty decent reputation thanks to popular fursuiters like Rion (リオン). With huge fan base and reputation, they have no problem raising the price because they never run out of customers. You may want to commission a fursuit from them as early as possible (assuming that you can afford it) because they will probably continue to raise their price. Note that their fursuits were around 4,000 USD 5 years ago.
Communication/Customer Service: 2/10
The only compliment I can give is probably that they don’t ghost me and they let you know when they are taking a break from work and when to expect replies from them, but other than that it is hard to see that professionalism in their customer service. There are several problems with their customer service:
1. They do not give you any details with regard to their commission process. The details may include price range, how “confirmation of reference sheet” works, possible surcharge, and what to expect. Any of these important detailed are NOT mentioned in any of their official websites https://atoama.jp/en/ (their English website seems to be outdated) and TOS (Terms of Service), which means, if you have not done research on this maker, there is a good chance that you do not know how to work with them and what to expect (I’ll go into details later).
2. No changes whatsoever after you confirm your reference sheet. In western fursuit commissions, makers usually draw a reference sheet for you before they work on your fursuit commission, and usually, the reference sheet they draw do NOT look like the suit. Many makers say this is normal because it is hard to translate a 2D reference sheet into a 3D model (it is also worth noting that reference sheets are subject to art styles, which means different artists tend to make different reference sheets even though they draw the same character), so it is normal for customers to expect a fursuit that looks different from the reference sheet and the makers to allow customers to communicate with them if anything needs to be changed before they work on the suit. However, this is NOT the case for Atelier. Once you confirm your reference sheet, there is NO going back whatsoever. They will make your suit based on the reference sheet they drew for you and make exact copy of that 2D reference sheet (which is actually outstanding).
3. No work in progress. This may drive people up the wall because if you know that your reference sheet does not look good (or not something that you really like) and they tell you that they will make your suit based on that reference sheet, you don’t know what your suit will be like until the very end. It really sucks as that disappointment and anxiety kicks in and you start to have some shitty thoughts about yourself as you wasted a truckload of your hard earned cash on a suit that you don’t even like. But, like I said, there is no going back, so it does not even matter if they show you work in progress or not. Even if they do show you work in progress, you cannot make any changes to your reference sheet or show them any pictures of their past work for references. As for why they don’t show work in progress, nobody really knows. Some say that Atelier is concerned about other makers knowing their “secrets” in their fursuit-making process, but personally, I don’t think that is a reasonable explanation because a lot of popular makers show their work in progress (usually in telegram group or Trello), but I don’t see anyone trying to “copy” their work.
4. They do not give a fuck about your satisfaction. Like I said before, beware of “big makers” because they tend to do what is best for them, which is selling fursuits for profit. What customers feel about them is irrelevant and we know why: they do not rely on returning customers to boost their sales because most of their customers only commission them once. There will always be new customers who are rich enough to get such a luxury from them.
Slot availability: 10/10
Unlike other popular makers, Atelier never rejects any commissions provided that you pay them enough to make your suit. With that said, they never close commissions, and they are always open for commissions. If you have sent applications to popular makers, you definitely know how good that is – you don’t need to wait for the commission to be open (many popular makers only open once or twice a year) and you have a 100% chance of getting in (you have a very slim chance of being selected for slots if you are planning to commission a popular maker, so what happen is you may never be able to get a slot from your dream maker). I tried to commission Phoenix Nest because I really like the style (they made a partial for theodd1sout!) but I didn’t get in. Later I learned their fursuits are so in demand that the chance of being selected for a slot can be rounded to zero. Also, Phoenix Nest tends to choose popular furs so if they don’t know you, don’t expect a slot from them, period. Now you realize how good Atelier is in terms of slot availability, so they get a 10/10 hands down.
Turnaround: 9/10
The turnaround is pretty good. It took me 10 months to get my suit, which is so much better than many popular makers. Small makers usually have better turnaround (less than 6 months), but for popular makers, a one-year turnaround is probably the best you can hope for. You may not want to commission big makers like One Fur All. They are very notorious for crazy turnaround (usually > 2 years). Some clients got their suit 10 years after they commissioned the suit! But Atelier can get your suit done under 1 year if you can pay them in full, which is truly remarkable.
Fur quality/satisfaction: 5/10
The texture of their fur swatches is pretty good – it has a very soft texture. But personally, I am not a big fan of their “premium fur” because I am not getting the fluff that I desired, or in another words, their fur is too short. Unfortunately, they only offer 1.5 cm fur if you opt for “premium fur.”
Fursuit Appearance: 2/10
The problems with appearance are:
1. Color. They cannot find a color that matches the color of my Shiba, which is the golden fur. I paid 100,000 yen to get the right color, but their fur for gold (#66 ゴールド) looks too orange for a Shiba with golden fur. That is indeed a big waste of money.
