A digital camera can come in handy to determine body shape and placement of features. Whle I had made a duct tape dummy previously and put a set of clothes on it for a model, you could have a friend take a pic of you just as easily.

Take that and start playing with lines and shapes in your photo editing program and you can get a better idea of what you want to do.

I know I wanted a roo shape to have the belly out front with pouch extended, thick heavy legs, big feet, and the thumpy tail behind. But how low should that belly go? Here it's a lot easier to picture than trying to guess while making up the model itself in person.

Notice the back of the 'knee' is aligned with that of the person. The front doesn't matter as much and can look lower than it actually is. This should help to make the overall figure look taller with a lower center of gravity.

The tail plan- I've made a prototype a couple of years ago for testing and it uses a solid attachment to the belt in the jeans that then runs down the top of the tail as a sort of spine. Wtih a bit of adjustment, it could lift the tail just off the ground for different size people. Originally I was using steel cable running through sections of segmented PVC pipe in the tail, but I've now decided to go for much simpler nylon strap material and a friction buckle. Keep it simple, after all.

The duct tape dummy will come in handy here as I can now start gluing foam to the dummy and shape it to the roo's final form.