2. Eyes. I thought they would make the eyes look like those characters drawn by Ichihi, and I even sent them pictures of their fursuits for references, but what happened is they made an exact copy of the eyes in the reference sheet they drew. My assumption was that they drew their eyes like that in the reference sheet because it is just the artist’s style so they would contact me later and ask me how I would like my eyes to be made, but obviously that didn’t happen.
3. Cheek. The fur on my cheeks looks strange from another angle because it is sticking out so much to the side (say, it would look so weird from behind because it sort of looks like whiskers).
Overall satisfaction: 1/10
I would NOT recommend the makers for the reasons listed above. BUT, if you are rich and you like their style, you should go for it because many of their suits look gorgeous. Just make sure you steer clear of these “traps,” so you can make good use of your hard-earned cash.
If you want to know how I commissioned my suit from Atelier, please keep reading.
Why I decided to get a kemono suit
Before I attended MFF I already commissioned an Australian maker (LupeSuits) for a full plantigrade suit, but I canceled my fursuit commission later because I saw some panda suiters walking around at MFF and I don’t like the skinny look of pandas. I know it sucks to trade comfort for aesthetics, but I have to admit that a heavily padded digitigrade suit looks more appealing to me because I really hate the slenderness of plantigrade fursuits. And of course, more padding means higher price, but you get what you pay for. So, that is basically why I switched from toony to kemono.
How I heard about Atelier
I heard about Atelier for the first time when I attended a panel named “Introduction to Kemono Suits” at MFF 2021. In that panel, a fursuit maker from Canada introduced two “big makers” based in Japan, which are Atelier Amanojaku and Kemono Line (or K-Line in short). Atelier is extremely rare in the US as most of kemono suiters (like Sherbert Shenanigans) have K-Line suits, but I don’t like the look of K-Line suits because their eyes look so freaking big, which is a little off-putting in my opinion, and I don’t like their fursuit head base. So, that left me with only one option (if I want a kemono suit): Atelier. I know there are other options but unfortunately the vast majority of Japanese makers do not speak English and I don’t know Japanese. At least Atelier can sort of understand English (maybe?), but it looks like they should work on their English. I guess they just don’t care because most of their clients are not English speakers.
How I contacted Atelier
Easy. Send them an email, of course. They will contact you through email. This is the first email I received from Atelier:
“Hello
Thank you for contacting me
I will quote once, so please send me an illustration
As for the seams, we sew so that the thread breaks.
If you sew it too hard, the fabric will break.
If the thread breaks, it will be sewn by the customer.
Please note
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Atelier Amanojaku
http://atoama.jp/en/
Email: customer[at]atoama.jp
TEL: 052-875-3506
Postal Code: 470-0134
Address:
309, 2-chome, Kaguyama
Nissin-City, Aichi, JAPAN
(We are closed every Sunday and Monday)”
Well, you have to understand that English is not their first language, so you can’t complain about their English being this broken. At least they are aware of some terms like “quote,” which means they will give you an estimate based on your reference sheet. But for the rest of the letter, I was really struggling to understand what they were trying to say. I asked them how they sew their fursuits because a person who commissioned Atelier said they have to deal with popped seams so maybe there are quality issues, but anyway, if you want a fursuit, you need to know how to sew.
What Atelier’s Terms of Service (TOS) looks like
It looks shitty, period. They have the WORST TOS you can ever fathom. What makes their TOS so bad is that their TOS says literally nothing - there is no useful information in their TOS. Unlike many western makers’ TOS, their TOS does not tell you anything about the type of fursuits (e.g. fullsuit, partial) that they offer or the features (e.g. removable eyelids) they offer or things they do and things they don’t do (e.g. airbrushing) or anything about the queue or what to expect from them (e.g. when to expect updates from the maker, when to take body measurements) or price range and possible surcharges (e.g. indoor feetpaws, puffy fingers). I mean everything they should have in their TOS is absent, or I can say they have no TOS. If you are wondering what they have in their TOS, it’s like, clients can request that Atelier must make the fursuits the way that the customer desired, and Atelier can reject the clients’ request if they think they have made the fursuit as per request. Like, what it is this shit? I asked them some questions about their TOS but I still didn’t know what they were saying, but in order to get a fursuit from them, I had to agree to their TOS.
How I paid for my fursuit
Atelier gave me an estimate for my fullsuit after submitting my reference sheet. I made the purchase on Feb 1st because I got 10 percent off for placing the order around Chinese New Year. So, place your order at the right time to save money. You usually get 10-20 percent off, which is a lot if you are spending over 800,000 yen on a suit. And that is why you should check their Twitter account https://twitter.com/amanojaku_j for newest updates. The only problem is you really have to have that patience to wait for the discount.
Fursuit payment is always upfront payment. I made full payment when I commissioned a toony suit because makers love that. I know most makers are okay with payment plans, but for customers, making a full payment means a lot to the makers because you are assuring your maker by saying “I trust you.” And making a full payment also shortens the turnaround because makers only start working on fursuits after full payment is received, so that is why I decided to make a full payment.
After paying for my suit, I was informed by Atelier that they would start working on my reference sheet and they would get back to me for confirmation.
How I confirmed my reference sheet
The first reference sheet they drew for me looks very strange: the color was way off. They used yellow to draw my Shiba! How? I asked them to change the color because my Shiba doesn’t look like that, but unfortunately, they told me that “gold” is not available. If I insist on my golden fur (which is what they call “the premium fur”), I have to pay 100,000 yen for the upgrade. AND, only “1.5 cm (or 0.59 in) fur” is available for the premium fur, which means I will NOT be fluffy. Dude! What the fuck was that? Why did I not know about this?
I tried redesign my character (like using different colors), but I was still not satisfied – it’s just so wrong. I couldn’t make it right. Then my friends weighed in, claiming that I have to get the color I wanted – it is the most important thing in a fursuit commission because, if I don’t like the color, it is just a huge waste of money. It kind of feels like I was doubling down (because I was literally putting more money into my fursuit) on a 11 against a 10 in blackjack – pretty much like a 50-50. If I win, I will be the happiest man in the world, but if I lose, I will take a bigger L. And I decided to pay for the surcharge, wishing the luck was in my favor.
Atelier redrew the reference sheet for me, and I was like, that looks okay, and they took it as a confirmation. I didn’t think much about that because I thought I could make changes to the references later (which was my assumption) like right before they started making my fursuit and I was really busy in the Spring semester because I had a lot of classes to deal with, but that turned out to be a big mistake.
About three weeks later, I contacted them for making changes to the reference sheet but was told that I have to pay 50,000 yen surcharge for making these changes. I was shocked, again, because I was not aware of this sudden surcharge. Again, I paid for the surcharge. Got to go big or go home! And that was how I confirmed my reference sheet.
Later they sent me a booklet that says “Specification (仕様書),” which looks like a blueprint for my character. In the booklet you can find the reference sheet and fur swatches for your character, but I didn’t even know they have things like that until I received the booklet. I asked them if I can get a new “specification” as there are new changes made to the reference sheet, but they declined.
What happened before making my fursuit
I took my body measurements three months before they started working on my suit. After that, I sent them pictures of fursuits (find one of the pictures I wanted to use as a reference here https://twitter.com/yougin1986/status/1067729921131241472?s=20&t=8FguXdEEJNkCphRXMqDHnQ) they made in the past and told them that I wanted my character to look like this, and I mentioned my eyes should look like this, but they rejected my request. They claimed that, after I confirmed my reference sheet, no other references can be added and thus they will make the fursuit based on the reference sheet they drew only. But, I did NOT know that! They never told me that I can’t send them pictures for references before I made the payment, so at this point I knew I probably fucked up. How come I have no control over what my suit should look like? HOW?
What happened after Atelier completed my fursuit
They sent pictures of my fursuit and asked me for confirmation, but I don’t even know what the “confirmation” is for because they’ve already finished the fursuit. Nothing can be done. The fur is super short, and the color is still off (golden fur still looks orange). Now I know I really took a big L – I clearly lost the double down and now I have to work extra hard to make up for the huge loss.
What I learned from this commission
Do the god damn research. Never ever get cocky or complacent. If you want a fursuit, you have to do research on makers that you want to work with. Keep in mind that the knowledge of toony fursuits and makers may not apply to kemono suits and makers and every maker works differently, and always ask your makers if you don’t know how the commission works. Do not make unwarranted assumptions. If I did my research and asked a lot of people who have commissioned Atelier, I would not end up wasting so much money on this commission.
My future plan
My character is not suitable for being made into a fursuit by Atelier. I learned it in a hard way. But, I do not want to give up on that – I will get a fursuit that I like so much that I will look at my suit everyday and never get tired of looking at my gorgeous suit. Instead of designing my own character, I paid Ichihi (Ichihi is a professional furry artist who sells character designs. She is also a contributor to Furstar, a website where you can buy predesigned characters along with fursuits based on those characters. Furstar is operated by Atelier) to design a new character, and I will use the reference sheet she made to commission Atelier. Why Atelier? Because they are the only option that I have. I don’t like other makers like K-Line or Kigurumi Kagetsu (きぐるみ花月). The most important thing is the reference sheet. Once I get the reference sheet right, I should be able to get a fursuit that I like.
